Tenant Sensacoil Inc Received SBIR Grant

April 16, 2007
 

Frank Ji, associate professor of chemistry and co-founder of Sensacoil has been awarded a $100,000 Phase I SBIR grant from the USDA. His technology, a sensor that is smaller than a grain of sand, will detect moisture in natural gas. Moisture in natural gas is costly to discover and even more so if not found and removed.

The company is based out of the Louisiana Tech Business Incubator and is working through the Institute for Micromanufacturing. Currently the sensors being used in the industry are very expensive, ranging from between $5000 and $30,000. Dr. Ji proposes to lower the cost of these sensors so that they can put sensors everywhere. He expects the microsensors that Sensacoil is creating would cost only a few hundred dollars.

The sensors, in development now, are expected to be on the market within the next year and a half to two years.