Technologies

Background

Lean burn gasoline and diesel engines use a high air-to-fuel ratio. This ensures high fuel combustion efficiency and to lower CO and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. However, the resulting excess oxygen partially reacts with nitrogen to create nitric oxides, requiring lean burn diesel engines to have a two-stage catalytic system to eliminate pollutants. There are currently no sensors installed in automobiles that can quantitatively monitor the concentration of pollutants in the exhaust gas stream. Mixed-potential electrochemical sensors are a promising technology for on-board emissions monitoring in vehicles, but such sensors need to be robust in the atmosphere of exhaust gas, have low cost, and be able to distinguish between the different pollutant gases which may be present.

Technology Description

Researchers from the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the only sensor platform that measures all EPA regulated gas emissions (nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons) in addition to ammonia with high accuracy and sensitivity. The SolidSense chip-scale gas analyzer provides real-time diagnostics and is suitable for monitoring emissions from diesel and gasoline engines, turbines, steam power plants, and other combustion technologies. This novel device replaces a complex and expensive rack of chemical analysis equipment currently used today.

Designed to operate in hostile high temperature combustion environments, SolidSense operates without the need for cooling or filtration. The ceramic-based mixed-potential sensor comprises three electrodes connected to an artificial neural network. The differences between the catalytic activities of the electrodes for the electrochemical oxidation/reduction of the target gases provides the signals for concentration determination. The artificial neural network provides signal processing to determine compound concentration from sensor electrode output voltages. The device enables real-time diagnostics with response times less than 1/100 of a second.

The sensor’s ceramic platform enables easy manufacturing through thick film, high temperature co-fired ceramic technology. It also has potential applications in explosive detection and can be integrated into a hand-held device to provide a molecular fingerprint of explosive compounds.

Video

R&D 100 Winner 2017: SolidSense - A "Gas Analyzer on a Chip"

About STC.UNM

As the technology-transfer and economic-development organization for the University of New Mexico, STC.UNM protects and commercializes technologies developed at the University of New Mexico (UNM) by filing patents and copyrights and transferring the technologies to the marketplace. We connect the business community (companies, entrepreneurs and investors) to these UNM technologies for licensing opportunities and the creation of startup companies. Visit www.stc.unm.edu.