HE INVENTED a portable, easy to use filtration system that gave clean water to more than 100,000 people in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami.

Now local researcher Adrain Yeo has developed another potential winner - a membrane sensor network that diagnoses the 'health' of a water treatment plant, to make sure it is performing at its peak.

His start up - Membrane Instruments and Technology - has been given US$100,000 (S$145,546) to commercialise his latest invention, which will be tested at one of PUB's water treatment plants.

The device works via sensors which monitor the state of membranes used to produce clean water, highlighting where contaminants are concentrated which could cause a drop in performance, said Dr Yeo, 32.

The system could reduce a plant's maintenance costs by up to 10 per cent. This could add up to $2 million savings a year in running the Tuas Desalination Plant, for example, added the research fellow at Nanyang Technological Universiy, who set up his company six months ago.

The funding comes from a well-known figure in the water industry - Dr Andrew Benedek, the first winner of the $300,000 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize last year, who was chosen for his pioneering use of membranes to treat water.

The 65-year-old Canadian announced the annual award at a Singapore International Water Week conference on Tuesday, and said the award would be given out over the next three years, after which he would 'assess its success' before deciding whether to continue with it.

Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.