Publication by Green Savers
Startup incubated in Leiria develops biosensors for water monitoring
Nitrogen Sensing Solutions, a start-up incubated in Leiria, is developing biosensors for monitoring aquaculture or agricultural water, detecting ammonium, nitrite and nitrates more quickly.
These biosensors allow each of the compounds to be analysed in real time using small disposable test strips, whose device is coupled to portable readers, making them easier to use, Gabriela Almeida, researcher and founder of Nitrogen Sensing Solutions (NS2), explained to Lusa.
The data is presented quickly, without the need to go to the laboratory, thus enabling optimal water management and ‘rapid decision-making’.
In the context of aquaculture, ‘one of the most important aspects is monitoring water quality, since one of the parameters is nitrogen, which, although an essential nutrient for plants and animals,’ in excess can be harmful to aquatic life and agriculture.
The biosensors make it possible to accurately determine the levels of nitrites, nitrates or ammonium in fresh and salt water, and these measurements are important for controlling closed water circuits, explained Gabriela Almeida.
According to the researcher, just like in a home aquarium, renewing the water is essential to guarantee its quality and prevent the fish from dying. ‘Aquaculturists invest a lot in real-time water monitoring so they can test all the parameters and make timely decisions. The parameters they are failing to monitor are related to nitrogenous nutrients,’ he said.
Ammonia and nitrites, which are the result of fish waste and food scraps, are the ‘most problematic’ because they are ‘toxic to fish and their accumulation can lead to the total loss of production in a matter of hours’.
Gabriela Almeida added that this monitoring is also possible in intensive farming practices, where ‘soils are saturated with nitrates and ammonia’.
‘Farmers also need to monitor these nutrients in order to practise precision agriculture, which is more sustainable,’ she emphasised, noting that these compounds can be “a problem for ecosystems”. In other words, the ‘accumulation of nitrates combined with the accumulation of phosphate leads to the eutrophication of waters’.
The company is ‘redeveloping technologies [hardware and software] that already exist’ in order to ‘adjust them exactly to the characteristics of the test strips’ and to make the product ‘more economical and scalable’. Each of the tapes incorporating the biosensor detects a different component.
The project came about as a result of research carried out over almost two decades. At a certain point, the researcher believed it was possible to ‘transfer a product with the capacity to respond to a market need’.
‘Being an alternative solution and much more effective than others that already exist, it was a shame not to transfer this technology to the industrial and commercial sector,’ she stressed, adding that it was the selection in the international HiSeedTech programme that made her take the leap.
NS2's financial director, Marise Almeida, revealed that the start-up has partnerships with FLATLANTIC, “one of the largest turbot producers in Europe”, and RIASEARCH, in the Aveiro district, as well as Norway's RASLab, based in Bergen, “where the largest salmon producers are” and are “at the forefront of these aquaculture technologies”.
With funding of 100,000 euros from INOV-D, the project is still in prototype. When it is finalised, the aim is to launch it on the European market.
After coming third in the 929 Challenge competition held in Macau, which aims to promote links between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, the Asian market has also become a goal. ‘We're also going to position ourselves for the Asian market, which is only the biggest market in the aquaculture area,’ said Gabriela Almeida.
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