{"id":39446,"date":"2025-04-14T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=39446"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:40:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T20:40:55","slug":"its-time-to-react-to-water-quality-proteus-multiparameter-probe-aboard-nexsens-buoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/its-time-to-react-to-water-quality-proteus-multiparameter-probe-aboard-nexsens-buoy.htm","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time to React to Water Quality: Proteus Multiparameter Probe aboard NexSens Buoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water quality monitoring is essential for safeguarding public health, protecting ecosystems, and ensuring the sustainability of water resources. Contaminants such as industrial pollutants, agricultural runoff, and sewage discharge can severely impact aquatic life and pose serious risks to human health if left unchecked.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, water quality monitoring has been a slow and labor-intensive process, requiring samples to be collected, transported to a lab, and analyzed\u2014a process that can take days.<\/p>\n

However, with the advancement of real-time sensor technology, environmental agencies, researchers, and industries can now monitor water quality instantly.<\/p>\n

One of the most innovative solutions in this field is the Proteus multiparameter probe<\/a>, a water quality probe designed to provide real-time data on Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Organic Carbon (TOC), and E. coli \u2014key indicators of organic pollution. When paired with a NexSens buoy system<\/a>, these sensors become even more powerful, enabling continuous monitoring in freshwater and coastal environments.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Proteus multiparameter probe is designed to provide real-time water quality measurements \u2013 Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Organic Carbon (TOC), and E. coli. (Credit: Proteus)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The Need for Real-Time Water Monitoring<\/span><\/h3>\n

Traditional water sampling methods often leave a critical time gap between contamination events and response efforts. The Proteus multiparameter probe, however, offers an immediate and continuous stream of data, helping users detect pollution in real-time.<\/p>\n

Rob Stevens, Managing Director at RS Hydro (parent company of Proteus Instruments), states, \u201cThe days of waiting five days for a lab result are over […] Now, we can see water quality changes as they happen\u2014and that changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, the standard approach to measuring BOD\u2014a critical indicator of organic pollution in water\u2014has been a five-day lab-based test. This method, while widely accepted, is fraught with inefficiencies.<\/p>\n

Stevens explains, \u201cThe whole background to getting a sample is swamped with massive problems, ranging from sample preparation and sample collection through to transportation and the laboratory test itself. From the moment you take the sample, you have to follow a military-style process: using a perfectly clean bottle, getting it to the lab immediately, keeping it below 4 deg C, and avoiding weekends when samples are often refrigerated and deteriorating for an extra couple of days. Even then, you\u2019d be lucky if you got a reading within 20-30% accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, traditional methods for detecting E. coli in water involve growing bacteria cultures on agar plates and counting colonies\u2014a process that is both slow and prone to human error.<\/p>\n

Stevens states, \u201cOne of our biggest challenges is that people assume lab results are always accurate. But all the steps leading up to that reading can introduce multiple sources of error. You might get a lab result of 10,000, but the real number could have been 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the Proteus Multiparameter Probe Works<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Proteus multiparameter probe combines optical and electrochemical sensors to measure multiple water quality parameters, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Water temperature<\/td>\nBlue-green algae<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pH<\/span><\/td>\nRhodamine<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ORP<\/span><\/td>\nCrude oil<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conductivity<\/span><\/td>\nRefined oil<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Turbidity<\/span><\/td>\nCDOM \/ FDOM<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Water depth<\/span><\/td>\nFluorescein<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Water level<\/td>\nOptical brighteners<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chlorophyll a<\/td>\nTryptophan<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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And automatically derived:<\/p>\n