Grant to develop arsenic sensor

BNC, world-leading technology solution-providers and strategic consultants working in a range of high-technology sectors, is pleased to announce that it has won a grant from the Technology Strategy Board under its Technology-inspired Feasibility Studies competition in the “Electronics, Sensors and Photonics” (ESP) category. The grant will support further development of BNC’s novel arsenite sensor which modifies the technology found in familiar glucose home tests used by diabetics to create a step-change improvement in the testing for arsenic in water. It is estimated that over 70 million people in Bangladesh alone drink water contaminated with arsenic – a tasteless and odourless element that is toxic even at extremely low levels. It is well-known that prolonged exposure to arsenic causes disfiguring skin lesions, reproductive disorders and harm to the nervous system. In the long term, arsenicosis leads to fatal internal cancers in approximately 10% of those exposed. The disease has been called “the silent killer”.  BNC’s innovation will provide a much needed improvement to the method of testing for arsenic in drinking water. Existing arsenic testing kits are 1) difficult to use, 2) are either expensive or inaccurate, and 3) create toxic by-products. BNC’s arsenic sensor, on the other hand, will be a simple-to-use, cheap, highly accurate system that creates no toxic by-products, thereby empowering villagers to monitor local wells regularly, and potentially creating new opportunities for entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and other developing countries.
The grant will allow continued development of the system, including development of the crucial electrodes, and will provide funding to test the laboratory prototypes against real-world water samples provided by the British Geological Survey.