Grantee Research Project Results

Final Report: Lab-on-a-chip sensors for organic pollutants in homes

EPA Contract Number: EPD17001
Title: Lab-on-a-chip sensors for organic pollutants in homes
Investigators: Silva, Geethanga de
Small Business: Prometheus SenTech, LLC
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: November 1, 2016 through April 30, 2017
Project Amount: $99,389
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (2016) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , SBIR - Air and Climate

Description:

Exposure to hazardous organic compounds (OCs) in the indoor environment can cause serious health issues. There are no commercially available devices for inexpensive autonomous continuous monitoring of OCs that generates actionable data (identification and quantification of the compound) that can be used for reducing the health risks associated with OC exposure. The broader goal of the project is to develop a very affordable, in-home, and continuous, multi organic compound analysis at trace level that can be operated and interpreted by an untrained person. The objective of Phase I is to demonstrate the detection of specific VOCs at trace level concentrations.

A unique feature and a breakthrough in sensor technology is the ability to chemically identify a compound at trace level concentrations. The global air quality monitoring equipment market expected to reach 6.1 billion by 2019. We have indentified the industries those produce excess amount of OCs such as the petroleum industry as the early adopter of the technology. We intend to develop an industrial monitor using the technology developed at the end of Phase I. The non-industrial OC monitor market has not shown much potential due to limitations of the sensor technology. We intend to expand this market using a low cost sensor module that generates actionable information with minimum additional cost to the end user at the end of Phase II.

Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):

We were able to accomplish almost 1000 fold improvement in detection limit at the end of phase I. More importantly we have improved the detection level to be able to detect trace levels required for a non industrial monitoring device.

Conclusions:

Speciation is the key differentiator of the sensor technology. Phase I results demonstrated that the sensor technology has the sensitivity to generate actionable data for non industrial monitoring. The biggest challenge is the reducing the unit cost to be viable as consumer home monitoring device.

Commercialization:

Application of our technology in the consumer market will provide actionable data regarding potentially dangerous OC’s in the indoor environment. To address this market, we will partner with a smart home device manufacturing company. Smart Devices are devices that use wireless technologies to autonomously perform various functions such as systems monitoring, health monitoring, and people tracking in the home. The global smart home market is expected to reach $58.6 billion by 2020. Safety devices such as smart smoke detectors account for a significant segment of this market.

Prometheus will develop a sensor module that will be integrated in a smart home air monitoring device. The smart air monitoring device will communicate with the HVAC system for efficiently and autonomously reduction of toxic VOCs levels. Once the device identifies the type of compound of concern, it can then communicate to the home owner and provide instructions to identify the potential source of emission.