Water treatment chemicals supplier Usalco has acquired SENTRY Water Monitoring, a developer of bio-electrode sensors for municipal and industrial wastewater plants. SENTRY’s technology, customers and staff will be integrated into Decision Blue, the treatment intelligence platform operated by Usalco’s Digital Solutions Division.
SENTRY’s sensors generate a continuous signal from microbial activity and convert it into water quality parameters including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), biodegradable chemical oxygen demand (BCOD) and volatile fatty acids (VFA). Many of these measurements conventionally take hours or days to process. According to Usalco, real-time data could allow operators to detect an unexpected organic load, a toxic event or a biological imbalance within minutes.
The system can be connected to SCADA and other plant systems, and the biological data will sit alongside the chemistry data, machine learning and process modelling already used in Decision Blue.
The integration will be led by Decision Blue’s product and engineering team under Chris Miller, vice president of digital innovation
Megan Glover, chief digital officer at Usalco, said the combination would help operators understand “not only what is happening in their treatment process, but what to do about it.”
Usalco also cited SENTRY’s focus on data reliability as a reason for the deal, stating that trustworthy data is essential for applying AI to wastewater monitoring and treatment recommendations.
SENTRY founder Patrick Kiely joins Usalco as vice president of technology and strategic growth, along with members of his team. Kiely said the technology gives operators “a signal that tells them when biological conditions are changing long before a traditional measurement can.”
The integration will be led by Decision Blue’s product and engineering team under Chris Miller, vice president of digital innovation, who founded Fontus Blue, the business from which Decision Blue was developed.
Usalco chief executive Ken Gayer said the acquisition brings hardware and biological data into the platform. The company described the deal as the latest step in the expansion of Decision Blue.
