PROJECT R&D+I

TITLE
MOPPWATER - NOVEL MONITORING SENSING SYSTEMS FOR PERSISTENT POLLUTANTS
IN RECREATIONAL WATERS

HIGHLIGHTS
Development of automatic flow methodologies for real-time monitoring of persistent
pollutants in recreational waters

ABSTRACT
Recreational waters, both coastal and inland, are stressed by anthropological activities, with
consequent contamination by inorganic and organic persistent pollutants. In this scenario, we
propose to develop automatic flow-based methods for real-time monitoring of persistent
pollutants. The methods will hopefully present advantages over existing ones in terms of cost,
reagent consumption, portability and speciation of analytes. The economic impact to Portugal,
and any coastal country, of recreational waters as leisure, touristic and commercial areas, makes
it essential to invest in the sustainability of these water bodies. By developing such monitoring
tools, a contribution to the preservation/improvement of water quality is envisaged. The target
analytes are heavy and transition metals (cadmium, lead, copper, chromium, nickel and zinc as
persistent inorganic pollutants, PIPs), iron, and tributyltin (TBT), being TBT the most relevant of
the organotin family, considered the most problematic persistent organic pollutant (POP). These
parameters are related to activity of maritime traffic, namely refueling, cleaning, maintenance
and navigation (leaching of antifouling paint). To assess the PP content, spectrophotometric flow
methods will be developed. Flow methodologies advantageous characteristics such as automation,
robustness, and versatility make them a quite suitable choice. Besides automation, the methods
will provide information on speciation, as toxicity is often dependent on the analyte form.

The feasibility of this proposal is based on the experience of the proposing groups and on the
mentioned advantages of flow techniques. The possibility of coupling flow manifolds to
miniaturized detectors and easy incorporation of pre-treatment units is another strong point.
These features will play a key role in developing methods for such a wide variety of parameters
and help in dealing with sample variability expected for the target water. To deal with this
variability, experts in solid phase extraction and separation processes were included as
consultants from the Univ. Balearic Islands (Spain). Taking advantage of the IR’s experience in
molecular absorption spectrophotometry, new metal ion chelators will be tested, some recently
synthesized on a previously funded FCT project. Sampling will be an important part of the
proposed project; it will cover the entire water column as pollutants physical-chemical
stratification is expected. The influence of tides, seasons and maritime activity are also expected;
in this matter, the experience from the hydrobiology group from ICBAS-UP will be essential.
Finally, and due to the portability of the systems to be developed, we propose to use the novel
methodologies for shipboard analysis; for this purpose, we will count with the consultancy from
the Californian American company Global FIA, and from the Univ. of Maine (USA).

KEYWORDS
Recreational waters; Water; Sensors; Pollutants; Monitoring.
 PROJECT R&D+I

PROMOTERS / PARTNERS
Escola Superior de Biotecnologia - Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal) - coordinator; Instituto de
Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar – UP (Portugal); Universidade das Ilhas Baleares (Spain); GlobalFIA (USA);
Universidade do Maine (EUA).

FINANCING PROGRAM EXECUTION DATE GLOBAL BUDGET

FCT - Projectos I&D 2018-2021 € 199 210,56

CONTACTS (ESB) E-MAIL PHONE

António Rangel arangel@porto.ucp.pt +351 22 558 0001