This week’s snow didn’t spoil the ATi sponsored Swig meeting at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, which looked at The Role of Sensors in Disinfection and Microbiological Monitoring. 
Speakers from the water industry and suppliers attended the event and ATi’s very own Dr Chlorine, General Manager Mike Strahand, gave a presentation on the state of chlorine monitoring
Drinking water must be ‘wholesome’ and this is defined in law by standards for a wide range of substances, organisms and properties of water in regulations. Compliance with the strict UK and European standards is very good in the UK: England and Wales achieved 99.97% compliance. A small number of failures do occur; can the improved use of sensors and the application of emerging technologies help?
Chlorine is used as a primary disinfectant in water treatment and is also added to protect the water during distribution to the tap. Chlorine has made the greatest contribution to the prevention of disease from drinking water worldwide and the technologies for monitoring and control are well established. Alternatively, rapid microbiological monitoring and detection is extremely challenging and developing reliable sensors has kept researcher and instrument developers busy for many decades.
This workshop looked at both current practice in chlorine monitoring for water treatment and the use and potential benefits of emerging technologies for microbiological monitoring.
The below presentations in pdf format can be downloaded by visiting www.swig.org.uk:
- Disinfection; Regulatory, Water Safety and Operational Considerations, John Haley, Yorkshire Water
- Current status of chlorine monitoring in water, Mike Strahand, ATi
- Consistent Measurement from Dependable Self Cleaning Sensors, Dr Verena Kuntze, Kuntze
- What is the future for new microbiological techniques in drinking water monitoring? Presentation by Robert Pitchers, WRc Plc [presented by Leo Carswell, WRc Plc]
- Microfluidics, Molecular Methods and Spectroscopy for the Monitoring of Waterborne Pathogens, Helen Bridle, Heriot Watt University
- Benefits of On-Line Detection of E.coli/ Coliforms – Case Studies, Goran Khalaf, Colifast
- Online bacteria monitoring is possible now…, Joep Appels, Microlan
- The ColiMinder – rapid and automated measurement of microbial water quality for monitoring and disinfection process control, Wolfgang Vogl, VWM