Prior to the UBISpec project, the technology was developed at DTU from 2008 onwards. The first years of SI were spent commercializing the inlet technology and subsequently development of a turnkey mass spectrometry analysis instrument for electrocatalysis research was achieved in early 2019. Since then, multiple academic and R&D institutions have purchased the equipment, validating the technology, and strengthening the company in its product development, production, quality control and support capabilities. Since 2019, SI has been testing their MS technology in real-world industrial environments - including early pilot projects with industry players such as E.ON Denmark and Frederica Wastewater - and invested considerable R&D efforts on developing an ‘advanced prototype’ of the SI-LGA sensor for demonstration in biogas facilities
During the first of the project, SI has been working on LGA biogas installation and demonstration of an in-line mass spectrometer that directly interfaces with biomass at an industrial biogas facility. Firstdemonstration was achieved at Sønderjysk Biogas located in Southern Denmark using an in-line MS prototype, which lead to a redesign and the development of a fully automated prototype of the SI-LGA sensor. The new prototype was able to couple directly to SCADA and demonstrated robust operation with an uptime of more than 90%. A framework was developed allowing for full calibration and stable data output on the six main compounds of interest for biogas processes: H2, CO2, CH4, N2, H2S and NH3. Accuracy and stability were evaluated to be well within 10% for all compounds and data was reproducibly with 10% across several months of operation. With this foundation a process change was conducted, which demonstrated up towards 15% biomethane increase at Sønderjysk Biogas facility. With this technology we can develop the sensor further (making it ubiquitous), and apply it to other non-biogas applications.
