Periodic Reporting for period 1 - pHenom (A cost effective, smart, calibration free, low maintenance pH sensor providing an integrated approach to monitoring sea and drinking water, facilitating improvements in ocean, animal and human health.)
Reporting period: 2017-05-01 to 2017-10-31
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
ANB Sensors Limited (ANB) is a company set up to develop the next generation of pH Sensors for oceanographic, source water and aquifer monitoring applications.
Today’s pH sensors do not meet the requirements for widespread, reliable, remote water monitoring. Current pH sensors have high maintenance overheads, are fragile and require frequent calibration to ensure accuracy. Most importantly, they are unable to cope with, make accurate measurements of pH in low-salt, and/or low-buffered water. ANB have identified a disruptive technology enabling cost effective, accurate and autonomous measurement of real-time pH of water/seawater, without the need for frequent calibration.
ANB’s innovative pH sensor, the pHenom, is based on a voltammetric electrochemical technique, which utilises a pH responding molecule bound within a solid-state matrix. This sensing technique is combined with a novel means of verifying the performance of the reference electrode through an additional in-situ electrochemical measurement, making the sensor calibration free.
This report summarises the seven tasks that ANB have worked on during the six-month feasibility study — providing a summary of the significant information gathered during this study and detailing a commercial exploitation plan for ANB’s sensor technology.
In this six-month feasibility work, ANB have met and developed contacts/relationships with key stakeholders (water sensor manufacturers, suppliers and end-users) in both the water management and oceanographic monitoring markets, and have assessed the key market challenges to commercializing of ANB’s pHenom technology from both a technical and market entry stand point. It is clear from the feedback received that there is a significant need for the pHenom sensor technology for both water management and oceanographic applications. The oceanographic side being driven by researchers wanting to understand the impact of human activities on the oceans health and in the case of both water and oceans a need for monitoring to meet regulations and provide smart water resource management.
The development of a calibration free ‘networkable’ sensor will ensure cost saving for end-users, while increasing profitability for water sensor manufacturers. Furthermore, the adaptability of the pHenom system for miniaturised AUV deployment sets itself apart from its competitors, and thus will provide it with a stand-alone market in oceanographic monitoring. The key technical challenge for AUV deployment is market acceptance of this new technology (i.e. does the sensor meet the required specifications?). The challenges for the water management market centre around both technical and business challenges (i.e. can ANB break into a 50-year-old glass electrode dominated market and can it provide the same accuracy and performance of such electrodes?). Throughout this study ANB have held discussions with a number of glass electrode manufacturers, some of whom already operate in the water management business and others who produce glass electrode pH sensors for other industries, and end-users of glass electrode sensors regarding the existing glass electrode market and opportunities in the market. The most important result of these discussions, was the identification of a long-felt, overwhelming need in the market for a glass electrode pH system that did not need recalibration and did not suffer from reference electrode drifts, i.e. a smart glass electrode pH sensor.
Having identified this market need, ANB has developed its pHenom technology for integration with existing glass electrode pH sensors to address the calibration and drift free operation market need. As a result, ANB have developed a commercialisation/business plan, where the first step is to implement ANB technology into existing glass electrode pH sensors. ANB’s calibration free reference electrode technology can be incorporated into the glass sensors to improve accuracy and reliability over sustained periods of deployment. By performing this first step, ANB will be able to break into the existing, mature market in a low risk/low cost manner working with the major existing water and industrial pH sensing glass electrode companies. The aim being for ANB to raise the TRL level of the technology to a level ready for licensing to the key sensor manufacturers, which is a TRL that is less then would be required for ANB to start its own manufacturing effort. This will have two effects in allowing ANB to break into the marketplace and providing ANB with the credibility required commercialize its pHenom technology, separate from glass electrode sensors. Concomitant to this work, ANB will develop a pHenom system capable of being deployed on an AUV and for wet-dry water monitoring. In doing this work, ANB will develop the core components for both the rosette buoy-deployable oceanographic systems along with optimising the core components for a sensor for water management to replace the glass electrode.
To execute its business plan and allow ANB to develop its full suite of technologies, ANB will seek to develop its own in-house expertise on the electronics and software side of the pHenom sensor, whilst maintaining its core knowledge of the electrochemical sensor interface. ANB will work with existing glass electrode manufacturers to develop prototypes of their calibration electrode technology, these prototypes will be tested in a range of industrial, environmental and laboratory settings. ANB already have held discussions with and reached provisional agreement with water utilities companies, water sensor manufacturers and universities to conduct these tests/field trials.
ANB will work with oceanographic centres and AUV suppliers to design, build and test its pHenom sensor systems for oceanographic monitoring. The aim being to, once again, raise the TRL of the pHenom sensor to a level where the AUV/ROV suppliers can license the technology and/or receive sensor components for integration in existing sensor platforms. ANB already have agreement with several European Oceanographic Centres (including NOC, IFREMER, Finnish Oceanographic Research Institute, EuroGOOS) to field test the pHenom sensor and with Blue Robotics in the U.S. who want to immediately commence a collaboration to integrate the pHenom sensor into their ROV/AUV system. ANB are seeking funding through European and national funding agencies, to build upon an external investment obtained during the study, to move ahead as fast as possible to revolutionise the pH sensing market by bringing the pHenom technology into the water management and ocean monitoring fields.
Today’s pH sensors do not meet the requirements for widespread, reliable, remote water monitoring. Current pH sensors have high maintenance overheads, are fragile and require frequent calibration to ensure accuracy. Most importantly, they are unable to cope with, make accurate measurements of pH in low-salt, and/or low-buffered water. ANB have identified a disruptive technology enabling cost effective, accurate and autonomous measurement of real-time pH of water/seawater, without the need for frequent calibration.
ANB’s innovative pH sensor, the pHenom, is based on a voltammetric electrochemical technique, which utilises a pH responding molecule bound within a solid-state matrix. This sensing technique is combined with a novel means of verifying the performance of the reference electrode through an additional in-situ electrochemical measurement, making the sensor calibration free.
This report summarises the seven tasks that ANB have worked on during the six-month feasibility study — providing a summary of the significant information gathered during this study and detailing a commercial exploitation plan for ANB’s sensor technology.
In this six-month feasibility work, ANB have met and developed contacts/relationships with key stakeholders (water sensor manufacturers, suppliers and end-users) in both the water management and oceanographic monitoring markets, and have assessed the key market challenges to commercializing of ANB’s pHenom technology from both a technical and market entry stand point. It is clear from the feedback received that there is a significant need for the pHenom sensor technology for both water management and oceanographic applications. The oceanographic side being driven by researchers wanting to understand the impact of human activities on the oceans health and in the case of both water and oceans a need for monitoring to meet regulations and provide smart water resource management.
The development of a calibration free ‘networkable’ sensor will ensure cost saving for end-users, while increasing profitability for water sensor manufacturers. Furthermore, the adaptability of the pHenom system for miniaturised AUV deployment sets itself apart from its competitors, and thus will provide it with a stand-alone market in oceanographic monitoring. The key technical challenge for AUV deployment is market acceptance of this new technology (i.e. does the sensor meet the required specifications?). The challenges for the water management market centre around both technical and business challenges (i.e. can ANB break into a 50-year-old glass electrode dominated market and can it provide the same accuracy and performance of such electrodes?). Throughout this study ANB have held discussions with a number of glass electrode manufacturers, some of whom already operate in the water management business and others who produce glass electrode pH sensors for other industries, and end-users of glass electrode sensors regarding the existing glass electrode market and opportunities in the market. The most important result of these discussions, was the identification of a long-felt, overwhelming need in the market for a glass electrode pH system that did not need recalibration and did not suffer from reference electrode drifts, i.e. a smart glass electrode pH sensor.
Having identified this market need, ANB has developed its pHenom technology for integration with existing glass electrode pH sensors to address the calibration and drift free operation market need. As a result, ANB have developed a commercialisation/business plan, where the first step is to implement ANB technology into existing glass electrode pH sensors. ANB’s calibration free reference electrode technology can be incorporated into the glass sensors to improve accuracy and reliability over sustained periods of deployment. By performing this first step, ANB will be able to break into the existing, mature market in a low risk/low cost manner working with the major existing water and industrial pH sensing glass electrode companies. The aim being for ANB to raise the TRL level of the technology to a level ready for licensing to the key sensor manufacturers, which is a TRL that is less then would be required for ANB to start its own manufacturing effort. This will have two effects in allowing ANB to break into the marketplace and providing ANB with the credibility required commercialize its pHenom technology, separate from glass electrode sensors. Concomitant to this work, ANB will develop a pHenom system capable of being deployed on an AUV and for wet-dry water monitoring. In doing this work, ANB will develop the core components for both the rosette buoy-deployable oceanographic systems along with optimising the core components for a sensor for water management to replace the glass electrode.
To execute its business plan and allow ANB to develop its full suite of technologies, ANB will seek to develop its own in-house expertise on the electronics and software side of the pHenom sensor, whilst maintaining its core knowledge of the electrochemical sensor interface. ANB will work with existing glass electrode manufacturers to develop prototypes of their calibration electrode technology, these prototypes will be tested in a range of industrial, environmental and laboratory settings. ANB already have held discussions with and reached provisional agreement with water utilities companies, water sensor manufacturers and universities to conduct these tests/field trials.
ANB will work with oceanographic centres and AUV suppliers to design, build and test its pHenom sensor systems for oceanographic monitoring. The aim being to, once again, raise the TRL of the pHenom sensor to a level where the AUV/ROV suppliers can license the technology and/or receive sensor components for integration in existing sensor platforms. ANB already have agreement with several European Oceanographic Centres (including NOC, IFREMER, Finnish Oceanographic Research Institute, EuroGOOS) to field test the pHenom sensor and with Blue Robotics in the U.S. who want to immediately commence a collaboration to integrate the pHenom sensor into their ROV/AUV system. ANB are seeking funding through European and national funding agencies, to build upon an external investment obtained during the study, to move ahead as fast as possible to revolutionise the pH sensing market by bringing the pHenom technology into the water management and ocean monitoring fields.
Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far
Task 1: Concept Design – the scientific and technical justification for the concept. The front-end sensor hardware, including the chemistry that measures pH, is key to successful commercialisation of the pHenom technology. During the six months’ study, the hardware design was optimised through direct discussions with potential end-users. In this report, we detail the initial findings of the research and development performed on the front-end design (section 3). In addition, important new technology, developed from end-user input during the study, has been validated at ANB laboratories. This new technology addresses the problem of reference drift, a problem observed in commercially available glass electrode systems and a problem that was cited repeatedly in this study as being a costly limitation of these systems by end-users. Findings from this task can be found in Section 4.
Task 2: Market Sounding, Analysis and Review. A fundamental part of the study is to enhance the business case for the sensor system. In the study, we met with a range of potential customers, including sensor suppliers/manufacturer and end-users, to develop an understanding of market needs, the barriers to market entry and the operating requirements for the sensor. Developing a global understanding of the potential market and commercial channels for entering the market will be used to develop a strategy for optimizing the route to market, be it by direct sales of a fully operational sensor, sales of sensor components to add to existing systems, licensing of the technology and/or a mix of these approaches. The data from this part of the study is presented in Section 3.
Task 3: Intellectual Property Management and Strategy. ANB have conducted an intellectual property landscaping exercise to develop an understanding of existing IP, an assessment of IP to cover proposed engineering developments and enhancements to of the pHenom sensor and developed an initial IP protection strategy. ANB have reviewed potential commercialisation routes, including licensing, and developed strategies for maximising IP value for such routes.
Task 4: Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies. Through reviewing the market, speaking with customers/end-user an and potential manufacturing partners, ANB have identified commercialisation risks: such as existing and potential competitor solutions; copying; customer resistance to change; and/or other barriers to market penetration; and developed strategies to address these potential risks. ANB have built a risk list table covering the most relevant technical, commercial, financial and regulatory risks, who will own these risks and given the risks a rating based on the probability of occurrence as well as the potential impact of the risk. ANB have also provided a mitigation and contingency plan (building these measures into the project plan).
Task 5: Consortium Participants, Support and Subcontractor Recruitment. ANB have identified and met with a number of potential consortium participants/subcontractors. These potential participants were selected for an ability to provide expert assistance in manufacturing components of the pHenom sensor and translating this expertise into a manufacturing protocol. However, based on conversations with the potential participants, the planned scope of work, quotes retrieved for the work and results of this study, ANB has decided to expand its team to include the competencies required to handle the majority of pHenom component manufacturing.
Task 6: Understanding Legislative Requirements. ANB have sought to understand the legislative requirements for seafaring craft, the platforms for ANB’s ocean technology, but to ensure full compliance ANB will work with outside parties the National Oceanographic Centre (UK), the Finnish Oceanographic Research Institute and several autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) manufacturers on the incorporation of sensor into their platforms to ensure full compliance. For ocean applications outside of the ocean platforms, regulations are still at an early stage. As such, ANB has met with many of the groups that are involved in making legislative proposals, to keep ahead of the developing legislation. On the water management front, ANB is working closely with sensor manufacturers and water management companies to develop the pHenom to meet the requirements of existing legislation.
Task 7: Business and Financial models. ANB have reviewed several alternative business models for commercializing the pHenom technology, including licensing, leasing of sensor systems, use of distributors and direct sales. ANB have met with potential distributers, identified manufacturers and discussed with industry leaders the potential barriers to market entry. ANB Sensors has prepared a 5-year financial forecast consisting of P&L, balance sheet and cash-flow models.
Task 2: Market Sounding, Analysis and Review. A fundamental part of the study is to enhance the business case for the sensor system. In the study, we met with a range of potential customers, including sensor suppliers/manufacturer and end-users, to develop an understanding of market needs, the barriers to market entry and the operating requirements for the sensor. Developing a global understanding of the potential market and commercial channels for entering the market will be used to develop a strategy for optimizing the route to market, be it by direct sales of a fully operational sensor, sales of sensor components to add to existing systems, licensing of the technology and/or a mix of these approaches. The data from this part of the study is presented in Section 3.
Task 3: Intellectual Property Management and Strategy. ANB have conducted an intellectual property landscaping exercise to develop an understanding of existing IP, an assessment of IP to cover proposed engineering developments and enhancements to of the pHenom sensor and developed an initial IP protection strategy. ANB have reviewed potential commercialisation routes, including licensing, and developed strategies for maximising IP value for such routes.
Task 4: Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies. Through reviewing the market, speaking with customers/end-user an and potential manufacturing partners, ANB have identified commercialisation risks: such as existing and potential competitor solutions; copying; customer resistance to change; and/or other barriers to market penetration; and developed strategies to address these potential risks. ANB have built a risk list table covering the most relevant technical, commercial, financial and regulatory risks, who will own these risks and given the risks a rating based on the probability of occurrence as well as the potential impact of the risk. ANB have also provided a mitigation and contingency plan (building these measures into the project plan).
Task 5: Consortium Participants, Support and Subcontractor Recruitment. ANB have identified and met with a number of potential consortium participants/subcontractors. These potential participants were selected for an ability to provide expert assistance in manufacturing components of the pHenom sensor and translating this expertise into a manufacturing protocol. However, based on conversations with the potential participants, the planned scope of work, quotes retrieved for the work and results of this study, ANB has decided to expand its team to include the competencies required to handle the majority of pHenom component manufacturing.
Task 6: Understanding Legislative Requirements. ANB have sought to understand the legislative requirements for seafaring craft, the platforms for ANB’s ocean technology, but to ensure full compliance ANB will work with outside parties the National Oceanographic Centre (UK), the Finnish Oceanographic Research Institute and several autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) manufacturers on the incorporation of sensor into their platforms to ensure full compliance. For ocean applications outside of the ocean platforms, regulations are still at an early stage. As such, ANB has met with many of the groups that are involved in making legislative proposals, to keep ahead of the developing legislation. On the water management front, ANB is working closely with sensor manufacturers and water management companies to develop the pHenom to meet the requirements of existing legislation.
Task 7: Business and Financial models. ANB have reviewed several alternative business models for commercializing the pHenom technology, including licensing, leasing of sensor systems, use of distributors and direct sales. ANB have met with potential distributers, identified manufacturers and discussed with industry leaders the potential barriers to market entry. ANB Sensors has prepared a 5-year financial forecast consisting of P&L, balance sheet and cash-flow models.
Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)
State of the Art. Alternatives include, optical sensors that use a dye that changes colour in different pH liquids and a semiconductor system (ISFET) where the current through a semiconductor device changes when hydrogen ions are present as a result of the pH of the fluid being tested. However, each of these technologies also has serious issues and none have been accepted in the water industry. Recently, electrochemical sensors have been developed for measuring pH using reduction/oxidation of chemicals deposited on an electrode. While such sensors solve all of the problems found in the other sensors described above, the electrochemical sensors do not work in low ionic strength fluids, such as sea and drinking water, and the sensors are not accurate because the reference electrode is unstable.
Solution. ANB Sensors have developed a new electrochemical sensor, ‘pHenom’, which can sense pH in seawater and drinking water using a novel reference sensor that does not drift. As a result of its solid-state design and chemistry the pHenom sensor meets all of the needs of the ocean and water industries, which no other commercially available sensor can meets giving the following value proposition:
- No calibration required (due to solid state)
- Can be used to measure pH of both high and low ionic strength water (drinking water).
- No storage issues (doesn’t have to be stored wet)
- Robust (due to solid state and no use of fragile glass)
- Networked. Values can be retrieved wirelessly (such as GSM) without physical transfer.
- These points also lead to the sensor being cheaper to purchase (by 20%) and maintain.
Economic Impact. The market for pH monitoring is global, creating an attractive ‘export’ opportunity (particularly to the US, who are leaders in underwater vehicles). ANB’s pHenom solution will allow end-users to reduce labour costs associated with collection, calibration and sampling (which can amount to 70% of the lifetime cost of a pH sensor). The EU spends €1.4 billion on oceanographic monitoring per year. Furthermore, the monitoring burden on tax-payers from government funded institutions will be diminished by removing the need for sampling and lab testing.
Social Impacts. The project will contribute towards the following social impacts:
- Ocean acidification has a substantial negative impact on the ocean ecosystem, it’s fish stocks (and therefore food-security) as well as coastal tourism and livelihoods. More accurate and numerous readings will give a more detailed, complete and truer picture of acidification - informing policy that aims to reduce its impact.
- Improvements to public health and safety by improved monitoring of water. Increased pH monitoring within the water networks is important especially in regions with ‘hard’ water, due to the formation of lime scale which leads to supply flow issues and the reducing of biocide effectiveness.
- Autonomous measurement systems for the ocean have grown out of demands for frontier science in extreme environments. Much like in space technology, oceanography will create technology transfer, which is likely to bring technologies (such as pHenom) back into ‘everyday applications’.
Environmental Impacts. Affordable AUVs equipped with pH sensors will facilitate environmental research offering more deployed sensors per pound than currently possible (30:1 at a conservative estimate) which will in turn enhance data quality and will make large scale monitoring and ocean/river mapping more cost-effective. The ecological health of rivers, lakes and coastal waters requires widespread and frequent monitoring to refine our understanding of where the water environment is under pressure and the scale of improvements needed - as well as the better targeting of limited resources. Acidification is also a general indicator for localised pollution in oceans such as leaking oil and gas pipes and aluminium concentrations (toxic to biological communities).
Solution. ANB Sensors have developed a new electrochemical sensor, ‘pHenom’, which can sense pH in seawater and drinking water using a novel reference sensor that does not drift. As a result of its solid-state design and chemistry the pHenom sensor meets all of the needs of the ocean and water industries, which no other commercially available sensor can meets giving the following value proposition:
- No calibration required (due to solid state)
- Can be used to measure pH of both high and low ionic strength water (drinking water).
- No storage issues (doesn’t have to be stored wet)
- Robust (due to solid state and no use of fragile glass)
- Networked. Values can be retrieved wirelessly (such as GSM) without physical transfer.
- These points also lead to the sensor being cheaper to purchase (by 20%) and maintain.
Economic Impact. The market for pH monitoring is global, creating an attractive ‘export’ opportunity (particularly to the US, who are leaders in underwater vehicles). ANB’s pHenom solution will allow end-users to reduce labour costs associated with collection, calibration and sampling (which can amount to 70% of the lifetime cost of a pH sensor). The EU spends €1.4 billion on oceanographic monitoring per year. Furthermore, the monitoring burden on tax-payers from government funded institutions will be diminished by removing the need for sampling and lab testing.
Social Impacts. The project will contribute towards the following social impacts:
- Ocean acidification has a substantial negative impact on the ocean ecosystem, it’s fish stocks (and therefore food-security) as well as coastal tourism and livelihoods. More accurate and numerous readings will give a more detailed, complete and truer picture of acidification - informing policy that aims to reduce its impact.
- Improvements to public health and safety by improved monitoring of water. Increased pH monitoring within the water networks is important especially in regions with ‘hard’ water, due to the formation of lime scale which leads to supply flow issues and the reducing of biocide effectiveness.
- Autonomous measurement systems for the ocean have grown out of demands for frontier science in extreme environments. Much like in space technology, oceanography will create technology transfer, which is likely to bring technologies (such as pHenom) back into ‘everyday applications’.
Environmental Impacts. Affordable AUVs equipped with pH sensors will facilitate environmental research offering more deployed sensors per pound than currently possible (30:1 at a conservative estimate) which will in turn enhance data quality and will make large scale monitoring and ocean/river mapping more cost-effective. The ecological health of rivers, lakes and coastal waters requires widespread and frequent monitoring to refine our understanding of where the water environment is under pressure and the scale of improvements needed - as well as the better targeting of limited resources. Acidification is also a general indicator for localised pollution in oceans such as leaking oil and gas pipes and aluminium concentrations (toxic to biological communities).