Drinking Water

How does it work?

The ColiMinder measures the specific metabolic (enzymatic) activity of the target organisms present in the sample. The measured value provides information about the energy turnover of living organisms in the sample.

Living organisms need energy, which they gain through their metabolism, so the metabolic activity reflects the energetic turnover of the existing microorganisms. The measured activity directly indicates the microbiological quality of the water.

How do I use the ColiMinder?

ColiMinder can automatically monitor various process steps – critical control points – in drinking water treatment and production, providing a direct visualization of microbial dynamics of a processes.

The timeline displays any change in microbial contamination, providing precise and valuable information that was previously unavailable.

Since the results of the ColiMinder are available in near real time, microbiological water quality is now available as a parameter for process control. In addition, real-time alerts can be sent when defined bacterial contamination limits are exceeded.

The ColiMinder has proven its ability to measure the microbial quality of drinking water regardless of the type of microbes present. It reliably detects any type of contamination whether it is bacteria such as E. coli, coliforms, Pseudomonas, and other bacteria as well as algae, mold, yeast or biofilm.

Different add-on modules are available to ensure stable and reliable sampling and results.

Sensitivity

Sensitivity of the ColiMinder in drinking water measurement corresponds approximately to that of a determination of the heterotrophic plate count for 100ml sample.

A recent scientific study published in Water Research shows that the ColiMinder is the most sensitive instrument available on the market for measuring the microbial quality of water. Please see: Favere, J., Waegenaar, F., Boon, N., & De Gusseme, B. (2021). Online microbial monitoring of drinking water: How do different techniques respond to contaminations in practice? Water Research

Please see an overview here.

Reliability

The reliability of the ColiMinder has been demonstrated in many installations where the devices have been providing reliable measurement results in continuous operation since 2015.

Maintenance:

Thanks to the sophisticated system for fully automatic cleaning and calibration, the maintenance effort is limited to just refilling the consumables.

Robustness

The ColiMinder can measure any type of sample without
pre-treatment.

It has no problem with suspended solids or turbid samples. Even fluctuating background fluorescence has no effect on the measurement result.

Its robustness towards environmental influences, like temperature or humidity, is evident in installations like Stonecutter Island Sewage Treatment Plant in Hong Kong, where it has been monitoring effluent 24/7 since 2017 without any issues.

Its housing is IP65 protection class, measurement temperature range is 0°C to 40°C.

Can I do compliance testing with the ColiMinder?

The ColiMinder provides operational monitoring as recommended by the WHO, the EU Drinking Water Directive, and others.

Real-time measurement of microbiological quality enables rapid response and correction, so the ColiMinder helps you to meet specified limits at the lowest cost and with the highest level of safety.

A correlation between standard lab results and ColiMinder results can be established and used internally but the system is not intended to replace compliance testing.