Market trends in online water analysis

The growth in automation, communication and SCADA technologies has driven the market towards real-time information. For water analysis, this means online instruments rather than sampling and laboratory-based testing.

There is nothing ground-breaking about online analysis, but this type of instrumentation has generally only been seen in larger facilities or water plants, mandated in wastewater or at key points in a water distribution network. Now the trend is to monitor many more points in networks or in point of use. This puts demand onto a different type of sensor technology, better suited to stand-alone installations and easier to maintain.

This is true not only in water distribution but also in industry. In this article, I will discuss the market drivers for municipal applications, as well as those for the food and beverage industry. While these are quite different processes with different challenges, you will learn that the applications for this newer breed of online analyser are very similar.

Municipal applications

Everyone is talking ‘smart water networks’, which is not a surprise considering GWI (Global Water Intelligence) forecast that investments in this area are predicted to show an annual growth of 13.9%. It stated that there were three major drivers responsible for this growth:

1. Improving operational efficiency: reducing energy costs and carbon footprint through optimisation.
2. Regulation: through the adoption of key performance indicators, benchmarking initiatives and water quality standards.
3. The security of water supplies: the in-depth data created by smart systems defines a detailed picture of the state of water networks.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the above list and conclude that distributed online analysis will be instrumental in achieving each of these objectives. These smart networks will potentially have hundreds of analysis points, which will integrate directly into the distribution network metrics in the SCADA system. From this analysis, patterns will form on distributed water quality and key decisions will be driven from this information. The ability to benchmark quality standards at the user points and report on exception will deliver a faster response to problems, as well as serve to document the delivered water quality in the event of an issue. Lastly, security of water supplies will always be an issue, as every water network can be compromised at any point. Highly distributed analysis can offer early detection of an infiltration and enable a fast response to mitigate any risks.

Figure 1: An example of how future networks may look.

Industry applications - food and beverage

Like municipal applications, those for food and beverage (F&B) are also growing faster than ever before. GWI data suggests that the global water-technology market in this sector alone will reach US$6 billion by 2020. This will be driven by the need for increased efficiencies and water re-use, corporate risk, safety and profitability.

Consider the number of processes where water is directly used in food processing, either as a cooking medium or an ingredient. Ensuring water quality will directly apply to corporate risk, safety and, in time, profitability.

In recent times the F&B industry has found itself in the news, where known and respected brands find themselves on ‘trial by social media’ due to a quality issue. This in itself will drive more stringent analysis to ensure such issues don’t happen in the first place, or to document and prove the ingredient quality at that point in time.

Alternatively, let’s consider product quality. If you are batching water to reconstitute a juice, for instance, not checking the result until you have batched 1000 L can prove very costly. Imagine that your water filtration failed in that period; now the entire batch is potentially ruined.

What do these applications have in common?

If the industry moves from few measurement points to potentially many, in places where such measurements have not been taken before, the analysis instrument requirements will change significantly. I see three main drivers that will drive the future market:

1. Simplicity: single, multipoint instruments able to operate off one measurement point and report the entire picture.
2. Maintenance: there simply won’t be the number of instrumentation technicians in the right areas to maintain all of these analysers, so different procedures will need to be put in place to maintain and calibrate these devices.
3. Connectivity: single network interfaces direct to local or remote SCADA systems. Technologies like cloud-based data acquisition and direct email alarm functionality as standard.

In other words, the market is demanding simpler solutions that enable them to meet the regulatory and safety standards, but without the need for specialist technicians or chemists.

What are the trends in online analysis?

The new technologies available are enabling sensor manufacturers to re-think the way they design their systems in order to meet these changed market needs. These include, but are not limited to, three key areas: MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), optical sensing and biosensors. These new measurement methods are lower in cost, smaller and smarter than previous methods. 

Future tech and future work

Until recently, these online analysis technologies simply couldn’t be reliably produced at a price-point that was acceptable to the market. But the cascading advances we’ve seen - sensor technologies, connectivity technologies and manufacturing technologies - combined with the changing face (and cost) of employment, have brought these ‘wish-list’ solutions to the fore.  Manufacturers (including Bürkert) have invested in developing products that address all of these demands; we’re now seeing the evolution of simple plug-and-play devices with intuitive programming, on-board network interfaces and built-in maintenance - all connected to the internet for secured global-access. These devices, unimaginable (in a cost-effective context) until only recently, are now here. Importantly, they will support instrumentation technicians and specialists to manage high-precision processes with unanticipated oversight, control and ease. 

Example solution to evolving market needs

Bürkert’s market research led to the development of the 8905 online analysis laboratory or ‘OALab.’ The unit can be adapted with whatever modules a process may require, including both sensor modules and network or cloud-connectivity modules. This supports multicontact text message alarming, report emailing and real-time data logging and trending. These attributes were found through conversations with our market, as well as surveying available technologies. The sensor modules are designed around the market demand for simplicity of device and maintenance.

The expandable and interchangeable modules, which snap-lock fluidically and electronically (like an inkjet cartridge), register all system parameters continuously. Where instrument technicians are increasingly time-poor, tasks such as these can be given to other colleagues that do not have this specialist training.

Modules are swapped for maintenance and sent to a specialist supplier for calibration - again, allowing site instrument technicians to focus on pure process elements, rather than the relatively basic work of module swaps. Supporting new market expectations through product development has minimised callouts and allows instrument technicians and site operators to more effectively allocate their increasingly scarce technical resources.

In conclusion

Application processes, regardless of industry, are often shadowed by the concept of Kaizen, meaning continuous improvement. Online analysis technologies fitting the ‘future-tech’ bill adhere to the Kaizen ethos, delivering both total internal flexibility and total process flexibility for the customer. 

Instrumentation for water-quality analysis is a strong growth market - one that will demand constant improvement and evolution to support more and more complex measurements into the field. Successful technologies will need to support and even surpass market demands.