Imagine a tiny, smart probe that lives in the dirt for a year without needing any help. It sips tiny amounts of soil water and uses light-based tests to check for nutrients like nitrate and phosphate. It then beams this data wirelessly to a farmer's phone, acting like a continuous blood test for the land.
Farmers and land managers struggle with imprecise fertilization, leading to nutrient leaching and high costs. Current soil monitoring often requires manual sampling or expensive, high-maintenance equipment.
A miniaturized lab-on-a-chip sensor system integrating an OLED-OPD detection unit and a ceramic inlet for automated soil-water extraction.
If you are a crop producer dealing with inefficient fertilizer use—this project developed a miniaturized sensor that provides quick and informed decisions on fertilization. This leads to higher fertilizer efficiency and reduced management efforts.
If you are a remediation firm dealing with contaminated land—this project developed a system for continuous monitoring of nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate. This allows for easier compliance with environmental standards and protects drinking water quality.
If you are a hardware manufacturer dealing with the need for low-maintenance field devices—this project developed a lab-on-a-chip system that operates maintenance-free for one year. It uses Lo-Ra WAN for wireless data transmission.
Based on available project data, the specific unit price or production cost is not mentioned; the project focuses on development and preparing for private investment.
The project aims to transition to a spin-off company and includes a commercialization roadmap to move the prototype toward market readiness.
Based on available project data, the project is developing a prototype and preparing for a spin-off, but specific patent or licensing terms are not listed.
The sensor is buried in the soil and uses a Lo-Ra WAN network to send determined concentrations to a station.
The system is designed for maintenance-free operation in the soil for a duration of one year.
The project is led by a single academic partner, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany). With 0% industry participation and no SMEs in the consortium, the current focus is heavily research-driven, although the objective explicitly mentions the goal of starting a spin-off company and involving economics/entrepreneurship expertise.
Contact the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel research office regarding the SOILMONITOR project.
Contact us to find potential industrial partners for the upcoming spin-off phase.
