Sewage treatment plants not only have to filter suspended solids from the wastewater, but also various pollutants such as pesticide residues or residues of active ingredients from medicines.

For the detection of non-degradable pollutants, the company ECH Elektrochemie has developed the Anthroplas analyzer together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS.

Its core piece is a sensor chip with a nanostructured gold surface. When a suitable pollutant molecule from the wastewater docks onto the probe, the optical properties of the gold surface change. In addition, the sensor chip can detect pollutants in the range of a few µL/L – for example diclofenac in a range of 0.1 to 10.0 μg/L.

Since 2016, LABORPRAXIS has been presenting the Application Award at the world's leading trade fair for laboratory technology, analytics and biotechnology – analytica – in recognition of particularly promising applications. At this year's virtual trade fair, Anthroplas received the award in the category water & environmental analysis.