Project description
Smart, compact device detects and measures volatile organic compounds
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are crucial markers in many industries including agriculture, food production and environmental monitoring, yet they pose risks to health and the environment. The EU-funded EVOQUE project aims to advance VOC detection by developing a compact, cost-effective photonic-based sensory system that outperforms current methods. By integrating gas chromatography (GC), quartz enhanced photo-acoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS), quantum cascade lasers and mid-infrared metasurfaces, EVOQUE will combine GC’s precise separation of complex mixtures with QEPAS’s sensitivity and molecular recognition. Unlike traditional detectors, EVOQUE could identify VOCs even in the presence of interfering compounds, reducing false positives. The proposed system should enable rapid, non-destructive and field-deployable VOC analysis, meeting the demands of agriculture, food safety, pollution control and industrial emissions monitoring.
Objective
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Based on their origin and formation mechanisms, VOCs can be markers in many industrial processes; in food production as quality markers, technological indicators, process contaminants; in plant phenotyping as botanical/geographical tracers, authenticity markers; and in crops storage as shelf-life indicators. VOCs also pose a range of hazards to human health and the environment.
EVOQUEs main objective is to develop a novel photonic-based sensory system with potential to outperform the current standards and to meet the challenging requirements of at-line, on-line & in-field needs of Agriculture, Food, Environmental Pollution monitoring and Industrial Emissions monitoring.
EVOQUE will combine gas chromatography (GC), Quartz Enhanced Photo-Acoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS), long wavelength quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and mid-IR metasurfaces to produce a compact, easy to use, low cost, at-line and ultimately online, field deployable VOCs analyser that will have equivalent performance to the gold standard lab based GC-MS. EVOQUE will leverage GCs separation of components from complex mixtures, and QEPASs high sensitivity, specificity and quantification. Unlike simpler GC detectors, QEPAS will provide molecular recognition based on the specific spectral features of single VOCs. The system measures the target compound even in presence of interferents, thus avoiding issues with poor repeatability of elution times and reducing the false positive rate relative to GC with non-specific detectors. Also, optical spectroscopy of many VOCs is hampered by absorption by atmospheric compounds at the wavelengths of interest or overlapping absorption features of related molecules; using the GC column, these compounds are separated and eluted from the column at different times, thus unleashing the potential of photonics for sensitive fast, non-destructive measurements of VOCs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.4.2 - Key Digital Technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2023-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
T12 P928 Cork
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.