STTR Phase I: SMART Colorimetric Sensor for Airborne Methane Detection

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will develop phage-based colorimetric sensors to provide cost-effective, low-powered detection and quantification of natural gas. Currently, there is no technology that can reliably detect early natural gas leaks on-site in real-time; existing solutions are either not sensitive enough (handheld infra-red detector) or too bulky (gas chromatography). In the United States alone, almost $3 billion in annual losses results from natural gas leak related disasters ($900 million from lost gas, $2 billion from downstream environmental cost, and $80 million from property damage); the number will only grow with the aging of an estimated three million miles of pipelines in the country. The proposed sensor will offer a selective, yet portable sensing capability for improving natural gas leak detection. Assuming widespread implementation of the phage-based sensor, the anticipated domestic market size is over $60 million initially. In addition, our proposed sensor system has the potential to be designed to rapidly share sensing results through existing telecommunication networks, and thereby reduce the losses due to natural gas leaks. This also has downstream implications in terms of geomapping of methane emission levels, as well as improving pipeline safety. The intellectual merit of this project is to create a sensor platform that can rapidly develop gas sensor matrices based on engineered M13 bacteriophage (phage). The properties of the sensor, based on highly specific peptide receptors and broadly reactive surface chemistries, are a big advantage over existing colorimetric sensors that require complex synthetic methods in order to incorporate selective elements. This project intends to create a new type of engineered bacteriophage with the capability to display color matrix arrays that can detect and measure components of natural gas. Recognition software that can quickly decipher the phage color change associated with the presence of methane will also be developed through principal component analysis. Finally, initial feasibility tests will be conducted on the phage film to analyze sensor response in isolated operating conditions. The anticipated technical results for this project are the creation of prototype sensor matrix to distinguish methane gas molecules and a corresponding smartphone-based reader and algorithm. These outcomes are vital to the determination of sensor limitations and scalability requirements.