SouthWestSensor provides rugged, automated, in-situ online analysers built specifically for industrial wastewater environments. Powered by our proprietary DropletSens™ microfluidic technology, our systems deliver continuous, lab-quality measurements of ammonium, phosphate, nitrate, and nitrite—empowering your team to catch process upsets instantly and verify compliance before effluent ever leaves the boundary.

Protecting Industrial Operations from Costly Trade Effluent Breaches


 

Whether your site discharges directly to a local watercourse under an EPR permit or routes trade waste to a municipal sewer under a trade effluent consent, exceeding your nutrient limits carries severe consequences. Regulators enforce heavy civil penalties for permit breaches, while water companies impose steep financial surcharges for high chemical loading.

Deploying SWS online analysers at your final discharge point provides an automated "early warning system." If ammonium or orthophosphate levels spike due to a plant washdown or chemical leak, our systems alert your PLC immediately, allowing you to automatically divert non-compliant waste to holding lagoons before it triggers a legal violation.

Optimising On-Site Treatment Processes & Dosing Control


 

Most industrial manufacturing facilities—including food and beverage processors, chemical manufacturers, and paper mills—operate on-site biological or chemical treatment facilities. SWS provides the real-time data loops needed to optimize these high-cost assets:

  • Efficient Coagulant Dosing: Track orthophosphate levels continuously to automate the precise dosing of ferric or alum, eliminating costly chemical waste while meeting strict phosphorus limits.
  • Biological Treatment Protection: Monitor ammonium levels across biological aeration basins to ensure your active sludge remains stable and healthy, reducing energy consumption from over-aeration.
  • Audit-Ready Records: Our systems run on-board standard calibration checks automatically, generating a secure, continuous, and legally defensible compliance trail for EHS audits.

Why DropletSens™ Thrives in Harsh Industrial Sample Matrices


 

Industrial effluents are notoriously difficult on monitoring instrumentation. Fluctuating pH, elevated temperatures, chemical additives, and high suspended solids cause traditional electrochemical and optical probes to fail or drift rapidly. SWS's advanced nanodroplet microfluidics bypass these physical limitations:

  • Optics Shielded from Fouling: The chemical reactions occur isolated within microscopic channels, keeping the delicate optical detection systems entirely separated from the harsh sample water.
  • 90-Day Unattended Operation: Due to nanodroplet chemical scaling, our sensors consume microscopic quantities of reagents, requiring servicing and cartridge swaps only once every 3 months.
  • Drift-Free Wet Chemistry: Automated, on-device standards run routinely to self-recalibrate the sensor, delivering continuous laboratory-grade accuracy without manual drift adjustments.

Heavy-Duty Pre-Filtration and PLC/SCADA Integration


 

Industrial wastewater demands a system built for heavy solids. SWS provides complete, packaged online analyser systems tailored for seamless integration:

  • Active Pre-Filtration: Pair our analysers with active mechanical Rotorflush modules or ceramic, back-washable Cembrane Silicon Carbide (SiC) systems to ensure an uninterrupted, clog-free stream in the most demanding process lines.
  • Industrial Telemetry: Native support for Modbus, RS232/RS485, and Bluetooth ensures direct integration into your plant's central SCADA or PLC network, allowing automated relay controls and instant alarm mapping.