Lighting the Way to Cleaner WaterShining a beam of light into potentially contaminated water samples may hold the key to real-time detection of ...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
Shining a beam of light into potentially contaminated water samples may hold the key to real-time detection of hydrocarbons and pesticides in water.
UBC Okanagan researchers are testing the use of fluorescence to monitor water quality. The results, they say, show great promise.
When a beam of light is shone into the water, it excites the electrons in molecules of certain compounds and causes them to emit light. The characteristics of the emitted light are like a fingerprint and can be used to identify certain contaminants, explains Nicolas Peleato, an assistant professor at UBCO's School of Engineering.
"The challenge with using this fluorescence approach is that they are typically source-specific; meaning we have to calibrate for a particular water source and anticipate what specific contaminants we want to look for," says Peleato. "In our latest work, we have developed a data processing technique that expands the effectiveness from one water source to others."
This means their new technique removes a lot of the guesswork at the beginning of the process. As Peleato points out, every water source has a slightly different composition of organic compounds, which can hide the contaminant signals, so calibrating for each source is crucial for detection accuracy.
Using machine learning algorithms, Peleato and his graduate student Ziyu Li have devised an approach that addresses the challenge of source-specific models through mapping their similarities.
According to Li, it isn't quite a one-size-fits-all method but it is close.
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https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/lighting-the-way-to-cleaner-water-350925Taxonomy
- Quality
- Water Quality
- Water Quality Management