Water quality and environmental monitoring in industry and oceanography

Measuring and ensuring cleanliness in ecosystems

Environmental data in scientific projects is typically recorded on a long-term and finely detailed basis in order to identify trends and changes, or to test hypotheses. Accurate and reliable measurement of environmental data is also necessary in industrial sectors such as mining and open-cast mining: it ensures that environmental pollution is avoided, compliance with limit values is monitored and the purity of sensitive ecosystems is ensured. This is because sewage, heavy metals or chemicals are highly dangerous for ecosystems, even in small quantities.

In this specific example, a company of consultants, scientists, strategists, and engineers all dedicated to solving the world’s critical infrastructure, environmental, energy, and resource challenges required a technical solutions for measuring and recording environmental data and water quality data for localities which are sometimes remote and inaccessible. Data collection had to be reliable even in harsh environments, and partly based on the supply of solar power.

Data loggers that learn to transmit in an energy-optimised way

A remote interface solution for oceanographic research and environmental water quality monitoring was required to be integrated into the customer`s existing measurement sensors: data logs had to be read out and measurement data reliably transmitted to cloud systems via cellular LTE/4G connection, as well as reporting back via FTP to a FTP server at the client`s premises. For use in remote areas, the overall solution had to be supplied with solar energy and operation had to be secured via a buffer battery. The gateways from INSYS icom used in the solution of the marine institute read out the acquired data and transmit it to target systems. In addition, the devices have an energy-saving mode with configurable sleep intervals, in which the mobile cellular connection is idle and all processes that are not required are switched off. The energy requirement is accordingly reduced to the milliwatt range. If a fault occurs in the remote system, remote maintenance work can still be carried out during the activity cycles.

Sensitive status indicators

Integrating a gateway from INSYS icom into an EXOR Oceania process and interface solution creates a sensitive environmental monitoring system that can be used flexibly at any location thanks to cellular and remote connectivity availability. With its programmable hardware and software the gateway solution reliably transmits the required monitoring data in short, defined time windows for maximum energy efficiency.