Building out on work undertaken at University of Texas at El Paso and exclusively licensed to Atlas Regeneration Technologies, LLC, the firm is developing a hardness sensor for water softeners. Designed substantially to reduce the salt released into municipal sewer systems and the amount of water that is wasted, using solid-state electronics, the patent-pending CalSensorII prototype device detect sa change in resistance of an ion-exchange material in a continuous configuration. The resistance is measured and detects hardness minerals in softened water. Atlas is set up subsequently to sell turnkey devices to established softener systems manufacturers. Atlas proposed development of ion-exchange fibers is expected to have applications beyond hardness sensors. The same approach can be used to make ion-exchange fibers that can be employed for the detection of nitrogen ions (i.e. ammonia, nitrate) in devices similar to softeners to remove nitrate from drinking water. Atlas recently received 4th place in the InnoCentive Advanced Septic Nitrogen Sensor Challenge, which is an ideation challenge geared to spur innovation in sensing nitrogen in septic systems that can reduce environmental and health problems.
