Synthetic drug production in Europe appears to be growing, diversifying and becoming more innovative. The chemicals used include solvents (acetone, ether, methanol, etc.), precursors and a range of other substances such as formamide, methylamine, acids, etc. It is estimated that production of 1 kg of MDMA by reductive amination results in 6–10 kg of toxic waste while the manufacture of 1 kg of amphetamine by Leuckart synthesis produces 20–30 kg of waste. To illustrate the scale of the phenomenon in Europe, Europol has calculated that the production of the 6.7 tonnes of amphetamine reported seized in the EU in 2013 would have generated between 134 and 201 tonnes of toxic waste. This waste is disposed of in environmentally harmful ways, such as poured down the sink or toilet – damaging not only the environment but also wastewater treatment plant’s infrastructure.

The integrated system prototype consists of four devices: three micromole ring devices and one gateway device. The first two ring devices are equipped with pH and conductivity sensors, a battery and a radio transmission module. The third ring device is equipped with a sampling module, a battery, an optical communication module and a radio transmission module. Each ring device was designed as to avoid blockage of the sewer pipes.

The integrated system prototype is capable of automatically analysing the variations of the pH and conductivity of the sewage flowing waste in real time. If the system determines that the variation in both values is too high, it is also able to capture a physical sample of the sewage flow using the sampling module, and in addition, it is also able to trigger an alarm to a specific pre-configured external internet client. The sampling module is capable of storing up to three independent physical samples of approximately 1.7 mL in volume.

The consortium also developed a crawler robot that allows mounting the ring devices remotely in sewer pipes of no less than 250mm in diameter 200 meters away from the suspected place.