Powerful collaborations, cutting edge science and curious minds coming together for a glimpse of the future. Stay tuned as we look at the latest updates on some of the most promising technology projects.

Powerful collaborations, cutting edge science and curious minds coming together for a glimpse of the future. Stay tuned as we look at the latest updates on some of the most promising technology projects.

Hello and welcome, I'm your host, Peter Balint from Technikon. The Aquarius project is all about clean water. In the last two podcasts, we learned that the main goal in this effort was to develop new technologies to look for contaminants in water at the source, not in a lab. In this way, constant monitoring can take place online and inline rather than remotely. In today's episode, we speak with Joep van den Broeke from project partner KWR. KWR is a research institute in The Netherlands, serving, among others, the Dutch drinking water utilities. Joep and his team are currently in the process of evaluating the sensor that has come out of Aquarius. And you're basically putting the prototype to the test. Welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us today.

Hello and welcome, I'm your host, Peter Balint from Technikon. The Aquarius project is all about clean water. In the last two podcasts, we learned that the main goal in this effort was to develop new technologies to look for contaminants in water at the source, not in a lab. In this way, constant monitoring can take place online and inline rather than remotely. In today's episode, we speak with Joep van den Broeke from project partner KWR. KWR is a research institute in The Netherlands, serving, among others, the Dutch drinking water utilities. Joep and his team are currently in the process of evaluating the sensor that has come out of Aquarius. And you're basically putting the prototype to the test. Welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us today.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Anyone who looks at the Aquarius Project website could see that this project is about clean water, but clean water for whom?

Anyone who looks at the Aquarius Project website could see that this project is about clean water, but clean water for whom?

That's a good question. If you look at the Aquarius project, I think there's a number of different types of interested parties in clean water. So the sensor that Aquarius is ultimately striving to develop is a sensor that can detect oil in water. And there's a number of different, I would say, end users for this product. So on the one hand... and you can also see that when you look at the parties involved in the project, so oily water is, of course, something that is relevant for industrial companies that are active in the oil sector. So when oil is produced or when you have a refinery, a lot of water is used in the process of producing the oil, of extracting it from the ground or making the refined products. And that water needs to be cleaned before it can be discharged, either to a sewer system or the environment. And of course, the oil companies have to to monitor the quality of the water that they discharge. Otherwise they can be fined if it's contaminated. So there is an interest from that sector being able to monitor their quality of the water. But they we're talking about... typically about industrial process water,or waste water. So that's not necessarily clean water, but it is about making sure it's not more contaminated than is allowed by legislation. On the other hand, we have, of course, more environmental perspective or in the case that drinking water is produced from river water or lake water, there is an interest from drinking water utilities ensuring that the water does not contain any traces of oils which can be there because of various reasons. So there could be a small gasoline spill or if they're shipping on the river, that can be a small spill for a ship or things like that. Or you could have a bigger industrial incident that results in the oil spill. And of course, you want be able to protect your drinking water intake or if it's environmental application, you want to make sure that if something like this happens, that you detect it quickly and you can take countermeasures. So from the clean water perspective, there's a number of different angles and both of them... so both the industrial angle as well as the really clean water angle, in this case, the drinking water angle are looked at in this project.

That's a good question. If you look at the Aquarius project, I think there's a number of different types of interested parties in clean water. So the sensor that Aquarius is ultimately striving to develop is a sensor that can detect oil in water. And there's a number of different, I would say, end users for this product. So on the one hand... and you can also see that when you look at the parties involved in the project, so oily water is, of course, something that is relevant for industrial companies that are active in the oil sector. So when oil is produced or when you have a refinery, a lot of water is used in the process of producing the oil, of extracting it from the ground or making the refined products. And that water needs to be cleaned before it can be discharged, either to a sewer system or the environment. And of course, the oil companies have to to monitor the quality of the water that they discharge. Otherwise they can be fined if it's contaminated. So there is an interest from that sector being able to monitor their quality of the water. But they we're talking about... typically about industrial process water,or waste water. So that's not necessarily clean water, but it is about making sure it's not more contaminated than is allowed by legislation. On the other hand, we have, of course, more environmental perspective or in the case that drinking water is produced from river water or lake water, there is an interest from drinking water utilities ensuring that the water does not contain any traces of oils which can be there because of various reasons. So there could be a small gasoline spill or if they're shipping on the river, that can be a small spill for a ship or things like that. Or you could have a bigger industrial incident that results in the oil spill. And of course, you want be able to protect your drinking water intake or if it's environmental application, you want to make sure that if something like this happens, that you detect it quickly and you can take countermeasures. So from the clean water perspective, there's a number of different angles and both of them... so both the industrial angle as well as the really clean water angle, in this case, the drinking water angle are looked at in this project.

OK, so Aquarius, basically the beneficiaries are industry and the consumer. You know, the people that are consuming water. Yes.

OK, so Aquarius, basically the beneficiaries are industry and the consumer. You know, the people that are consuming water. Yes.

Yeah. So ultimately, of course if you talk about drinking water, but also the environment that is, the general citizen that is the beneficiary. Yup.

Yeah. So ultimately, of course if you talk about drinking water, but also the environment that is, the general citizen that is the beneficiary. Yup.

OK. And you talk about a sensor and the Aquarius project is a rather ambitious endeavor because something is coming out of it or has come out of it... the sensor. This is a physical thing that came from the project, it's not all theoretical. So what can you tell us about the sensor?

OK. And you talk about a sensor and the Aquarius project is a rather ambitious endeavor because something is coming out of it or has come out of it... the sensor. This is a physical thing that came from the project, it's not all theoretical. So what can you tell us about the sensor?

It's true what you say, that the project is is quite ambitious. So let me explain a little bit about that. Typically, if you look at development projects, at least in the context of a European research project like this one, most of them are either focused on the development of a new technology, so more fundamental research, or they are looking at demonstration and implementation of a technology that is a bit more advanced. So where a prototype already exists and then you try to bring it to the market and replicate the benefits from the technology. If you look at the Aquarius project, really we start at a quite a fundamental level, which is developments in these projects. You have something called a technology readiness level, which indicates at what stage of development your technology is. And for Aquarius, I believe that the starting TRL level was set at number three which means there's really not much more than a demonstrator, a proof of concept to start with. But the goal is to bring it to TRL level number 7, which means it has been demonstrated and used in a real life environment. So it's almost ready to go... to be to be turned into a commercial product. And that's quite a big development over the course of what was initially meant to be a three year project. We have gotten a bit of an extension because of some delays due to the Corona crisis. This was quite ambitious. So included in the whole trajectory where the development of the fundamental building blocks of the sensor so we are trying to develop a laser which can be tuned so we can measure at different wavelengths, different colours, so to say, but that in the infrared spectrum, a matching detector, a spectrophotometer th at can detect the intensity of the light at those different wavelengths. And that's really necessary to be able to detect the oils, but also to be specific for the oil in the water, and that there is also a concentrator unit which extracts the oil from the water to ensure that we have good sensitivity. And then, of course, there is integrating all these components into the analyzer or sensor itself and then the testing in the field, so there's a lot of different steps involved in this process.

It's true what you say, that the project is is quite ambitious. So let me explain a little bit about that. Typically, if you look at development projects, at least in the context of a European research project like this one, most of them are either focused on the development of a new technology, so more fundamental research, or they are looking at demonstration and implementation of a technology that is a bit more advanced. So where a prototype already exists and then you try to bring it to the market and replicate the benefits from the technology. If you look at the Aquarius project, really we start at a quite a fundamental level, which is developments in these projects. You have something called a technology readiness level, which indicates at what stage of development your technology is. And for Aquarius, I believe that the starting TRL level was set at number three which means there's really not much more than a demonstrator, a proof of concept to start with. But the goal is to bring it to TRL level number 7, which means it has been demonstrated and used in a real life environment. So it's almost ready to go... to be to be turned into a commercial product. And that's quite a big development over the course of what was initially meant to be a three year project. We have gotten a bit of an extension because of some delays due to the Corona crisis. This was quite ambitious. So included in the whole trajectory where the development of the fundamental building blocks of the sensor so we are trying to develop a laser which can be tuned so we can measure at different wavelengths, different colours, so to say, but that in the infrared spectrum, a matching detector, a spectrophotometer th at can detect the intensity of the light at those different wavelengths. And that's really necessary to be able to detect the oils, but also to be specific for the oil in the water, and that there is also a concentrator unit which extracts the oil from the water to ensure that we have good sensitivity. And then, of course, there is integrating all these components into the analyzer or sensor itself and then the testing in the field, so there's a lot of different steps involved in this process.

And you say testing in the field and this is where your company, KWR, comes in. You are currently testing this sensor. What is that like?

And you say testing in the field and this is where your company, KWR, comes in. You are currently testing this sensor. What is that like?

So indeed... so KWR -maybe a few words about who we are. So KWR is a research institute from the Netherlands. We are basically the Dutch Drinking Water Institute... Dutch Drinking Water Research Institute. So we do a lot of research for the Dutch drinking water utilities. Not exclusively. We also do some other work, but that's really an important part of what we do and in the project, basically we represents the end users, in this case being drinking water utilities towards the application of the sensor. So in the the project we have the role of acting on behalf of the end users. We were involved in the specification. So initially setting the criteria, what does this sensor have to be? What does it have to do in order to be useful for this type of end user? So drinking water utility and now that at the end of the project, so the project is finishing at the end of this year, so end of 2020. At the end of the project, we take on the role of assessing the performance of the system that was developed and we've done that over the course of this year. So in the beginning of the year, we had the sensor in our laboratory. So we have, at KWR, we have quite some experience in testing and assessing sensor technology. We have a well-equipped lab. So we could also do reference analysis so we can really assess how a system is performing and compare that to the experience that we have with other instruments. So we did the lab testing at the beginning of the year. We had planned to do a test in the field so under the same conditions that you would also see what you what what utility uses the system. We have planned to do that in April and May, but we couldn't because the we had an agreement with what utility in The Netherlands that we could use their facilities, but the facilities were closed to non company personnel because of the lockdown that we had. So this was shifted and the project got extended, as mentioned before so we are now in the process of of doing that field trial at the Dutch Water Utility, which is actually quite close to where our office is located. So the instrument is installed in a monitoring station that is operated by the utility. That's really a point where they take water from the river Rhine into their treatment facility. And of course, they have a number of systems there that monitor the water quality to ensure that it's not contaminated before they process it into drinking water.

So indeed... so KWR -maybe a few words about who we are. So KWR is a research institute from the Netherlands. We are basically the Dutch Drinking Water Institute... Dutch Drinking Water Research Institute. So we do a lot of research for the Dutch drinking water utilities. Not exclusively. We also do some other work, but that's really an important part of what we do and in the project, basically we represents the end users, in this case being drinking water utilities towards the application of the sensor. So in the the project we have the role of acting on behalf of the end users. We were involved in the specification. So initially setting the criteria, what does this sensor have to be? What does it have to do in order to be useful for this type of end user? So drinking water utility and now that at the end of the project, so the project is finishing at the end of this year, so end of 2020. At the end of the project, we take on the role of assessing the performance of the system that was developed and we've done that over the course of this year. So in the beginning of the year, we had the sensor in our laboratory. So we have, at KWR, we have quite some experience in testing and assessing sensor technology. We have a well-equipped lab. So we could also do reference analysis so we can really assess how a system is performing and compare that to the experience that we have with other instruments. So we did the lab testing at the beginning of the year. We had planned to do a test in the field so under the same conditions that you would also see what you what what utility uses the system. We have planned to do that in April and May, but we couldn't because the we had an agreement with what utility in The Netherlands that we could use their facilities, but the facilities were closed to non company personnel because of the lockdown that we had. So this was shifted and the project got extended, as mentioned before so we are now in the process of of doing that field trial at the Dutch Water Utility, which is actually quite close to where our office is located. So the instrument is installed in a monitoring station that is operated by the utility. That's really a point where they take water from the river Rhine into their treatment facility. And of course, they have a number of systems there that monitor the water quality to ensure that it's not contaminated before they process it into drinking water.

And it sounds like KWR are very well equipped to be conducting these tests and to give some kind of meaningful feedback to draw a conclusion to this project in general. We talk about this sensor, is this close to market or how many years out do you think we are or are you able to even estimate this?

And it sounds like KWR are very well equipped to be conducting these tests and to give some kind of meaningful feedback to draw a conclusion to this project in general. We talk about this sensor, is this close to market or how many years out do you think we are or are you able to even estimate this?

That's always very difficult to say. So I should say that a number of the components that are in the sensor that we are currently testing are already available commercially. So they are integrated in commercial products from one of the project partners, QuantaRed, they already sell oil, water sensors, but they have sensors that are used in the laboratory. So they don't have sensors yet for the continuous monitoring of oil in water. That's what this project is all about, about developing a sensor that can continuously so every half a minute or every minute, maybe every five minutes with very high frequency sample the water and analyze it for the presence of water. That's also what is really necessary if you want to do something like intake protection or monitoring the effluent of the industrial sites, for example. The numbers are... in our tests we have seen that a number of these components work well. So, for example, the extraction unit that takes the oil... extracts the oil from the water so to increase the sensitivity of the of the sensor unit basically works very well. It might need some more work to turn this into a real commercial product. On the other hand, we see that the, and those were also the more challenging developments in the project, so the tunable laser so the tunable light source and also the detector, these need more work still. So the main thing that we see is that continuously operating systems means they have to be very robust. So you cannot have overheating, you cannot have issues with software that is not entirely reliable. And I think it's safe to say that in this project we are really still at the prototype stage. How long it would take before this is a commercial product? That's hard to say that that could take one year, could take two years, from my own experience with similar processes, could even take five years. I think what is good to say is that the basic performance that we have seen is pretty good. So in our lab tests, we have seen the system is able to detect hydrocarbons or oil type of products down to the low milligrams per litre concentration level, that's typically the range that we are looking for if you if you talk about the applications mentioned before, if you would really want to measure in drinking water itself, of course, you need to be more sensitive. But for the type of surface water monitoring, wastewater monitoring should be good enough. We have seen that the reliability of the prototype that we have is OK. So it needs attention once every couple of days. But ultimately you would want a unit like this to operate standalone without maintenance for, what, two weeks, maybe months, maybe even two months. And that's not where we are yet. So more work needs to be done. But the basis is there. I think it looks very promising.

That's always very difficult to say. So I should say that a number of the components that are in the sensor that we are currently testing are already available commercially. So they are integrated in commercial products from one of the project partners, QuantaRed, they already sell oil, water sensors, but they have sensors that are used in the laboratory. So they don't have sensors yet for the continuous monitoring of oil in water. That's what this project is all about, about developing a sensor that can continuously so every half a minute or every minute, maybe every five minutes with very high frequency sample the water and analyze it for the presence of water. That's also what is really necessary if you want to do something like intake protection or monitoring the effluent of the industrial sites, for example. The numbers are... in our tests we have seen that a number of these components work well. So, for example, the extraction unit that takes the oil... extracts the oil from the water so to increase the sensitivity of the of the sensor unit basically works very well. It might need some more work to turn this into a real commercial product. On the other hand, we see that the, and those were also the more challenging developments in the project, so the tunable laser so the tunable light source and also the detector, these need more work still. So the main thing that we see is that continuously operating systems means they have to be very robust. So you cannot have overheating, you cannot have issues with software that is not entirely reliable. And I think it's safe to say that in this project we are really still at the prototype stage. How long it would take before this is a commercial product? That's hard to say that that could take one year, could take two years, from my own experience with similar processes, could even take five years. I think what is good to say is that the basic performance that we have seen is pretty good. So in our lab tests, we have seen the system is able to detect hydrocarbons or oil type of products down to the low milligrams per litre concentration level, that's typically the range that we are looking for if you if you talk about the applications mentioned before, if you would really want to measure in drinking water itself, of course, you need to be more sensitive. But for the type of surface water monitoring, wastewater monitoring should be good enough. We have seen that the reliability of the prototype that we have is OK. So it needs attention once every couple of days. But ultimately you would want a unit like this to operate standalone without maintenance for, what, two weeks, maybe months, maybe even two months. And that's not where we are yet. So more work needs to be done. But the basis is there. I think it looks very promising.

Yeah, that sounds great, actually. Now, you mentioned earlier that the way that they used to do this was take water from the source and take it to a lab. And not having to do that anymore seems like a huge advantage with the sensor that comes out of Aquarius. Is that the biggest advantage or can you name any other important points that give Aquarius and the results from Aquarius a high value?

Yeah, that sounds great, actually. Now, you mentioned earlier that the way that they used to do this was take water from the source and take it to a lab. And not having to do that anymore seems like a huge advantage with the sensor that comes out of Aquarius. Is that the biggest advantage or can you name any other important points that give Aquarius and the results from Aquarius a high value?

There's really two main benefits, I think, from the developments in the project. So one is the continuous monitoring. So indeed, not having to take a sample, so vou grab a sample, put it in a bottle and then bring it to the laboratory, which might be on site, if we talk about the industrial location where typically there are facilities to analyze samples like that. But for environmental monitoring, typically, you would take the sample to a lab there it would be stored until they have enough samples to perform the analysis, which might be the next day or it might be a month later. So basically what you get then is you get information about one specific point in time and you have no idea what happened with the water quality between those samples, and this is where the Aquarius sensor could really help to get continuous impression of what is happening in a water system. So that's one thing. The other thing that's really new with Aquarius is that we will have a relatively... ultimately, of course, when we talk about the commercial product, the relatively affordable system, that can say something about the nature of the compounds in the water. So the idea with the Aquarius as I mentioned the tunable laser before. So something that can measure at different wavelengths, different colors in the infrared, and that allows us to actually look for specific chemical structures and that helps us identify what is in the water. Whereas if you look at the technology that we have available today, this either means having a very advanced system, which is a lot more expensive than the Aquarius system will ever be, or it means a very tedious procedure at the lab where you actually separate all the different components that you can identify them one by one, but not the mixture and the idea with the Aquarius project is really, with this sensor is that directly in the field, we can already say something about the different types of substances that are present in the water. So that would be a really big step forward. There is technology that can do this, that, but not for this type of substances, not for not for oil, not for hydrocarbons in the water.

There's really two main benefits, I think, from the developments in the project. So one is the continuous monitoring. So indeed, not having to take a sample, so vou grab a sample, put it in a bottle and then bring it to the laboratory, which might be on site, if we talk about the industrial location where typically there are facilities to analyze samples like that. But for environmental monitoring, typically, you would take the sample to a lab there it would be stored until they have enough samples to perform the analysis, which might be the next day or it might be a month later. So basically what you get then is you get information about one specific point in time and you have no idea what happened with the water quality between those samples, and this is where the Aquarius sensor could really help to get continuous impression of what is happening in a water system. So that's one thing. The other thing that's really new with Aquarius is that we will have a relatively... ultimately, of course, when we talk about the commercial product, the relatively affordable system, that can say something about the nature of the compounds in the water. So the idea with the Aquarius as I mentioned the tunable laser before. So something that can measure at different wavelengths, different colors in the infrared, and that allows us to actually look for specific chemical structures and that helps us identify what is in the water. Whereas if you look at the technology that we have available today, this either means having a very advanced system, which is a lot more expensive than the Aquarius system will ever be, or it means a very tedious procedure at the lab where you actually separate all the different components that you can identify them one by one, but not the mixture and the idea with the Aquarius project is really, with this sensor is that directly in the field, we can already say something about the different types of substances that are present in the water. So that would be a really big step forward. There is technology that can do this, that, but not for this type of substances, not for not for oil, not for hydrocarbons in the water.

Can you speak about the test results so far that you've experienced?

Can you speak about the test results so far that you've experienced?

Yeah. So the the instrument has been tested at KWR so at our our lab in the spring of this year -what we tested for during that first series of experiments was really the performance of the system. So we tested different solutions of chemical substances in water, so dissolved in very clean water, but also drinking water and then we tested. How sensitive is the unit? Is the unit producing reproducible results, meaning are the results that we measure on day one the same as the results that we get on the fifth day or the tenth day? What is the noise in the measurement? So how accurate are the results? If the unit says... I read one milligram is it then one milligram or could it also be five? So what is the variability in these results? We also looked at the interference. So that's always important if you look at measurements in real life. So in surface water or in wastewater, you're never looking at what individual substance. You're always talking about mixtures of hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals. So you also want to know if I detect substance "A" am I then certain it's substance "A" or could be something else as well? So this type of interference, which is what we've done as well. And we see that, that for the the target substances, so the oil like substances, hydrocarbons, we have found good sensitivity. So one of the, let's say, indicator substances that we're working with is called octonol and we saw that down to the low milligram per litre level. So this is really the sensitivity that you want to have if you talk about monitoring of river water or lake water or wastewater. The results were very, very repeatable. That was good. We did see some effects, some interference from substances that are naturally present in surface waters. Humic acids. So Humic acids are breakdown products from plant materials that we saw a bit of interference there. So that's something that we are still investigating. So how can we eliminate that type of interference? But the overall performance was was quite satisfactory. And I think also in terms of maintenance needs, it showed that we are on the right track. And the field testing is ongoing at the moment, and it's it's something that we still need to evaluate. So we'll be looking at that the last couple of weeks of the project to see how that went

Yeah. So the the instrument has been tested at KWR so at our our lab in the spring of this year -what we tested for during that first series of experiments was really the performance of the system. So we tested different solutions of chemical substances in water, so dissolved in very clean water, but also drinking water and then we tested. How sensitive is the unit? Is the unit producing reproducible results, meaning are the results that we measure on day one the same as the results that we get on the fifth day or the tenth day? What is the noise in the measurement? So how accurate are the results? If the unit says... I read one milligram is it then one milligram or could it also be five? So what is the variability in these results? We also looked at the interference. So that's always important if you look at measurements in real life. So in surface water or in wastewater, you're never looking at what individual substance. You're always talking about mixtures of hundreds, if not thousands of chemicals. So you also want to know if I detect substance "A" am I then certain it's substance "A" or could be something else as well? So this type of interference, which is what we've done as well. And we see that, that for the the target substances, so the oil like substances, hydrocarbons, we have found good sensitivity. So one of the, let's say, indicator substances that we're working with is called octonol and we saw that down to the low milligram per litre level. So this is really the sensitivity that you want to have if you talk about monitoring of river water or lake water or wastewater. The results were very, very repeatable. That was good. We did see some effects, some interference from substances that are naturally present in surface waters. Humic acids. So Humic acids are breakdown products from plant materials that we saw a bit of interference there. So that's something that we are still investigating. So how can we eliminate that type of interference? But the overall performance was was quite satisfactory. And I think also in terms of maintenance needs, it showed that we are on the right track. And the field testing is ongoing at the moment, and it's it's something that we still need to evaluate. So we'll be looking at that the last couple of weeks of the project to see how that went

OK, and from KWR's perspective... or even your perspective, what does success look like in Aquarius?

OK, and from KWR's perspective... or even your perspective, what does success look like in Aquarius?

Well, there's many different levels of success, I think that you can distinguish in a project like this and the success will also be different for the different types of partners that are involved in the project. So speaking for KRW so we have a number of things that that we would call success. On the one hand, for ourselves as a research institute, we just want to know what is happening in the world in terms of development of water technology. So being part of this project gives us the opportunity to really work together with partners that are on the cutting edge of of developing sensor technology. So I think that's that's already a big success for KWR to be involved in a project like this. Also because our role towards our stakeholders, the Dutch drinking water utilities, really to be their eyes and ears when it comes to technology. So that's that's already a good thing. Then ultimately, of course, a big success would be a commercial oil in water sensor that has the properties that we discussed before. But for a project like this, it can only provide a stepping stone for that type of success. So I think it's not realistic. Would not have to be realistic to expect a project like this to deliver a commercial product that's also not the aim of these projects. And it's really assisting in that that process.

Well, there's many different levels of success, I think that you can distinguish in a project like this and the success will also be different for the different types of partners that are involved in the project. So speaking for KRW so we have a number of things that that we would call success. On the one hand, for ourselves as a research institute, we just want to know what is happening in the world in terms of development of water technology. So being part of this project gives us the opportunity to really work together with partners that are on the cutting edge of of developing sensor technology. So I think that's that's already a big success for KWR to be involved in a project like this. Also because our role towards our stakeholders, the Dutch drinking water utilities, really to be their eyes and ears when it comes to technology. So that's that's already a good thing. Then ultimately, of course, a big success would be a commercial oil in water sensor that has the properties that we discussed before. But for a project like this, it can only provide a stepping stone for that type of success. So I think it's not realistic. Would not have to be realistic to expect a project like this to deliver a commercial product that's also not the aim of these projects. And it's really assisting in that that process.

Paving the way, I think one could say.

Paving the way, I think one could say.

Paving the way indeed and supporting European companies in their competitiveness and of course, supporting the European Union, in its technology place in the world, so to say. I think for some of the other other partners, the developments that have been ongoing are also successful, like the development of the of the spectrophotometer. So the detector, the development of the light source. These are really new technologies, steps in performance have been made. So these are all individual successes. So there's many different levels when you talk about success in a project like this.

Paving the way indeed and supporting European companies in their competitiveness and of course, supporting the European Union, in its technology place in the world, so to say. I think for some of the other other partners, the developments that have been ongoing are also successful, like the development of the of the spectrophotometer. So the detector, the development of the light source. These are really new technologies, steps in performance have been made. So these are all individual successes. So there's many different levels when you talk about success in a project like this.

And we have already talked about the consumer as a stakeholder in this project. Can you pinpoint other stakeholders?

And we have already talked about the consumer as a stakeholder in this project. Can you pinpoint other stakeholders?

Yeah, there's a number of stakeholders involved in a project like this. I don't think Aquarius is unique in that sense. So if you look at water quality and water quality monitoring in general, there's always a number of different parties involved that look at this from a different angle. So ultimately, of course, we as a society would like to have the best quality water possible could be environmental quality, ecological status. That's why we have to the Water Framework Directive, for example, in Europe, that that obliges all the member states to obtain or to maintain good status of their natural waters. We want clean drinking water. So that's really to the citizen and societal stakeholder perspective. There's the organizations, the companies that produce water quality sensors. So their stake is commercial success, having a product that is competitive, that is interesting for the market that they can sell. And in the end, of course, it's again, the citizen that also benefits because it means there's jobs. People can work at those companies. So there's also a societal aspect there. And there's also stakeholders in the form of companies that actually have an effect on the water quality. So this this particular project, we talked about the oil industry so companies that produce something that use water in their processes, inevitably, that will lead to products, compounds things from their process, ending up in their water. So before they can discharge this, they need to ensure that the water is again fit for being brought back into natural environment. So they have a stake as well, on the one hand, to ensure that they oblige the legislation, but also they have a treatment plant that needs to function. So water treatment plants, where they clean their waste water. So these type of sensors are also used to optimize the performance of such a treatment plant, which can save them chemicals which can save electricity because the processes are more efficient. And then another stakeholder that we should not forget are the legislators, are the politicians, so to say. So the European Commission, national governments or ministries, because they basically guards over our water quality. They make the laws that we all have to follow. But of course they can only tell us that water quality has to be this and that criteria if it's possible to actually verify that we meet those criteria. So technology is also a driver or an influencer of legislation. So there's a lot of different things that come together really in a project like this, and we try to address all of them. Legislators are not actually part of the project, but we do reach out to them to tell them what is happening and all the other parties are really at the table.

Yeah, there's a number of stakeholders involved in a project like this. I don't think Aquarius is unique in that sense. So if you look at water quality and water quality monitoring in general, there's always a number of different parties involved that look at this from a different angle. So ultimately, of course, we as a society would like to have the best quality water possible could be environmental quality, ecological status. That's why we have to the Water Framework Directive, for example, in Europe, that that obliges all the member states to obtain or to maintain good status of their natural waters. We want clean drinking water. So that's really to the citizen and societal stakeholder perspective. There's the organizations, the companies that produce water quality sensors. So their stake is commercial success, having a product that is competitive, that is interesting for the market that they can sell. And in the end, of course, it's again, the citizen that also benefits because it means there's jobs. People can work at those companies. So there's also a societal aspect there. And there's also stakeholders in the form of companies that actually have an effect on the water quality. So this this particular project, we talked about the oil industry so companies that produce something that use water in their processes, inevitably, that will lead to products, compounds things from their process, ending up in their water. So before they can discharge this, they need to ensure that the water is again fit for being brought back into natural environment. So they have a stake as well, on the one hand, to ensure that they oblige the legislation, but also they have a treatment plant that needs to function. So water treatment plants, where they clean their waste water. So these type of sensors are also used to optimize the performance of such a treatment plant, which can save them chemicals which can save electricity because the processes are more efficient. And then another stakeholder that we should not forget are the legislators, are the politicians, so to say. So the European Commission, national governments or ministries, because they basically guards over our water quality. They make the laws that we all have to follow. But of course they can only tell us that water quality has to be this and that criteria if it's possible to actually verify that we meet those criteria. So technology is also a driver or an influencer of legislation. So there's a lot of different things that come together really in a project like this, and we try to address all of them. Legislators are not actually part of the project, but we do reach out to them to tell them what is happening and all the other parties are really at the table.

So from the standpoint of the stakeholders, it looks like Aquarius has produced some fine results and the project is actually over at the end of this year. So you're sort of in your final phases here. I want to say thank you for taking the time to tell us a little bit about Aquarius today. It's an interesting project and it sounds like a highly successful project.

So from the standpoint of the stakeholders, it looks like Aquarius has produced some fine results and the project is actually over at the end of this year. So you're sort of in your final phases here. I want to say thank you for taking the time to tell us a little bit about Aquarius today. It's an interesting project and it sounds like a highly successful project.

You're most welcome.

You're most welcome.

If you'd like to see more about Aquarius, check out their website at aquarius-project.eu. This podcast has been brought to you by Technikon. The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number 731465. This project is an initiative of the Photonics Public Private Partnership.

If you'd like to see more about Aquarius, check out their website at aquarius-project.eu. This podcast has been brought to you by Technikon. The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number 731465. This project is an initiative of the Photonics Public Private Partnership.