Water quality monitoring instrumentation company appoints new CEO.

Steve Willis has been appointed Chief Executive of Intellitect Water. Steve will take charge of all day to day operations during August and will be based at the company’s facility in Romsey (GB).

Steve Willis

Intellitect Water’s current Chief Executive Tony Halker will manage the transfer of operational responsibilities over the next few months, after which he will remain a Director of both the operating and holding companies.

Steve Willis started his career in the water industry as an engineer in water treatment systems. This developed into sales leadership roles in a variety of SMEs and his most recent position was European Managing Director of Futec, a manufacturer of process automation solutions.

Tony Halker commented, “This appointment comes at a good time for the business as it coincides with increased sales of the second generation Intellisonde and further investments from Pemberstone Ventures, the major shareholder in Intellitect Water Holdings.

“I am pleased to welcome Steve to the team and look forward to utilising his considerable experience to further develop Intellitect Water’s success.”

Large European grant for work on water!

Intellisondes selected by ‘SmartWater4Europe’ project

The European Commission has awarded a €6m grant to the SmartWater4Europe project led by the Dutch water company Vitens; a consortium of 21 organisations, of which Intellitect Water is one.

John Howell, Sales Director of Intellitect Water, is delighted with his company’s inclusion: “By developing and implementing intelligent drinking water supply networks, the project aims to demonstrate the advantages of the water quality data that the Intellisonde generates in the understanding of water networks to ultimately make operational network improvements.

“Naturally, we are excited to be involved in the project, because it provides a high profile opportunity to demonstrate the improvements in water quality, operational efficiency and customer service that are made possible by in-pipe monitoring.”

Intellitect’s contribution to the project will involve the installation of Intellisondes in the Vitens’ distribution network (“Innovation Playground”) involving around 2,300 km of pipe and serving approximately 200,000 consumers. Each Intellisonde will feature a full suite of sensors for monitoring Free Chlorine, Mono-Chloramine, Dissolved Oxygen, pH/ORP, Conductivity, Pressure, Temperature, Turbidity and Flow. In addition to internal datalogging, the sondes will transmit data in real time to Intellitect Waters’ data hub.

The project brings together public and private water operators, research organisations and smart technology providers in a bid to design the drinking water supply system of the future.

“The current method of water supply and distribution is outdated, reactive and certainly not intelligent,” explains Erik Driessen, Vitens’ Innovation Manager. “For example, we take samples, and the lab tells us a day later that the water consumed yesterday was OK. This is not how it should be in the future.”

The project evolved after Vitens, which had already conducted a pilot project, joined forces with three other sites across Europe which were also trialling smart water technologies.

The sites include: Acciona Agua’s demonstration site in the city of Caceres in Spain, which is located within a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the University of Lille’s campus at Villeneuve d’Ascq in France and a Thames Water network in the heart of London.

SmartWater4Europe is a 4 year project, beginning in December 2013, and the overall aim is to make a business case for smart water supply networks across Europe. However, John Howell says: “The Intellisondes will be installed from the beginning of 2014, so Vitens will be able to focus on exploiting the benefits that smart data provides.”

Chlorine monitoring in water with high Mn/Fe salts!

In 2012, Intellitect Water launched the new V2 Intellisonde (IV2) in-pipe water quality monitor, which offered two new advantages; retained calibration data and improved chlorine measurement. Since that time, IV2 sondes have been successfully installed around the world offering users easier access to water quality data. However, now that the IV2 sondes have been in operation for nearly a year, one of the key benefits of the latest sensor technology has proven to be its ability to operate very well in a variety of conditions, including water containing high levels of manganese and iron salts.

The chlorine monitoring problems associated with manganese and iron have been well known for many years, so the Intellitect development team gave this a high priority, and Intellisondes now feature a unique electrochemical configuration that effectively eliminates the issues experienced by traditional sensors.

The problems caused by these salts are the result of metal deposition on sensor electrodes, and whilst some of this will re-dissolve, the time taken for equilibrium to be achieved means that these sensors suffer from long settling times and can fail completely. In contrast, the Intellisonde chlorine sensor efficiently reaches equilibrium and operates over an extended lifetime compared with other equipment.

Figure 1, above, shows Intellisonde measurements of free chlorine in potable water with very high iron/manganese concentrations, demonstrating its effectiveness over the lifetime of the chlorine sensor. Commenting on the data, Intellitect’s Jo Cooper says: “Clients with high levels of manganese or iron salts have been delighted with the performance of the Intellisondes in comparison with traditional technologies, and the facility to measure other parameters has proved very popular because it enables easy evaluation of processes such as flushing.”

The head of an Intellisonde is a mere 3.6cm in diameter, but fully populated can provide continuous water quality data for up to 12 parameters. Measurement options include Free Chlorine, Mono-chloramine, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity, pH, ORP/Redox, Flow, Pressure, Temperature, Turbidity and Colour. An ISE channel is also available for Fluoride, Nitrate or Ammonium.

No chemicals or membranes are necessary to operate or calibrate the Intellisonde sensors, and they are quickly and easily replaced at the end of their service lives. The reference electrode, chlorine and dissolved oxygen sensors are replaced after 6 months; pH/ORP and ISE after 1 year; and the conductivity sensor is replaced after 2 years.

In-pipe monitors - "Quantum leap!"

Intellitect Water has launched a new version of its ground breaking in-pipe water quality monitor, the Intellisonde. Tagged the ‘IV2’, “The new instrument represents a quantum leap in performance,” says Director John Howell.

The IV2 provides two major advances: firstly, calibration is now embedded in every individual sonde at the time of manufacture, which substantially reduces the time and resources required for field calibration during installation. Secondly, a new advanced chlorine sensor has been developed for greater accuracy and faster response times.

The embedded calibration is multi-point to ensure high levels of accuracy, and can be quickly and easily checked in the field. This is a major benefit because the original Intellisondes had to be calibrated in the field for all parameters as part of the installation process. In contrast, the IV2 will provide accurate data as soon as it is installed. Once the IV2 sondes have been installed correctly, no further calibration is necessary during the entire working life of the sensors.

IV2 sondes are also able to transmit data via GPRS to a web server that publishes data to a password-protected website.

Summarising the advantages of the IV2 John Howell says “Almost every aspect of the Intellisonde has been improved, making it easier to use, more accurate and even more reliable.”

Water quality has two new faces!

Mark Duckworth

Jo Cooper

Intellitect Water, the company that pioneered the successful development of in-pipe water quality monitors, has announced the appointment of two new staff members, which CEO Tony Halker says “represents an investment in innovation and customer support.”

Mark Duckworth has been appointed Engineering Manager and will work in product development. He has an MSc in Cybernetics and seven years of experience in the design of low-power, high-precision instrumentation for use in harsh environments. He says he is delighted with his new position “because the Intellisonde is a truly innovative technology which deals with an issue that has confounded the water sector for decades.”

Jo Cooper joins the company as Product/Market Specialist. She has 20 years of experience in the chemical industry and will be responsible for supporting customers and Intellitect’s international network of distributors. For example, following the successful completion of an in-house training programme, one of Jo’s first assignments involved a site visit to help a customer in the Middle East.

In-pipe water quality

Intellitect Water has launched a new remote data collection and web display capability, known as ‘Intellitect Gateway’, that will enable the managers of water distribution networks to view water quality data in real-time.

The new system collects data from any number of Intellisondes that can be simply installed at strategic locations within the drinking water distribution network to monitor up to 12 parameters including Free Chlorine, Total Chlorine, Mono-Chloramine, Dissolved Oxygen, Conductivity, pH, ORP/Redox, Flow, Pressure, Temperature, Turbidity and Colour.

Intellisondes are capable of logging water quality data, but in order to take advantage of the Intellitect Gateway facility, they are supplied fitted with a SIM card to enable the transmission of data via GPRS. Each Intellisonde has a unique MAC address and serial number, and data are transmitted in a TCP/IP format which specifies the destination for the data, which data is to be sent and the frequency of transmission.

Intellitect Gateway customers are provided with secure access to their own data, so that it can be viewed via the internet in tabular or graphical format. In addition, customers can connect to the Intellitect Gateway via ODBC and then integrate the data into their own SCADA system.

Summarising the benefits of the new technology, Intellitect Water CEO Tony Halker says: “Live access to water quality data in the distribution network is vitally important for water companies because it enables them to react quickly to changes or problems before they reach the customer’s tap.

“This has only recently been made possible by the development of sensor technology that is not only able to function inside pressurised water pipes, but also able to do so without frequent recalibration, reagents or maintenance.


“By providing secure, live data it will be possible to improve tap water quality and reduce the cost of capital work to investigate problems.”

New technology for water monitoring in Russia

A new distribution partnership in Russia for the Intellitect Water's flagship Intellisonde™ in-pipe water quality monitor has been announced

The Intellisonde™ is designed to provide water organisations with more efficient access to drinking water quality data and will now be distributed across municipal sectors in Russia by Ekaterinburg based company Aquatech.

Developed to continuously monitor in-pipe water within drinking water distribution networks, the Intellisonde™ is a small water quality monitor that can be inserted into pressurised pipes to monitor up to 12 parameters.

Liza Lozhnikova, from Aquatech’s Water Quality Monitoring Department, believes that the Intellitect technology can help improve the way drinking water is monitored in Russia. “In-pipe water quality monitoring is a massive challenge across the country, mainly due to the vast water supply network, which consists of over 500,000km of piping,” she said.

“We are very excited about this new technology because the Intellisonde™ will reveal the quality of drinking water between treatment plants and the consumer for the first time.”

Tony Halker Intellitect Water’s CEO, added: “We are very pleased to announce another new distribution partnership for the Intellisonde™. The Russian market represents enormous potential for the Intellisonde™ because a great deal of work is currently being undertaken to improve drinking water quality and this technology can help to ensure that such work is cost-effective. The visibility of water quality within the distribution network helps to reduce the cost of water treatment and network management is greatly enhanced because managers are able to identify potential problems much earlier than has ever been possible before. ”