Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas, has poorly constrained emissions to the atmosphere. To help meet certain societal needs and minimize effects on the environment, it is necessary to identify practices that mitigate N2O emissions at minimal economic costs. Existing commercial N2O instrumentation may be challenging to use in field environments due to their very high power consumption, large mass and bulky size. Few, if any, sensors are available that can measure N2O emissions under field environments or as part of sensor networks. Through this project, researchers propose to demonstrate a prototype open-path N2O sensor based upon quantum cascade laser spectroscopy. This project has potential applications for the atmospheric/greenhouse gas research community, biomedical sensing, automotive emissions and vehicle combustion as well as industrial gas monitoring.
Successful demonstration of the commercial viability may result in an efficient path toward understanding greenhouse gas emissions and providing data to improve mitigation practices with minimal economic damage. Currently, researchers studying greenhouse gas fluxes, the nitrogen cycle, and air quality have few sensors available to understand nitrous oxide emissions. In addition, the proposed activities also have application in automotive emissions, combustion diagnostics and process control, biomedical sensing, and industrial trace gas monitoring.
This project examined the commercial potential of new innovations in optical detection of trace gases in the atmosphere and educated graduate students and postdoctoral researchers on the entrepreneurial process of starting a company. Quantum cascade lasers offer great commercial promise for cost-effective monitoring in industrial, academic, and government settings, but significant barriers exist for bringing these new innovations to the marketplace. This I-Corps project examined the commercial potential of quantum cascade laser-based gas sensors with respect to relevant customer segments, their value propositions, and technological and financial barriers to commercialization. The focus of the study was on laser-based sensors for cost-effective detection of trace gases for industrial, air pollution, and greenhouse gas monitoring and compliance. Hypotheses were developed, evaluated, and modified based upon feedback from customer discovery, interviews with key suppliers and partners, investigation of a the best practices for developing a startup company, and feedback from venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs. Postdoctoral researchers and graduate students were exposed to entrepreneurial thinking and the methods to maximize success for a technology-based startup company. While researchers often excel in innovation and discovery, their education to bring new technologies successfully into the marketplace is critically lacking. Entrepreneurial training in this project will demonstrate how research discoveries can move from laboratory into the marketplace where they have their largest impacts on society, grow the economy through new jobs, and make positive returns on investment to the United States taxpayer through revenue generation.
