DOCA

Detection of Oil in Compressed Air (DOCA)

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The project aims to solve a major problem plaguing the industry regarding the detection of oil contaminants in high purity compressed air. It aims to develop an online sensor that will detect oil contaminants in all its forms (liquid, aerosol and vapor) with an extremely high sensitivity in accordance with ISO-8573 Class 1 standards. The lack of any reliable, highly sensitive, online sensor system has forced critical industries to rely on manual sampling and laboratory analysis which is labour intensive, inefficient, and cannot guarantee the conformance of the compressed air system to mandatory or industry adopted regulatory norms. The sensor system will benefit a large category of industries that require high purity compressed air including, hospitals, pharmaceutical, automotive, chemical, textiles, electronics, clean rooms and other related industries. The ability to detect contaminants online, will significantly enhance the capabilities of these companies to guarantee the quality of their products and eliminate a number of risks and civil liabilities that are associated with non-conformance.

To achieve the project results, a consortium of 3 competent SMEs with an interest in the area of sensor development partnered with 3 leading research partners for the development of this project proposal. The major requirement for the sensor element is extremely high sensitivity, repeatability, robustness to interference, and stable calibration. It was decided after much deliberation that optical spectroscopy is the most promising technology for the development of such a sensor. We have dedicated 3 work packages (WP4, 5, and 6) for the development of 3 key components that are vital for the development of the sensor - namely development of the sampling system, development of the optical spectroscopy unit and development of electronics and software. The entire project will deliver a marketable sensor system in 2 years.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Compressed air is often called industry's fourth utility after electricity, natural gas and water. Novel monitoring technology will now make sure the air supply is not contaminated with oil, a common and problematic condition.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

When compressed to a smaller volume, air attains higher-than-atmospheric pressure that makes it useful in many industrial and domestic applications. Compressed air generates force per unit area that can be used to impart motion in pneumatic tools. It can also atomise or spray substances such as automotive coatings, provide aeration for oxidation in pharmaceutical processes or clean electronics during production. Compressed air is extensively used in the health sector.

These and other high-end applications require very-high-purity compressed air. Oil contamination is a pressing problem and there is currently a lack of any reliable, highly sensitive, online sensor system to deal with it. EU-funded scientists are providing the much-needed solution with a new real-time sensor system through the project 'Detection of oil in compressed air (DOCA)' (http://www.docaspec.com/ (DOCA)). It will detect oil in all its forms (liquid, aerosol and vapour), ensuring compliance with regulations and eliminating the risks and liabilities associated with non-conformance.

Investigators have chosen optical spectroscopy as the sensor technology. It is the most promising technology to guarantee extremely high sensitivity (meeting ISO-8573 Class I standards of air quality), repeatability, robustness to interference and stable calibration. The sensor platform will consist of three units: the sampling system, the optical spectroscopy unit, and the electronics and software.

The sampling system has been designed and allows for non-invasive monitoring of oil contamination in compressed air flow. The optical sensor unit, based on photoacoustic spectroscopy, has been finalised and fulfils the requirements for a Class 1 sensor, a sensitivity of better than 8 ppb. The photoacoustic technology relies on the emission of sound (a pressure wave of thermal expansion) in response to absorption of electromagnetic energy (light). It is relatively simple and inexpensive yet highly sensitive. The associated electronics including software has also been finalised as a separate unit. A patent has been filed.

The DOCA technology for online and real-time identification of oil contamination in compressed air will have major impact on both the costs and effectiveness of monitoring. A commercial product is expected to follow shortly after completion of the project.