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.
