This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuous real-time observations and will allow users to remotely monitor water quality; alerting them to pollutant levels, enabling immediate action to be taken to prevent environmental damage. The system is low-cost, facilitating mass adoption, yet delivers an analytical performance comparable to leading laboratory analysers.

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council through the Linkage Projects program and is administered by the University of Tasmania (Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science) in collaboration with TelLab, the Northern Tasmanian Natural Resource Management Association Inc., and The Tasmanian Fruit & Vegetable Export Facilitation Group.

TelLab’s contribution:

TelLab will participate in the laboratory-based development of robust and selective ion chromatographic capability, solutions for simultaneous detection of anionic and cationic species, remote power solutions for long-term deployment, and wireless telemetry solutions. TelLab will also host two PhD students for a 6-month industry placement.