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The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, along with the EPA, NOAA, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and USGS, yesterday announced the launch of the Nutrient Sensor Challenge. The stated goal of the challenge is:
… to accelerate the development, adoption, and use of affordable, reliable, and accurate nitrate and orthophosphate sensors […] to accelerate these affordable (<$5,000 purchase price) new technologies to commercial availability by 2017.
If you’re interested in learning more about the challenge, full details can be found on the ACT website.
Seems like quite a challenge looking for Nitrates and Phosphates – possibly using Raman Spectroscopy.
Possibly tickle with a UV laser for
NO3/Nitrate excited by UV 204nm – resonance output 1104nm
http://bit.ly/1B7QvUg
I wonder if anybody else is thinking about this?
The UV laser seems to be the biggest challange in a small package, the spectroscope could be doable, and of course the package needs to cope with possible biofouling.