Long-term performance of low-cost free chlorine sensors to monitor on-site water reuse
Water scarcity increasingly challenges the supply of sufficient quantities of safe water for human consumption. On-site water reuse systems can contribute to mitigating the effects of water scarcity by closing water cycles locally. However, broader adoption of on-site water reuse is constrained by the high cost of water quality monitoring. This work demonstrates the successful design and validation of low-cost chlorine amperometric sensors for long-term monitoring using Prussian blue-coated screen-printed carbon electrodes. The study is relevant for practice, as testing was conducted in a water reuse system treating real greywater and municipal wastewater. The sensors achieved a relatively stable sensitivity of 8.55 ± 1.19 μA/(ppm⋅cm2) for HOCl after a 3-day stabilization period and maintained a sensitivity of 3.72 μA/(ppm⋅cm2) after 1 month. The sensors exhibited a linear dynamic range from 0.3 to 5 ppm for hypochlorous acid (R2 > 0.95). This study highlights the potential of Prussian blue-coated sensors as a practical solution for continuous chlorine monitoring in on-site water reuse applications. The findings encourage further research to improve durability and scalability to optimise the sensors for applications where low-cost sensing solutions are needed without personnel on-site for regular sensor maintenance and calibration.
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Centre for Advanced Process Technology for Urban Resource Recovery
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
2025-06-30
REVIEWED
EPFL
Funder | Funding(s) | Grant Number | Grant URL |
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | internal funding | ||
Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz | internal funding | ||
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung | P500PN_222308 | ||
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