ANB Sensors

Ocean pH is an extremely important variable to measure. Monitoring pH is critical for Ocean acidification, coral reefs, coastal marine biology, and environmental monitoring. In harsher applications, such as mining, pH is crucial in helping scientists gauge the effect of wastewater on the environment. For such applications, accurate pH measurement is essential, which in turn, requires innovative pH measuring technology. However, the traditional glass electrode used to measure pH has been around for over a century. Every year, millions of glass electrodes are sold to suit the need for pH measurement in pharmaceuticals, water management, food & beverage, environmental & ocean monitoring. While the glass electrode is the most widely used pH sensor, it has a basic operational f law: it requires human calibration due to reference electrode drift. The market need was for smaller, more cost-effective, reliable, robust and lightweight sensors that can function autonomously without routine maintenance.

In order to redefine pH sensing, ANB Sensors has developed a low-cost, smart, self-calibrating pH sensor for use across all platforms, including ocean monitoring and water resource management that can be networked to IoT devices and has running costs that are 70 percent lower than existing sensors. “The key feature of ANB Sensors is to make pH sensing systems smarter, more informative, and easier for the end-user,” said Dr. Nathan Lawrence, Founder and CEO of the company.

If there is an issue with the sensor, the device can seamlessly communicate with operators in real-time and f lag the issue to end-users proactively. This functionality sets ANB sensors far ahead in the curve when compared to traditional, single-point systems that offer little to no transparency and connectivity to users.

One of the main targets of ANB Sensors is both inland and offshore aquaculture monitoring markets, as the sensor can measure the salinity ranges across all water bodies. The company also targets other key industries like the wastewater and environmental monitoring markets, and they are even developing a pH sensor for monitoring in the cow’s stomach where having an accurate measurement of pH will allow farmers to make real time feed decisions to impact milk production and harmful methane emissions.

ANB Sensors was founded when the company earned the runner-up spot for the Wendy Schmidt ocean health XPRIZE competition. Since then, the company has gone out to secure approximately 1.3 million pounds of funding after their proposal was granted by both the European Union and the UK government. ANB Sensors commercialized their first product towards the end of 2020, and their latest ocean pH sensor is due to be released early this year. To exemplify the competence of ANB Sensors, Kay McGuinness, Founder and COO of the firm, discusses an instance where their sensor overcame a few issues they had with their traditional glass pH sensor. The careful handling of the glass sensor, the calibration and remembering to remove the storage solution bottle before deployment all adds to the complexity of the sensor. With ANB Sensor’s robust, all solid-state sensor, they can ensure that their customers never face issues with equipment breakage again; the sensor can be stored wet or dry, so no more worrying about keeping the sensor in its storage solution, or removing the storage bottle before deployment. Moreover, the client could now deploy their sensors to depths of up to 1000 meters.

With a goal to create many more similar success stories, the company aims to release a miniaturized pH sensor in the first quarter of this year, which will open up further partnerships in the ocean market. “Our challenge at the moment is to educate people that pH is no longer a difficult measurement to take. pH is an important metric and it can now be measured without any hassle,” concludes Dr. Lawrence.