Since the project results are under evaluation for patenting, we cannot report on the progress beyond the state of the art.
We foresee the broad potential impact of the current project if the complete implementation is attained, as follows.
Impact on Food sector and Society: One of the focal points of the MOVOS project will be the innovative development of sensors for smart packaging. A key driver to develop smart packaging is the well-recognized and global problem of food loss. In the US nearly 40% of all food is wasted over the entire value chain.2 In Canada, food loss accounts for an economic loss of $31 billion annually.3 Although the climate footprint of Europe is slightly less than North America and Canada, using these numbers, we estimate the economic loss at about € 519 billion. For an average American family, the food waste amounts to about $1500 annually. Food wasting is not the same for each food type. While the amounts are highest for cereals and fruit, meat has nearly the lowest percentage. The intensity of meat production, however, ranks its environmental impact among the highest. Focusing on the retail/distribution sector, where the introduction of a gas sensor seems most practical and which represents 12% of the food loss on average, we estimate the saving potential in the order of € 62 billion for Europe.
Extended impact: Beyond food packaging, the knowledge base and network built up within MOVOS will lead to leverage in further application domains. Air pollution is one of the most pressing environmental challenges worldwide. While outdoor air pollution often appears in the media, the effects of indoor air pollution are not to be underestimated since the average person spends about 22 h per day indoors. Many chemicals that decrease the quality of indoor air are emitted by carpets, paints, furniture, etc. The majority of these pollutants are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Since VOCs can cause not only discomfort but also debilitating or even fatal conditions (e.g. respiratory diseases, cancer)6, it is desirable to measure VOC concentrations with a high spatial and temporal resolution via low-cost but reliable miniature sensors. The rapid evolution towards energy-efficient buildings with only on-demand ventilation makes this need even more pressing. However, current miniature air quality sensors produce data that is often questionable due to the measurement approach itself or susceptibility to environmental parameters. Furthermore, selectively measuring a single harmful VOC is particularly challenging because of the low concentration of the analyte and the multitude of interfering compounds present in indoor air (e.g. water vapor, ethanol, acetone, food aromas). Currently available miniature sensors (e.g. metal oxide semiconductor sensors) typically cannot distinguish a VOC of interest from, for instance, an air freshener.
