A Low‐Cost Sensor for Detecting Illicit Discharge in Sewerage

Rocher, Javier; Parra, Mar; Parra, Lorena; Sendra, Sandra; Lloret, Jaime; Cuquerella, Jesús Mengual

doi:10.1155/2021/6650157

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This is because domestic wastewater’s temperature is significantly higher than that of groundwater [ 19 ], and the water conductivity is highly correlated with nitrate, phosphorous, and dissolved metals which usually link to specific industrial activities such as metal plating [ 7 , 10 , 11 ]. Instead of only analysing the absolute level of water level, temperature, and EC, the general patterns or rather the rates of change are also considered as strong indicators of illicit discharges [ 20 , 21 ].…”

Section: Sensor Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-Cost Water Depth and Electrical Conductivity Sensor for Detecting Inputs into Urban Stormwater Networks

Shi

Catsamas

Kolotelo

et al. 2021

Sensors

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High-resolution data collection of the urban stormwater network is crucial for future asset management and illicit discharge detection, but often too expensive as sensors and ongoing frequent maintenance works are not affordable. We developed an integrated water depth, electrical conductivity (EC), and temperature sensor that is inexpensive (USD 25), low power, and easily implemented in urban drainage networks. Our low-cost sensor reliably measures the rate-of-change of water level without any re-calibration by comparing with industry-standard instruments such as HACH and HORIBA’s probes. To overcome the observed drift of level sensors, we developed an automated re-calibration approach, which significantly improved its accuracy. For applications like monitoring stormwater drains, such an approach will make higher-resolution sensing feasible from the budget control considerations, since the regular sensor re-calibration will no longer be required. For other applications like monitoring wetlands or wastewater networks, a manual re-calibration every two weeks is required to limit the sensor’s inaccuracies to ±10 mm. Apart from only being used as a calibrator for the level sensor, the conductivity sensor in this study adequately monitored EC between 0 and 10 mS/cm with a 17% relative uncertainty, which is sufficient for stormwater monitoring, especially for real-time detection of poor stormwater quality inputs. Overall, our proposed sensor can be rapidly and densely deployed in the urban drainage network for revolutionised high-density monitoring that cannot be achieved before with high-end loggers and sensors.

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Section: Sensor Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-Cost Water Depth and Electrical Conductivity Sensor for Detecting Inputs into Urban Stormwater Networks

Shi

Catsamas

Kolotelo

et al. 2021

Sensors

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“…The turbidity sensor is presented in Ref. [36], the conductivity sensor is presented in Ref. [37], and the oil sensor is presented in Ref.…”

Section: Implementation Detailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of wireless sensor network system based on water level, rain, conductivity, oil and turbidity sensors to monitor the storm sewerage

Rocher

Rego²,

Lloret

et al. 2022

IET Wireless Sensor Systems

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Storm sewerages are crucial infrastructures in water management. In this paper, a system was developed to detect the blockage of the sewerage and the presence of illegal spills in Storm sewerages. Different nodes with sensors measuring the water level, turbidity, conductivity, and oil presence are scattered in the sewerage. These nodes are connected to a master node for processing the information with a rain sensor. The rain and water level sensors are used to determine one of the four possibilities regarding the presence of water in the sewerage and whether it is raining. According to the combinations, it can be determined whether it is a normal situation or there are spills or blockages. It is shown that there are differences between sewerage with and without blockage via the water level. This can be used to determine the presence of a blockage. The identification of an illegal spill is performed with the use of conductivity, turbidity, and oil sensors. The authors determined that yellow and infrared light can determine the oil concentration in the oil sensor in a range of 0–2.2 mL oil/L water with yellow light and 0.4–20 mL oil/L water with infrared light. Finally, the conductivity sensor can determine water conductivity from 0.526 to 58.4 mS/cm.

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“…Since the height of the water column might affect the measurement of oil concentration, we use the sensor level presented previously [ 23 ]. If the sensor detects oil presence, the turbidity sensor [ 24 ] is activated. The turbidity sensor is used to impede false positives of oil presence caused by the presence of particles in the water.…”

Section: Proposalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Cost System Based on Optical Sensor to Monitor Discharge of Industrial Oil in Irrigation Ditches

Basterrechea

Rocher

Parra

et al. 2021

Sensors

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Uncontrolled dumping linked to agricultural vehicles causes an increase in the incorporation of oils into the irrigation system. In this paper, we propose a system based on an optical sensor to monitor oil concentration in the irrigation ditches. Our prototype is based on the absorption and dispersion of light. As a light source, we use Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) with different colours (white, yellow, blue, green, and red) and a photodetector as a sensing element. To test the sensor’s performance, we incorporate industrial oils used by a diesel or gasoline engine, with a concentration from 0 to 0.20 mLoil/cm2. The experiment was carried out at different water column heights, 0 to 20 cm. According to our results, the sensor can differentiate between the presence or absence of diesel engine oil with any LED. For gasoline engine oil, the sensor quantifies its concentration using the red light source; concentrations greater than 0.1 mLoil/cm2 cannot be distinguished. The data gathered using the red LED has an average absolute error of 0.003 mLoil/cm2 (relative error of 15.8%) for the worst case, 15 cm. Finally, the blue LED generates different signals in the photodetector according to the type of oil. We developed an algorithm that combines (i) the white LED, to monitor the presence of oil; (ii) the blue LED, to identify if the oil comes from a gasoline or diesel engine; and (iii) the red LED, to monitor the concentration of oil used by a gasoline engine.

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A Low‐Cost Sensor for Detecting Illicit Discharge in Sewerage

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

A Low-Cost Water Depth and Electrical Conductivity Sensor for Detecting Inputs into Urban Stormwater Networks

A Low-Cost Water Depth and Electrical Conductivity Sensor for Detecting Inputs into Urban Stormwater Networks

Use of wireless sensor network system based on water level, rain, conductivity, oil and turbidity sensors to monitor the storm sewerage

Low-Cost System Based on Optical Sensor to Monitor Discharge of Industrial Oil in Irrigation Ditches

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