Avacta partners on laser-based gas detection technology for the petrochemical industry
August 26, 2008--Avacta Group (York, England), developer of detection and analysis technology aimed at the pharmaceutical, healthcare, industrial and security sectors, entered into a product development partnership with one of the market leaders in toxic and flammable gas detection for the development of a new hydrogen sulphide sensor for industrial safety applications that uses its cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) technology.
Using this technology Avacta recently announced the completion of a trace gas analysis prototype for a constituent of breath and a collaboration agreement for clinical gas diagnostics with V&F Medical Instrumente (Austria). However, the same CEAS detection engine is equally applicable within industrial settings as within medical diagnostics and provides significant improvements over existing detection technologies such as electrochemical sensors.
Hydrogen sulfide is a colourless toxic gas and may be found wherever a mixture of hydrocarbons and sulphur occurs, which happens most commonly within petrochemical processing environments. Under the terms of the agreement Avacta has entered into a product development partnership aimed at providing the market with a CEAS-based hydrogen sulfide detection solution that overcomes the limitations of electrochemical sensors, thereby improving working environment safety.
Avacta's partner (the name of which cannot be given for reasons of commercial sensitivity) is an established manufacturer and distributer of toxic gas detection equipment throughout the world and it is intended that Avacta will receive a royalty based license payment on product sales, which Avacta and its partner believe has the potential to be several hundred units per annum. Avacta was spun-out from the University of Leeds in 2004 by its current management team as a biophysics company, with the aim of combining the disciplines of physics and biology to develop innovative technologies and expert technical services to address needs in the pharmaceutical, defense, and clinical diagnostics markets.
For more information, visit www.avacta.com.
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