Colorectal cancer is the 3rd most common cancer in the West, with more than 40,000 cases diagnosed in the UK per annum. Bowel cancer is responsible for 16,600 deaths each year in the UK. Early-stage diagnosis is critical to improving survival rates, with stage 1 bowel cancer having a 90%+ survival rate compared to 10% for stage 4\. The National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (NBCSP) detects cancers at an earlier stage and improves survival outcomes, however, the screening has placed severe pressure on colonoscopy services. In 2018, 4,000 patients were waiting longer than the 6-week target for colonoscopy, with 30% of NHS Trusts in breach of the same target. Currently, colorectal cancer diagnosis relies on colonoscopy with tissue biopsy and histopathology analysis, which takes time, delays definitive treatment, and is expensive. The ability to detect cancer biomarkers in stool samples and accurately diagnose colorectal cancer at the time of colonoscopy would yield a step-change in current care pathways. This ability would not only speed up diagnosis helping to reduce current waiting lists, it would also save money and lives. This project seeks to develop new instrumentation exploiting advances in Raman spectroscopy to achieve this aim. The proposed approach allows both stool and tissue samples to be investigated, thereby offering the potential to reduce the requirement for an initially invasive colonoscopy. This dual-stage screening program provides the opportunity to detect the presence of cancerous biomarkers in stool samples which can then be used to guide, if required, further testing of colonoscopy-sourced biopsy specimens at the point of care using the same proposed instrument. The University-of-Leeds has demonstrated that colorectal cancer can be identified from adenomas and normal colonic tissues through Raman spectroscopic observations. By analyzing the Raman spectra with the latest Machine learning algorithms it was demonstrated that these different tissue type could be differentiated. Our proposed device is a new Deep-UV-Raman-Spectrometer (DUVRS) would be utilized at the point-of-care as a clinician-friendly instrument with the initial aim to identify potential cancer biomarkers in stool samples. This first-stage screening would then inform the clinician of the requirement to investigate further. The instrument could then be used to identify cancerous tissue, precancerous adenomas and hyperplastic benign polyps within the endoscopy suite in a few minutes. The proposed approach will save lives by reducing and simplifying diagnostic requirements, whilst also producing significant cost reductions

The number of biopharmaceutical injectable products continues to increase. Predictions are that 40 per cent of new molecular entities will require batch freeze-drying for stability. The freeze-drying process (lyophilization) removes water from sensitive or high-value products such as vaccines, biologics, antibiotics, to extend shelf-life without the need for refrigeration/cold-chain. Freeze-drying processes need to be sustainable and commercially viable. There is a need to accelerate batch throughput and build capacity to increase efficiency and enable timely response to unexpected demand (e.g. COVID-19). Shortening drying times reduces energy demands and emissions and improves efficiency so lowering end-product costs. This aligns with the Clean Growth Strategy. A pharmaceutical product development programme involves optimisation of formulations and processes for product viability and consistency; but product quality issues are identified at the end of a long cycle and at this stage significant costs have already been incurred. In-situ rapid analytical monitoring, giving real-time automated data, will provide feedback on and enable control of the lengthy freeze-drying process. Such insight can enable shortening of development times, reduced repeat runs and product failure/loss, lessened environmental costs and bioburden and ultimately improved product quality and consistency. Freeze-drying employs high-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants (banned 2030) or liquid nitrogen (high energy use in manufacture) for cooling, and improving sustainability requires a fresh approach. Implementation of a continuous freeze-drying Peltier system would be capable of a step change reduction in emissions. Further, freeze-drying processes must be repurposed for the expected increase in personalised medicines and the smaller batch runs and 'just-in-time' production schedules that this involves. By building a consortium encompassing diverse expertise in key areas we have identified multiplexed Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to provide the required rapid data for modelling the freeze-drying process. Such coupled PAT sensor technology will enable scrutiny and control of batch freeze-drying and enable future continuous freeze-drying processes. Anticipated CO2 savings are in the order of 700 tonnes per newly developed product, achieved by reduced development cycles and increased production efficiencies in the order of 1 per cent. This is equivalent to savings of CO2 emissions of 300 tonnes per year per freeze-dryer. This innovative multiplexed approach offers insight potential for in-depth analysis of factors impacting batch manufacturing freeze-drying efficiency. It further affords the opportunity to enhance process understanding of the freezing and drying stages to de-risk the deployment of new continuous manufacturing techniques, and ultimately maximise their efficiency and sustainability.

This collaborative, cross sector R&D demonstration project furthers previous industrial research to advance & showcase novel technology developed to support transformation of Foundation Industry production process optimisation. The primary aim is to increase efficiency to achieve greater productivity by increased energy and resource efficiency. This will be achieved by using advanced robotics integrated with 3D machine vision systems which are augmented with bespoke sensors creating a data rich environment. The robotic, vision and sensory technology will be applied and demonstrated with foundation industry production processes building on previous R&D to digitally inspect defects in metals, glass and ceramics. With additional utilisation of machine learning (ML) on data collected, the advacned artificial intelligence (AI) developed can begin to enhance these traditional Foundation Industry production processes to enabling greater industrial productivity whilst significantly reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in both glass, metals, and ceramic manufacturing. Current manufacturing methods are inflexible, often requiring the time-intensive pre-programming or manual intervention of production tasks responding to unexpected occurrences or production errors. This means that foundation industries are unable to respond to the demands of future environmental targets and cannot make further improvements within the manufacturing process until the production methods are updated. This is critical to address; success will allow UK manufacturing to remain competitive when facing increasing global competition where labour rates and emissions regulations are significantly lower. This project aims to use advanced 3D vision sensor data to produce ML and AI algorithms to monitor and improve the metals, glass and ceramic production process. To guarantee the repeatability and accuracy of measurement, automation through the flexibility offered by modern multi-axis robotic systems will be demonstrated. The ultimate output of the system will result in foundation industry-wide benefits in glass, ceramics, and metals production. This project will address specific needs in these foundation industries by offering an augmented, existing manufacturing process brought about by digitised inspection & intelligent machine learning. It is anticipated that a reduction in energy costs and improved production yields associated with the manufacture of tempered glass & kiln fired ceramic materials will be significantly and positively impacted, as is the case in the foundry castings industries.

bp is aiming to be a very different company by 2030, and our ambition is to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner and to help the world get to net zero. A key component of becoming an integrated energy company surrounds low carbon electricity and energy, and within that, creating a distinct position in hydrogen, including aiming for a 10% market share in core markets. The **HYDRI** project, led by bp, aims to develop stand-off gas sensing devices critical to the safe roll-out of hydrogen as a widely used energy source in domestic, industrial, and transportation sectors. It harnesses the UK's world-leading expertise in single-photon detector arrays and quantum-sensor technology products. The HYDRI consortium comprises internationally recognised UK organisations at the forefront of the innovative and high technology sectors they serve, who are extremely well placed to deliver the state-of-the-art modules required for these devices. The consortium is led by a globally recognised end-user of the technology who will steer the performance of the project and carry out extensive testing in a range of high-value application scenarios. Finally, the project benefits from the expertise of the UK's leading academic and research technology organisation, who are performing critical system modelling, design, and integration activities throughout this exciting project.

The UK Government is committed to moving to a zero-carbon economy, including within the most energy-intensive sectors. These sectors consume a considerable amount of energy, but also play an essential role in delivering the UK's transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy, as well as in contributing to economic growth and rebalancing the economy. UK Foundation Industries generate 10% of the UK's entire CO2 emissions and for three of these industries, glass, cement and ceramics, manufacture is energy and capital intensive. Future environmental regulations create challenges in competing with new plants from the developing world but also offer new opportunities. COVID-19 impact resulted in near total suspension of foundation industry production. Subsequent recovery is further challenged by new, UK policies and plummeting raw material values which are compounding negative impact to decimated sectors. This energy efficiency industrial research project aims to deliver a transformative new instrument for the glass, cement and ceramics industries, utilising analytical Raman gas measurement instrumentation, originally developed for nuclear decommissioning by project lead IS-Instruments. The data provided by the instrument will enable these Foundation Industries and others, to make a step-change in process control, energy consumption and environmental emissions monitoring. Significant energy savings will be directly enabled through accurate, near-to-real-time hot gas measurement, realising the future potential of mixing natural gas with cleaner energy sources such as hydrogen, when combined with more accurate and near-to-real-time burner in-process control. The optimised environmental monitoring capability of this instrument will enable greater understanding and the value added by additional in-process monitoring technologies will deliver a new technology enabling step changes to prcessing within the foundation industries. To deliver this collaborative, innovative project, IS-Instruments will be supported by UK Foundation Industry partners Glass Technology Services (Glass), Breedon Group (Cement) and Wienerberger (Ceramics) with world class University expertise from Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre and Sheffield Hallam's Materials Engineering Research Institute.

Two large elements of improving the UK's sustainability and drive towards net zero are energy use and waste reduction. A challenge seen throughout multiple industries returning to work after lockdown has been a dramatic loss in productivity and increased waste production resulting from increased cleaning regimes and PPE use. Currently, these are tolerated as necessary steps, but these are not environmentally sustainable long-term, especially for an economy pushing for clean growth. An ability to 'see' the current virus, Covid-19 and future zoonotic viruses in workplaces would enable industries to continue to operate safely during pandemics, reducing the severity of lockdowns, remove unnecessary cleaning, resulting in productivity gains, reduce energy wastage and chemical usage, plus allow targeted use for new, energy-hungry decontamination methods (deep-UV). This ability would also improve the sustainability of PPE, seen as a necessity in the NHS. The NHS produces a huge amount of waste, which is not able to be re-used or recycled and instead contributes to airborne pollution through incineration or watercourse/table pollution through landfills. If PPE could be re-employed then this would save scarce resources, both energy, and materials, reduce plastic waste and not lead to the acute shortages experienced during the first pandemic wave. Critical to this is the lack of any instantaneous means to determine if biological contamination has taken place and whether it is still present after cleaning is performed such as via deep-UV irradiation to destroy the virus nucleic acid. There is no currently acceptable method of quality control of cleaning reusable PPE. The ability to 'see' dangerous contamination would thus be an enabling technology. Similarly, armed with a handheld device, cleaning staff could also employ such imaging systems to inspect sources of contamination which are well-known such as sluices where such infections can linger, and complete adequate targeted disinfection. LIFFE is a feasibility project to examine the potential of spectral fluorescence to be employed to detect biological material within an indoor environment, specifically on PPE visors, hospital consumables and, ultimately, in airborne droplets. Furthermore, LIFFE will examine the feasibility of detection specificity for Covid-19, ultimately to be deployed as part of a hand-held detection system.

Plastic waste in the ocean is becoming an increasingly serious problem; damaging coastal and deep-sea environments, negatively impacting sensitive marine ecosystems and wildlife and even contributing towards climate change by threatening carbon sequestration mechanisms of ocean based picoplankton. In 2015, 381 million tonnes of plastic were produced with only 20% recycled. Manufacturing spills, tyre wear and UV breakdown of plastic waste result in microplastics entering global water systems - it has been estimated that 8.3 million microplastic particles can be found in just one cubic metre of ocean water. There is now increasing concern that these microplastics are finding their way into the wider food chain, with potential for far-reaching health consequences. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem with huge increases in the use of plastic, disposable, personal protective equipment (PPE) globally. In the UK alone, 28-billion items of PPE have been ordered since the start of the pandemic; a scale replicated globally, along with increased use of other plastics. Acrylic sheet production, for example is up 300% since the start of the outbreak. Ensuring that waterways and water sources continue to be free of this waste is becoming a significantly urgent problem which has been clearly amplified by the Covid-19 outbreak. This is likely to continue in the near-to-medium term as the virus is combated and more PPE is required. In order to tackle this issue, pollution transport pathways and ultimately their sources must be identified. This requires testing regimes that not only can locate microplastics but also identify their chemical composition, ideally in real-time and on-site. Current measurement systems are limited in their identification and quantification capabilities, either demanding samples be sent to an off-site laboratory for analysis or are completed simply by visual inspection. The fresh-water network (rivers, reservoirs and treatment works) are the transport pathway for primary microplastics entering the marine environment so will be targeted for in-situ analysis with this innovative solution, before application to marine sampling. IMPART will develop a new handheld, Raman immersion probe that can both identity and characterise the presence of microplastics. Optical methods such as Raman spectroscopy present the opportunity for fast, reliable, high sensitivity in-situ measurement. Typically instrumentation of this type is constrained by the limited etendue or optical throughput characteristics of the spectrometer and probe system. In this project we will develop a new portable high-etendue Raman instrument and immersion probe, exploiting the properties of spatial heterodyne spectrometers. The key advantage of this spectrometer design is that, for a given resolution, it provides 100-times increase in the etendue than can be achieved with a traditional dispersive spectrometer and, unlike a traditional Fourier transform spectrometer, it has no moving parts. These specifications lend the spectrometer to robust on-site use where rapid measurement turnaround in a challenging environment is required. IS-Instruments Ltd, an innovative SME are experts in taking optical instrumentation from concept through to market for deployment and operation in challenging environments.

Approximately 37% of CO2 emissions in the UK come from heating across residential and industrial settings, with 8 out of 10 homes using natural gas as the energy source. Hydrogen has been identified as a potential zero carbon or low carbon energy carrier, which could help the UK reach its goal of becoming a net zero carbon economy. High profile projects such as HyDeploy, have shown the potential of blending hydrogen with the current natural gas supply, thus allowing hydrogen to be used in domestic heating. In this project we propose to examine the feasibility of using a new Raman-based instrument, exploiting the properties of microstructured optical fibres, to measure blends of natural gas and hydrogen, enabling hydrogen to be introduced as a low carbon energy carrier into the UK national gas grid. This technology is being developed by the UK team of IS-Instruments Ltd, Optical Research Centre at the University of Southampton and Jacobs Clean Energy. This game changing technology is expected enable hydrogen to be implemented within the gas network, as well providing direct commercial gains the wider UK economy.

A major issue occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic is a global shortage in Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). This has mostly been due to the sudden nature of the onset and rapid progression to pandemic status, coupled with a supply chain prepared to accommodate the requirements for industry and healthcare, rather than mass public panic buying. There are several solutions to this global shortage going forwards; increase the supply chain, but this must be sustainable, produce different products for the mass market or make better use of the available PPE, either through re-use or better understanding of how often PPE needs replacing. The latter also helps combat another global threat, climate change, by reducing waste and encouraging increased re-use. Whilst front line healthcare professionals obviously require appropriate PPE to ensure their own and their patient's safety, accurately assessing the state of certain PPE could make a substantial difference to the availability as a whole. Whilst close contact PPE, such as gloves, must obviously be changed with extreme regularity, the guidance is less proscribed for other forms of PPE, such as face shields or reusable respirators. Here the advice is clear, but only qualitative (e.g. damaged, soiled, difficult to use). If the state of in-use PPE could be assessed quickly and reliably, waste could be reduced and contamination further minimised. Current CDC guidelines state it is preferable to use PPE beyond its lifetime rather than go without. Similarly, simple cleaning procedures may be sufficient to allow continued use of PPE that would previously have been discarded. We propose to assess the feasibility of producing a simple device based on fluorescent imaging to measure the state of in-use PPE and PPE after simple cleaning processes that could be carried out in a healthcare setting. We further propose that the same technology could be used to assess the cleanliness of in-situ equipment/facilities after decontamination (e.g. monitors, beds). This device could also have applications in the food production industry to ensure that food preparation areas and packaging produces no onward contamination through the food supply chain. As our project progresses the need for sustainable PPE has risen with the resurgence of the pandemic. However, even though sustainable PPE is being developed, the ability to use it is compromised by the lack of quality control technologies to confirm the suitability of reprocessed PPE. FLICCA will be extended to investigate if the technology is suitable for quality control by engaging with NHS Improvement to specify and test FLICCA against some of the proposed reprocessing concepts. A second issue, proposed by the NHS during the project, is to investigate wipe cleaning. The original project is looking for contamination on surfaces and confirmation of their removal through wiping, but the extension will examine wipe coverage by looking for fluorescence of the wipe residue. This may be a suitable gauge to ascertain if a given surface has been fully wiped (and thus cleaned and disinfected) or if further cleaning is required, similar to the training systems already used, but deployable in active sites. These two new avenues will provide vital functionality to the NHS but also significant additional revenue streams for the technology.

Public description Nuclear fusion is a long term solution to the future energy supply of the planet. It is carbon free and highly efficient. However, the inside of a fusion reactor is an unforgiving environment: components are exposed to high temperatures, energetic hydrogen ions and electrons with high kinetic energies, and 14 MeV neutrons. Metallic surfaces are essential in a fusion reactor, with beryllium (Be) one of the candidates implemented in the Joint European Torus (JET). Its unique combination of low atomic mass, low fuel retention and favourable mechanical properties make it a good choice as a first wall (plasma facing) material within experimental and commercial fusion reactors. However, human exposure to Be and its compounds can cause berylliosis, a chronic allergic-type lung response and chronic lung disease. During a reactor's operational lifetime, sections will need to be periodically removed for refurbishment or replacement. These components will become radioactive and covered in Be/BeO deposits due to particle induced sputtering and re-deposition. These deposits can form Be/BeO dust. Therefore, the ability to handle Be dust and components contaminated with this dust is essential to safe and efficient operation of a fusion plant. At present, within the UK based JET facility, this issue is addressed by personal cleaning all the surfaces of the site. This is time consuming and potentially hazardous. No sensing solution currently exists to quickly and accurately identify the Be/ BeO deposits within a given facility. This proposal seeks to develop a new sensing system target BeO deposits. The focus of the development will the production of a new prototype sensor and a robotic platform that will be used to scan the instrument at the target within the environment. The system will take in account the challenges for working in this high radiation regime. The instrument will be tested against target samples, both in the laboratory and a representative test environment. The key objective is to demonstrate that the unit can detect deposits at the required levels of accuracy with minimal false positive returns, as well as examining the speed at which an sample area can be scanned. In addition, designs will be produce for radiation hardened options using both Rad hard detector and ultra low cost options where the camera can be considered disposable.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

The detection, monitoring and control of gaseous species within the energy sector and specifically the nuclear industry is critical for safety, environmental control and efficiency savings. Hazardous materials and systems require gases to be sampled, identified and quantified regularly to allow plant process to continue safely and efficiently. Often the measurements must be made in real time and taken in challenging environments with limits of detection in the sub ppm levels. This project seeks to develop a new disruptive instrument, based on Raman analysis but with significantly improved sensitivity. This will allow the instrument to benefit from the inherent flexibility offered by Raman measurement, while dramatically improving the sensitivity such that its competitive with existing techniques such as IR absorption or Gas Chromatographs (GC).

Small yield losses (<1%) during production of high value biopharmaceuticals such as enzymes and monoclonal antibodies have considerable commercial impact for producers. There is a need to develop real-time analytical tools to optimise yield, minimise in-process losses, increase product consistency and reduce cost during down-stream processing (DSP). The project aims to design and implement new spectral analysis tool for quantitative analysis and control of DSP. The project will apply the technology to help optimise DSP where high sensitivity and selectivity are required to improve chromatographic separation (the principal tool for DSP purification). Software will be developed to monitor real time data feeds from the UVRRS and output the optimal parameters for current and future fraction collection, delivering at least 2 % - 5% higher yields.

The characterisation and monitoring of nuclear waste and the storage facilities (tanks, silos etc) in which they housed is critical both for the industry and wider society. Currently this process is conducted by visual inspections which is both costly and potentially hazardous to the engineer. This project proposes to develop a new remote sensing technique using Raman spectrometry to monitor and characterise the waste material. Specifically to detect corrosion in the storage vessels by identifying changes in the spectral response from these tanks and silos. The system will be able to make observation from a distance of 3 m and is planned to be mounted on a autonomous robot. The design will be targeted at the Nuclear industry examining the environmental issues of operating with the storage warehouse (temperature fluctuations, high level of radiations).

The AtlasBio (Ref. 102610) was conceived in response to the government's Innovate UK funding competition "Analytical Technologies for Biopharmaceuticals". The project aims to develop a multiplexed suite of process analytical technologies (based on Raman, near infrared and impedance spectroscopy) which support the freeze drying of biologics from the scale-up of batch freeze-drying to the development and implementation of new continuous freeze-drying methods. Our partners are GEA Process Engineering (LEAD), The Centre for Process Engineering, the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, IS Instruments Ltd, Blue Frog Design Ltd, Ocean Optics UK, OncoLytika Ltd, De Montfort University and Nottingham University.

The aim of this project is to a develop a new class of instrument for real-time drug identification by combining Raman technology with the latest machine learning software tools. This will enable new identification databases to be developed, allowing small variations in drug composition to be identified and alerting the authorities to counterfeit products and/or illegal and harmful drugs. This novel approach could enable the development of new hand-held instrumentation for use in the homeland security, customs & excise, pharmaceutical andr biological services sectors within 3 years. Within this study, the team will focus on the production of a proof-of-concept system that will be tested against known samples. During the programme, potential customers in the homeland security services sector will be consulted to ensure the development is targeted at the key markets.aiting Public Project Summary

In recent years Raman analysis of samples has become of increasing interest to a variety of sectors. For gas formulations in particular, Raman observation offers greater flexibility and near real time analysis. However the most common implementations of this technique often lack the sensitivity of e.g. Gas Chromatographs or IR absorption spectroscopy, limiting the appeal to industrial applications. In this study we will look to advance the development of Microstructured Optical Fibres to produce a new sensor in which high sensitivity gas phase Raman measurements can be made. This approach will lead to the development of a new compact gas phase Raman sensor with greatly improved sensitivity compared to classical Raman instruments.ject Summary

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Raman spectrometers are a common laser based chemical analysing tool used today across both industry and academia. The aim of this project is provide quantifiable and verified data from a new prototype spectrometer, that will bring significant benefit to the process industry. The benefits included improved quality control of manufacturing processes that can lead to a siginicant reduction in costs of around 10% by reducing energy costs, CO2 and waste. This project is focused on proving the case for a range of industries including bio-energy, graphene, industrial biotechnology, pigments and poymer production. The study team have a focus in Wilton with key collaberators being the Centre for Process Innovation and Intertek located in the Wilton Centre. As part of the launchpad they will avail themselves of the opportunity to network and build relationships with other companies located in the centre. During the programme potential customers in the target process industries will be consulted to ensure the development targets their requirements.

Raman spectrometers are a common laser based chemical analysing tool used today across both industry and academia. The aim of this project is to a develop a new class of Time resolved Raman spectrometer to remove background fluorescent signals from Raman measurements. Although time resolved measurement is a established method to remove the fluorescent signal current systems are complex and expensive. This novel approach in principle could enable the development of a new hand held instrument for use in the security, pharmaceutical or biological services sector within 5 years. Within this study the team will focus on the production of a proof of concept bench top system, that will be tested against both non fluorescing and fluorescing samples. During the programme potential customer in the security pharmaceutical and biological services sector will be consulted to ensure the development is target at key markets.

n this project ISI will explore new innovative solutions in protein characterisation which is crucial to engineering methods to develop proteins. Raman systems have been successfully used to study a variety of biological samples, including transmission raman measurement targeted at the detection of cancer. However these target proteins and biological samples are often inhomogeneous in nature and can suffer from a high fluorescent background. This study will investigate the feasibility of producing a new, dual wavelength, high etendue Raman spectrometer that can remove the fluorescent background whilst making both transmission and spatially offset bulk measurements of these samples. This system should allow faster characterisation with better bulk measurement, improving the accuracy of the observation.

Spectrometers are becoming an increasing common tool for analysing processes in a variety of sectors, including steel and glass manufacture. Typically these systems are used to make reflectance or flame spectroscopy measurements to determine the quantities of materials used in a given process. There is a desire to make wider use of these systems in a variety of applications in a network of sensors to monitor a given process. However good quality spectrometers are still expensive (> £2 K) and thus using multiple such systems is not practical. The target of this project is to investigate the feasibility of producing a good quality spectrometer using modern manufacturing techniques with an on board computer to provide wireless control, all for a target sale price of < £ 300. A demonstrator will be built during the programme to investigate directly the performance of the proposed device.

Transmission Raman has become a potentially exciting tool in many industries, such as Pharmaceuticals, counterfeit detection and chemical analysis. The primary advantage of transmission Raman is that it allows a whole sample to be examined rather than a specific area on the surface. This bulk measurement allows for more accurate determination of the molecular composition of the sample and reduces the risk of potentially fatal errors or poor product quality. Most existing spectrometers only measure small areas ( 6mm for tablets). This feasibility project will investigate if a novel spectrometer can make transmission Raman measurements over a larger area of a sample. The spectrometer will be adapted to firstly determine if the concept can make transmission Raman measurements and secondly if a larger area of a target sample can be measured, a step-change development in many of the potential markets.

The Pharmaceutical industry is the UK’s highest added-value industry. Two key problems in the production of pharmaceutical tablets are counterfeit products and the lack of whole tablet measurements. This feasibility study will investigate a possible solution whereby a standard COTS spectrometer can be made into a whole tablet sampling device by using a new and innovative sampling probe. Raman spectrometry is used as a QC technique but currently only very expensive systems can sample more than very small target areas. The proposed probe will uniformly mix then capture the light emitted from an entire 6mm tablet, enabling bulk measurement of a whole tablet using a relatively cheap COTS spectrometer and providing a complete solution for under £40k. It could potentially be made rugged enough for field deployment in many areas, such as forensic and law enforcement for illegal drug identification.

Tata Steel UK, Innovative Small Instruments, the Centre for Process Innovation and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London will partner in a collaborative R&D programme designed to address the issues of rework and waste materials associated with high grade steel manufacture in the UK. Using the collective expertise of the consortium partners, the project will develop an innovative non-destructive laser based system to measure continuous as cast steel at temperatures >1000deg C for the detection & indentification of process defects. It is predicted that this technology will increase yield, streamline production processes & increase product quality & consistency. A prototype unit will be developed for installation & trials on an actual casting plant, operated by TATA Steel, to optimise the technology & quantify the actual commercial, environmental & social benefits. Opportunities for technology transfer to other industry sectors will be identified.

Awaiting Public Project Summary

Awaiting Public Project Summary

This project seeks to develop a new class of fibre coupled spectrometer targeted at remote Raman measurement of chemical species in challenging industrial environments. This innovative design offers much greater etendue, and subsequently sensitivity, than more traditional methods that have been employed. The project will invesitigate the feasibility of the proposed technology by means of a computer model and benchtop demonstrator. The novel design allows large aperture fibres to be used, which means the device could make Raman measurements in previously inaccessible, physically challenging environments. This will enable many industries to more accurately monitor process contaminations which will, in turn, help to improve processes and efficiency of industrial plants.

This project initiates the development of a innovative Thermal Infrared imaging senor targeted at collision avoidance for autonomous control of vehicles. The project will be focused on controlled environment of the rail industry where the challenge in operating a rail network 24/7 becomes a trade-off between operator/passenger access and maintenance/renewal of rail infrastructure without compromising the safety of passengers and the workforce. Enhanced flexible working enables maintenance/renewal to be more adaptive and effective in dynamic unspecified environments. The TIR camera proposed here is ideally suited to this task. Any sensor network must be failsafe and include the goal to maintain a flexible and secure environment for the workforce.

Awaiting Public Summary