AmELand

Development, optimisation and validation of a new polymer optical sensor method for rapid on-site detection of ammonia emissions in agriculture

The AmELand project aims to develop an innovative online method for the rapid, selective and cost-effective detection of ammonia in farm manure (slurry). The goal is to enable safe use as a fertiliser while reducing water pollution and eutrophication.

At the heart of the process are optical sensors based on chromoionophores, which are applied to polymer optical fibres (POF) in a sol-gel matrix. The sensors react to ammonia by changing their absorption behaviour, which causes an optically measurable change in the attenuation in the fibres. This is recorded electronically, converted into signals and evaluated using software.

In the long term, the process will also be used to detect other environmentally relevant ions such as nitrate and sulphate.

The funding project is scheduled to run for a period of three years. The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/EFRE).

The following objectives have been defined for the period from Q2 2024 to Q2 2027:

•     Validation of new process-relevant analytes such as nitrate and sulphate
•     Optimisation of the measurement process with POF
•     Implementation of test setups based on the necessary product parameters
•     Carrying out test measurements
•     Development of different demonstrator variants for the integration of various sensor fibres

grant number: 86000651