Broadband MEMS-based InfraRed spectrometers

The CRA-W participates at a new EU project aiming to develop a miniaturized FTIR instrument for in-farm milk analysis

The CRA-W is participating in the EU-funded BROMEDIR project, which is a collaborative effort developed by a multi-disciplinary team coordinated by CyRIC, Cyprus Research and Innovation Center, under the EU framework of the Horizon Europe Programme. The project partners come from six different countries and different knowledge. The project was launched on January 1^st 2023 with a duration of four years.

BROMEDIR aims to develop a new generation of FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) spectrometers for liquid sensing and PTS (Photothermal Spectroscopy) for gas sensing. In addition, a new cloud-based platform will be developed to offer smart approaches, advanced optical configurations and data analytics. This overall system approach intends also to achieve faster analysis of data, with results easily accessible from anywhere by end-users. Reduced price and size with uniform performance and improved ruggedness are only a few of the values targeted by BROMEDIR.

The novel BROMEDIR devices will be demonstrated in the following three applications: 1) Sustainable farming will focus on cows farming. BROMEDIR will be used for on-farm, fast analysis of individual cow milk samples aiming for the nutritional value of milk and cow’s health traits that may indicate physiological imbalance. 2) Fuel quality control will focus on both monitoring of jet fuel quality and control of biodiesel percentage present in car and marine diesel. 3) Hydrogen supply chain quality monitoring will focus on trace contamination detection of hydrogen during production and supply to end-customers that require continuous measurement.

The CRA-W leads WP2 (Preparation; User & application requirements and conceptual design), which deals with stakeholder identification, collection of requirements and definition of validation procedures and case studies. The CRA-W is also responsible for testing the new instrument for milk practical analysis at the CRA-W farm in the sustainable farming study case.