Conference presenting the progress of the Sealab project in Cetmar. (Photo: Xunta de Galicia)

Sealab project plans to present prototype portable laboratory for water quality analysis in 2020

The Technological Center of the Sea (CETMAR), under the Ministry of Marine Affairs of ​​the Xunta de Galicia, and its partners in the Sealab project will present in 2020 the prototype of the innovative system they are developing to improve the water quality control service.

This was announced on Wednesday, during the Second Day of Dissemination of Sealab Project  at CETMAR's facilities in Vigo.

The research is based on the general objective of improving the analysis service of the so-called priority substances - classified according to the European Union because they pose a risk - in inland waters, and the partners of the Sealab project are already advancing in the development, on the one hand, of a laboratory with an innovative sampling and management system that incorporates nanosensors for four of these substances, in addition to measuring other auxiliary parameters (oxygen, temperature, conductivity or turbidity).

The aforementioned portable laboratory of priority substances, designed by the company Indrops Laboratorio together with INL (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory), will be incorporated into an unmanned light marine vehicle of easy take-off in which the company Industrias Ferri is working with the collaboration of the CETMAR Marine Technologies Unit. The boat will have a double propulsion system with an outboard motor for the transfer to the sampling point and electric motors that reduce the risk of contamination in the maneuvers in the control area, which will be developed by CETMAR.

The operating system of all the elements integrated in the boat, in addition to communications and teleoperations, are being developed by the company Imatia Innovation, which is also responsible for the design of a platform that will manage all the information related to both the samples of water and navigation, sending it in real time to the base, which may act early according to the data transmitted on the existence of priority substances or other parameters.

SEALAB consortium members, at CETMAR headquarters.(Photo: CETMAR)

Once all these works have been completed and the system developed, CETMAR technicians will proceed to validate its operation in real conditions, verifying compliance with a series of requirements previously defined in a plan drawn up taking into account the information provided by future end users.

According to the deadlines estimated by those responsible for the Sealab project, which began in 2018, the tests to verify the operation of the portable laboratory will be carried out in real conditions at sea within a year. Their result will be realized in September 2020 in a new day of dissemination like the one that took place on Wednesday at CETMAR,and in which the operation of the new device will be shown.

The Sealab project is led by the Galician company Indrops Laboratorio, together with Industrias Ferri, Imatia Innovation, and with the participation of the INL and the Marine Technology Unit of Cetmar. With a budget that exceeds one million euros, this initiative is funded by the Ministry of Economy, Employment and Industry through the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) through the Conecta Pyme program, which aims to foster cooperation between SMEs and other agents of the regional innovation system through support for market-oriented R&D projects.

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