Project description
Optimised system enables real-time detection of heavy metals
Heavy metal concentration in waterways and wet soil poses a threat to human health and the environment. Currently, quantitative assessments of water quality are carried out using expensive spectroscopic techniques that require high levels of expertise. What’s more, current techniques cannot detect heavy metals in real time, thereby raising the possibility of undesired elements leaching into the environment undetected. Sweden-based company Envic-Sense AB has developed a portable device that can accurately detect and measure heavy metal contamination in water and wet soil in real time. With the help of the EU-funded FREEDD project, the company aims to make heavy metal contamination detection more immediate and accessible.
Objective
Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury are toxic, causing neurological and kidney damage in humans, and can be lethal in high doses. Exposure to these metals is most commonly via a contaminated food-chain resulting from air, water and soil pollution caused by industries. The greatest hazard to human health is aquatic pollution as waterways allow for contaminant mobility facilitating entry into the food-chain through drinking water and the fishing industry. The EU restricts heavy metal emissions and thus waste water streams require regular testing. Currently, quantitative and accurate heavy metal water and wet soil testing is carried out using expensive lab-based chemical or spectroscopic techniques. These techniques require high levels of expertise and maintenance and do not allow real-time field testing, thus creating long waiting times for results, which can not only be costly but also allow for unchecked heavy metal leaching into the environment. This has created a need for rapid, efficient, accurate, field-adapted and affordable identification of heavy metal content in waterways and wet soil. Our company, Envic-Sense, founded by engineers Eva-Lena and Peter Gårdhagen in 2006, have developed FREEDD, a portable, fast, accurate and quantitative instrument that tackles these challenges and revolutionises how pollutants in the environment are measured. Our patented field-adapted alternative, based on quartz crystal microbalance technology, can accurately measure heavy metals in water in real-time in concentrations as low as 5 ng/l (cadmium), 0.1 g/l (mercury), 0.17 g/l (arsenic) and 20 g/l (lead). We aim to revolutionise how pollutants in the environment are measured delivering a fast, reliable and quantitative results with uncompromising accuracy, enabling rapid pollutant containment and remediation. With FREEDD, Envic-Sense will triple in size over the next five years, create a new value chain and potentially hundreds of jobs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes drinking water treatment processes
- engineering and technology environmental engineering water treatment processes wastewater treatment processes
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry transition metals
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
721 30 VASTERAS
Sweden
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.