SBIR Phase I: Online Chiral Detector for Industrial Bioprocessing

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop an online chiral detector for industrial bioprocessing. Manufacturers in the fine chemicals and food additives market are constantly searching for ways to improve quality control in their manufacturing process lines. Online instrumentation is preferred to batch sampling, especially in continuous processes, to maintain more consistent product quality and to enable a quick response to process aberrations that may result in an off specification product. The objective of this project is to build a robust generalizable online detector specific for chiral molecules that is inexpensive, robust enough for manufacturing lines, and has the sensitivity required for quality control. The commercial application of this project will be in the pharmaceutical and specialty chemical processing markets.