Periodic Reporting for period 1 - METEOR (Rapid, portable and reliable cargo screener - New concept of vapour screening technology - Ion Mobility Chemical Fingerprint Detector)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-03-31
Safe and legal global transport is essential to human welfare, but it demands that customs authorities implement security regulations with a special focus on illicit goods. To enable enforcement of regulations tackling illicit goods trafficking, customs authorities have expressed their need for portable, affordable, non-intrusive, reliable screening technologies aiming to facilitate on-site and rapid inspections. METEOR will develop and validate a prototype of a portable, non-intrusive and versatile vapour screener that will enable customs administrations worldwide to rapidly and reliably inspect containers for the presence of illicit goods. The METEOR technology will provide a new concept of a cargo screening detector with a highly efficient air sampling technique and an ion mobility multidetector sensing technology.
At the start of the project, customs authorities have specified the requirements of the sampler and analyser to be developed in METEOR. These comprise the most relevant threats to be investigated and some functional requirements of the devices. The selected threats were characterised by means of lab experiments and some preliminary field tests were performed to assess the feasibility of air sampling in containers.
On order to optimize the sampling tool and strategy, the current sampling tools were evaluated and the development of a new sampling tool has started. Tailored coatings to sample the different threats have been developed and tested with some relevant volatile markers. To study the dispersion of the threats in containers, calculations and simulations were performed.
The approach followed for the development and validation of the new detection technology is incremental. A first version of a new chip was designed and is being manufactured. Furthermore, the validation of the different subsystems has taken place and the integration of all subsystems has started. A first version of the software is developed for the first functional version of the analyser.
Validation of the new sampler and analyser can only be done at a later stage, however, some preliminary actions were already undertaken. Sampling campaigns were organized in order to have a clear view on the levels of concentrations of the selected threats in blank containers. A test set-up for in-house validation was designed and tested.
A number of critical technology elements within the sampling and detection screening are new and offer opportunities to generate novel intellectual property. Potential sources of IP are tracked and a strategy for exploitation of the prototype METEOR system is being developed.
On order to optimize the sampling tool and strategy, the current sampling tools were evaluated and the development of a new sampling tool has started. Tailored coatings to sample the different threats have been developed and tested with some relevant volatile markers. To study the dispersion of the threats in containers, calculations and simulations were performed.
The approach followed for the development and validation of the new detection technology is incremental. A first version of a new chip was designed and is being manufactured. Furthermore, the validation of the different subsystems has taken place and the integration of all subsystems has started. A first version of the software is developed for the first functional version of the analyser.
Validation of the new sampler and analyser can only be done at a later stage, however, some preliminary actions were already undertaken. Sampling campaigns were organized in order to have a clear view on the levels of concentrations of the selected threats in blank containers. A test set-up for in-house validation was designed and tested.
A number of critical technology elements within the sampling and detection screening are new and offer opportunities to generate novel intellectual property. Potential sources of IP are tracked and a strategy for exploitation of the prototype METEOR system is being developed.
Threat characterization experiments have led to the identification of some (semi-)volatile compounds that might serve as markers, additional to those known from the literature.
Development of the sampler as well as the detector surpass the state of the art. New coatings improving the threat targeting were developed. At detection level, the new multidetector chip reduces the noise significantly and also the analyser system operating at atmospheric pressure presents a novel alternative to standard GC-MS techniques.
Development of the sampler as well as the detector surpass the state of the art. New coatings improving the threat targeting were developed. At detection level, the new multidetector chip reduces the noise significantly and also the analyser system operating at atmospheric pressure presents a novel alternative to standard GC-MS techniques.