Goals

picoGC project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 756439.

Pollution is developing a new range of innovative analytical instruments to have a better control of the composition and heating value of natural gas, improving the performance and the operability of gas turbines and gas furnaces. This will be translated into a more energy-efficient use of natural gas, biogas and bio-methane combustions systems, with the consequence reduction of direct and indirect carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

The best value of picoGC is its high performance in analysis at the lowest cost; picoGC will be a revolutionary Lab-On-a-Chip with multiple future applications in several industrial sectors (e.g. process control, environmental monitoring or quality check). The new products will be based on a cost-effective production process and aim to offer the following key benefits for end-users:

· Best performances in target market due to the lower ‘dead volumes’. Sensitivity and linearity will be notably increased thanks to the high-performance separation columns and the excellent overall engineering

· Production costs reduced due to the unicity of having the complete analytical core MEMS-based: manufacturing will be more automated and optimized, so less components and less labour force will be required

· Reduced cost-of-ownership due to minor power-gas use (lower temperatures and volumes of carrier gases), energy consumption, and helium consumption (it stays remotely functioning for longer without maintenance)

· Analysis times reduced due to the thinner and shorter analytical column

· On-site analysis in harsh places will be possible thanks to the structural robustness of the instrument minimizing the times for sample transfer, process times and plant operating costs.