Lincoln Agritech and HydroMetrics are excited to announce the formation of a new standalone company Hydro-Metrics Ltd. Formerly a business unit of Lincoln Agritech, HydroMetrics is now a new, standalone company focused on developing and growing the nitrate monitoring products and technologies that are gaining traction in both New Zealand and international markets.
Lincoln Agritech will continue to be a strong supporter of HydroMetrics, and the new company will continue to operate as a spin-out business from premises on the Lincoln University campus. Lincoln Agritech will support the new company through technical, research, and business services.
The core HydroMetrics team of Andy Matheson and Dr Ethan Dale will continue to lead the new company, with a vision to accelerate its novel nitrate sensing hardware and associated data analytics services to more New Zealand and global clients.
Andy Matheson says: “The aim of the new business is to unlock the full potential of real-time measurement and management of elevated freshwater nitrates, a growing worldwide problem impacting our scarce water resources”.
Background:
HydroMetrics was a business unit of Lincoln Agritech Limited. In 2016 Lincoln Agritech’s scientists and engineers saw a gap for a robust, accurate, competitively priced nitrate sensor – the HydroMetrics GW50™ optical nitrate sensor is the result. Hundreds of the sensors are now operating in demanding conditions around the globe.
The HydroMetrics GW50™ sensor differs from other optical sensors by a patented slim-line design that is less than 50mm in diameter, the unique HydroMetrics Spectro-Tube™ optical measurement cell design, which delivers excellent accuracy, novel firmware, and the automated HydroMetrics Water-Jet™ cleaning system which reduces the need for maintenance.
The sensors are available in four product variants:
- HydroMetrics GW50™: the base model.
- HydroMetrics GW50FC™: a flow-cell model suitable for industrial installations and irrigation systems.
- HydroMetrics GW50PC™: a self-cleaning model that increases the time between servicing.
- HydroMetrics Portable™: a fully self-contained field unit for rapid real-time assessments, eliminating the need for lab tests.
Benefits of the HydroMetrics GW50™ sensor
- Designed to be installed in 50mm wells (the common size for existing manually sampled monitoring bores).
- Doesn’t require regular servicing and calibration, making the sensors more suitable for long term unattended deployment.
- Wide sensing range of 0 – 50ppm, so there’s no need to change the measurement cell dimensions with changing nitrate concentrations.
- High flexibility with its own internal 16GB datalogger or can connect to telemetry. Integrates well with modern systems.
- Automated cleaning option reduces servicing frequency.
- Pumped flow option allows it to be connected to a water reticulation pipeline.
- Low price.
Current installations include:
- Groundwater monitoring of the farm nitrate footprint.
- Compliance monitoring for wastewater consents.
- Groundwater monitoring of potable water to ensure water is safe for the community.
- Catchment groundwater monitoring to understand nitrate mitigations and environmental variations in water quality.
- Spot monitoring of water quality of rivers, streams and irrigation.
- Large-scale water supply systems.
- Leachate sampling.
- Freshwater fish farm monitoring of nitrates lost into water.
- Input and output streams to carbon-based bioreactors.
- Sports turf nitrate leaching.
