WIPAC Monthly - June 2015

Welcome to this month's edition of WIPAC Monthly. To download the latest issue click here or go to the embedded version at the end of this post.

In this month's edition we investigate the use of tryptophan sensors in catchment monitoring and for those of you reading this post a bonus article about the use of the sensor technology to monitor for faecal contamination in drinking water (click here). It has been a technology that has been around for a few years and initially was looked at for the effluent from wastewater treatment works but this particular sensors mentioned in the article seems to have found other potential uses. The technology has developed in other ways and other companies have developed alternative technologies used on similar techniques. It is an interesting concept to see if it will keep the analysis of BOD in the mainstream of the Water Industry or if we will move on to different ways of measurement similar to those mentioned by the Water Environment Federation a couple of years ago (click here). It is a discussion that will be brought up at the Sensing for Water Conference in September when the experiences of the UK Environment Agency are presented

Also in this edition is an opinion piece on a recent trend which is the potential for a company to rather than own, operate & maintain an instrument, buy the data from an external party, it is an interesting concept and if it ends up a cheaper way of doing things most water companies wouldn't say no. However there are some unknown pitfalls that could face a potential "supplier" of data that might end up making the potential for this eventuality, shall we say, less attractive.

In addition to this there is an article on the development of flow meters which asks "Why we need a new flow meter" and a second opinion piece by Farooq Janjua on the use of ICA in maintenance reliability.

For those of you who are unaware of the Water Industry Process Automation & Control Group and WIPAC Monthly, it is a not for profit LinkedIn Group that has grown and grown in popularity. It now features over 5,300 members and regularly discusses key topics surrounding ICA, data & information in the global water industry and beyond. It is an open group which all members of LinkedIn are welcome to join. WIPAC Monthly is the monthly magazine that is produced by the group manager, Oliver Grievson. It is distributed for free through LinkedIn and is free to all and free for all to contribute to.