Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

66 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe
Analysis methods will
be used for checking
raw foodstuff materials,
in-line controlling of
manufacturing processes,
and for confirming the safe
sealing of packaged goods.
Expected impact for Europe
Europe could become the world leader in noncontact
fingerprint diagnostics by commercially
exploiting the as yet under utilised domain of multiband
UV/VIS/EIR photonic sensing for a safer and
more secure society. Many of the scientific and
technological capabilities to exploit the EIR spectral
domain are already located in Europe. These include
novel materials related to microelectronics, active/
passive device fabrication, packaging of photonic
components, development and production of photonic
sub-systems, as well as development and
deployment of comprehensive system solutions.
The envisaged EIR measurement techniques are
not a replacement for high-sensitivity biochemical
assay-based measurement systems, but instead
provide a complement, bringing affordable, labelfree
fingerprint analysis methods from the laboratory
into the hands of the consumer. In practice,
these techniques will find much wider use than
merely in the applications described above:
Food: EIR analysis methods will be used for checking
raw foodstuff materials, in-line controlling of
manufacturing processes, confirming the safe
sealing of packaged goods, and for assuring the
quality of processed food. The non-contact nature
of photonics enables such checks without preprocessing
food samples, even without opening
the package. EIR analysis methods will also enable
retailers and customers to judge the ripeness of fruit
and vegetables, and to determine whether food is
still safe to eat. This could help to reduce significantly
the percentage of discarded food, which, according
to a recent UN report, currently amounts to about
30% of all produced food 13 . The global market
for processed food is more than €2.6 trillion, and
13 J. Gustavsson et al., Global Food Losses and Food Waste,
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United
Nations, Rome, 2011
for food processing machinery and equipment
it is approximately €35 billion 14 .
Environment: Contamination of our environment,
be it fresh water resources, seawater, soil, or the
air we breathe, is an increasing worry for our industrialised
society. By allowing the screening of
large volumes of air, water and soil probes, EIR
analysis methods provide an excellent complement
to the more specific and highly sensitive biochemical
analysis techniques. An important application is
the detection and prevention of oil contamination
in seawater, for example, through the routine water
inspection in ship ballast tanks. The global market
for environmental monitoring is about €10 billion 15 .
Water: Drinking water and treated wastewater
alike must fulfill certain purity requirements. EIR
measurements will be a valuable complement to
existing biochemical analysis techniques in screening
large volumes of water for contaminations
in moderate concentrations. The global market
for water analysis instrumentation is about €1.5
billion 1416 .
Efficient combustion: Many of our sources of
electricity, heat and light are based on combustion
processes. Frequently, the employed fossil or
renewable fuel is not of constant quality, and the
combustion process has to be adapted for varying
fuel quality. It would be of great value to know the
composition of the fuel used, be it in domestic
heating systems or in public buildings, in moving
vehicles or especially in ships. The same is true for
the analysis of the exhaust gases. In-line measuring
14 Food Processing Machinery and Equipment – A Global
Strategic Business Report, Global Industry Analysts Inc.,
San Jose (USA), May 2012
15 Environmental Sensing and Monitoring Technologies: Global
Markets, BCC Research, Wellesley (USA), October 2011
16 Water Analysis Instrumentation: A Global Strategic Business
Report, Global Industry Analysts Inc., San Jose (USA),
August 2011