In early February 2020, we asked ourselves, how can we use our sensor technology to open the borders back up?
This question led us on a journey to design our sensor monitoring VOCID® system, which runs on the best volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor in the world.
For our sensors to work as a breath diagnostic solution, we identified that the following technological requirements must be met:
detecting VOCs like octanal at low concentrations,
reproducible sensor reproduction, and
replicable sample collection methods.
In the span of the pandemic’s two years, we were successful in meeting all of these goals and requirements.
Achieving our Sensor Technology Goals and Requirements
Currently, we can produce our sensor technology in replicable batches ranging from hundreds to thousands of sensors (at a low cost). We have also established standardized ways for sample collection, can detect specific VOCs like octanal at low concentrations (single parts per billions), and have created an algorithmic approach for handling environmental variables like temperature and humidity.
R&D Supporting our Sensor Technology Development
Our tech accomplishments have been made possible by our growth as a company, including the capabilities that we have for research and development. In the last two years we have:
Increased our lab space by about 30%
Doubled the number of chemical hoods stations
Invested in unique capital equipment, such as:
Gas Generator
Inkjet printer
Computerized dilution systems
Doubling the number of gas lines to the lab
Building a clean room
NanoScent Sensor Technology Status in 2022
As a result of these efforts, we have established VOCID® to be a solution that is:
Extremely sensitive: We can now measure VOCs as low as 10 ppb, relative to other sensors in the same price category.
Low cost: Our technology is low cost when compared to other technologies that can detect VOCs at this level of sensitivity which typically are industrial equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Manufacturable at production scale: We can manufacture at 80% yield which is something that hasn’t been done before for this type of sensor.
Running algorithms and big data: Our sensor technology can capture millions of daily measurements, this is innovative progress compared to technology at similar sensitivity level which takes days to analyze a single sample.
New Directions for our Sensor Technology
During 2021, the market for diagnosing COVID-19 changed completely while we were in the middle of our clinical trials. We saw this as a less viable business opportunity. Thus, we decided to pause our efforts in breath diagnostics and move towards new directions.
Now, we are pivoting to apply our productized sensor technology solution to address other industrial, clean tech, and wellness problems, ready for a new direction so we can start generating revenue and continue growing our company and technological achievements.
Where We Are Today
Searching for the next use case that we will pursue, we identified that hydrogen purity monitoring is a real need that we could apply our existing technology to.
As a result, we are developing VOCID® H2Confirm so that companies involved in hydrogen energy can identify hydrogen contamination in real time.
In the video above, you can see our VOCID® H2Confirm demo which we debuted during the Hannover Messe 2022 conference in Germany. This portable demo is a simplified demonstration of how our system can identify in real time when a foreign substance enters the sampling line.
From developing the device, which can be applied to monitor in-line gas flow purity and alert of leakages/contamination in real time, to a establishing a dashboard with various device readings, our team has pivoted in order to bring this solution closer to the market.
