The first equipment to enable real-time liquid analysis for mass spectrometers

Descripción del proyecto

Un nuevo dispositivo analítico permite analizar gases al instante

El proyecto SPECTROINLETS, financiado con fondos europeos, planea desarrollar un microchip para medir y analizar al instante la concentración de gases disueltos en medios líquidos. La tecnología de entrada de microchip patentada utiliza microfunciones que permiten muestrear directamente las moléculas de gas a partir de entornos líquidos. Al combinarlo con un espectrómetro de masas, la tecnología se convierte en un equipo analítico de altas prestaciones que permite la detección extremadamente precisa y no discriminatoria, así como la cuantificación de gases generados en reactores de biogás, baterías, pilas de combustible e instalaciones de aguas residuales. Más allá de esos mercados objetivos iniciales, la tecnología se puede aplicar en las industrias farmacéutica, bioquímica y química.

Objetivo

Spectro Inlets is a 7 member young company based in Denmark that has developed a microchip (patented technology) to measure and analyze, in real time, the content of gas molecules dissolved in liquid media. Gas molecules are of utmost importance when generated in electrochemical processes in batteries (chemical degradation resulting in loss of charge capacity or catastrophic failure) and in industrial biochemical processes in biogas production. A deep insight of the chemical reactions allowed by the instrument results in optimization of processes or product design. Spectro Inlets technology consists of a membrane chip that allows direct and ultrafast sampling (in milliseconds) from liquid media by means of a microgeometry. When coupled to a mass spectrometer, it results in a new and high-performance analytical equipment allowing a direct, ultrafast, non-discriminating and extremely accurate (sub ppb) identification and quantification of gasses generated in biogas reactors, in batteries, fuel cells, and wastewater facilities. We have agreements to commission our technology with E.ON Stanford University and Fredericia Wastewater and gained support from competitors such as Bruker and Hiden Analytical.
No other analytical platform features performances that allows for a boost in R&D and production monitoring in three key industrial European markets: (1) in batteries (35M€, 20% CAGR), (2) in biogas (210M€, 15% CAGR), and (3) in waste water treatment (275M€, 3% CAGR). Beyond these three initial target markets, the technology can be further applied in chemical, biochemistry and pharmaceutical industries, that we aim to target. By the end of the forecasted period (2023) and even considering the difficulty to penetrate a market dominated by few (<15) companies, we expect to have a cumulative EBITDA of 7,3M€, which translates into a ROI of 3 after 3 years of commercial activities. Our expansion will also increase (x3) our current employee count with 13 new members by 2023.