Antoin Lawlor

The use of nanoparticles in anti-microbial materials and their characterization

Anti-microbial materials have multiple applications in medicine, industry and commercial products. Recent research has proposed the use of nanoparticles in a range of materials, as some metal nanoparticles are known to possess antibacterial properties. The development of such materials presents both the chemist and the biologist with the challenge to effectively choose analytical methods that provide relevant information regarding these materials. Herein, we describe techniques for the characterization of the nanoparticle-doped materials and methods for the determination of their efficacy against biofilm formation.

Experiences and recommendations in deploying a real-time, water quality monitoring system

Monitoring of water quality at a river basin level to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) using conventional sampling and laboratory-based techniques poses a significant financial burden. Wireless sensing systems offer the potential to reduce these costs considerably, as well as provide more useful, continuous monitoring capabilities by giving an accurate idea of the changing environmental and water quality in real time. It is unlikely that the traditional spot/grab sampling will provide a reasonable estimate of the true maximum and/or mean concentration for a particular physicochemical variable in a water body with marked temporal variability. When persistent fluctuations occur, it is likely only to be detected through continuous measurements, which have the capability of detecting sporadic peaks of concentration. Thus, in situ sensors capable of continuous sampling of parameters required under the WFD would therefore provide more up-to-date information, cut monitoring costs and provide better coverage representing long-term trends in fluctuations of pollutant concentrations. DEPLOY is a technology demonstration project, which began planning and station selection and design in August 2008 aiming to show how state-of-the-art technology could be implemented for cost-effective, continuous and real-time monitoring of a river catchment. The DEPLOY project is seen as an important building block in the realization of a wide area autonomous network of sensors capable of monitoring the spatial and temporal distribution of important water quality and environmental target parameters. The demonstration sites chosen are based in the River Lee, which flows through Irelands second largest city, Cork, and were designed to include monitoring stations in five zones considered typical of significant river systems-–these monitor water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, depth, conductivity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Over one million data points have been collected since the multi-sensor system was deployed in May 2009. Extreme meteorological events have occurred during the period of deployment and the collection of real-time water quality data as well as the knowledge, experience and recommendations for future deployments are discussed.

A demonstration of wireless sensing for long term monitoring of water quality

At a time when technological advances are providing new sensor capabilities, novel network capabilities, long-range communications technologies and data interpreting and delivery formats via the World Wide Web, we never before had such opportunities to sense and analyse the environment around us. However, the challenges exist. While measurement and detection of environmental pollutants can be successful under laboratory-controlled conditions, continuous in-situ monitoring remains one of the most challenging aspects of environmental sensing. This paper describes the development and test of a multi-sensor hetrogenous real-time water monitoring system. A multi-sensor system was deployed in the River Lee Co. Cork, Ireland to monitor water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. The R. Lee comprises of a tidal water system that provides an interesting test site to monitor. The multi-sensor system set-up is described and results of the sensor deployment and the various challenges are discussed.

DEPLOY: a long term deployment of a water quality sensor monitoring system

Purpose – DEPLOY is a successful technology demonstration project showing how state of the art technology can be implemented to achieve, continuous, real‐time monitoring of a river catchment.Design/methodology/approach – The DEPLOY system is a wide area network of monitoring stations delivering data in near real‐time. The demonstration sites chosen are based in the River Lee, which flows through Irelands second largest city, Cork. The sites include monitoring stations in five zones considered typical of significant river systems and demonstrate the versatility of the technology available. Data were collected from stations at pre‐programmed intervals and transmitted to the DEPLOY servers either by short range ISM band radio or directly via the GSM GPRS network. The data were then processed and made available in a controlled manner at www.deploy.ie Findings – The project demonstrates the capability of multi‐sensor systems to remotely monitor temporal and spatial variations in water quality, through the ide...

Development of a Risk Index for Use in Water Quality Monitoring

Risk indices have recently emerged as an effective and efficient tool in the area of water quality monitoring with new indices taking in vast quantities of data and facilitating the development of more targeted water monitoring programs. With the Water Framework Directive demanding that monitoring requirements for a list of priority substances be met, achieving ‘good’ status in all water bodies by 2015, there is a strong need for improved monitoring programmes. In order to improve future monitoring programmes by making the process more ‘targeted’ a simple risk-based index for the occurrence of priority substances in wastewater treatment plant effluent was devised. This index was developed through the collection of an extensive list of documents relating to priority substance emission factors. These included wastewater treatment licence applications, trade effluent licences, traffic data, rainfall data, and census data. It was found that by relating data from each of these sources to historic occurrence data, it was possible to conceptualise and develop a ranking of risk of occurrence of priority substances. Validation of this index was carried out using data from a 24-month sampling plan at nine sites in two counties in Ireland representative of different pressures, i.e. agricultural, industrial and domestic. This work has allowed for the compilation of a large dataset of emission factor and priority substance occurrence in Ireland where none previously existed. For the first time, a risk-based index has been developed for Irish wastewater treatment plant effluents. Together, the index and dataset can be used by policy makers and inform the development of future priority substance monitoring programmes.