Impact case study database

Having established itself as one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of gas sensor technologies, UK-based Alphasense Ltd sought to expand into the particle monitoring field. In September 2013, the company signed a licensing agreement with UH to commercialise the patented OPC technology. Reliant on the expertise of Kaye’s group in optical and laser light-scattering techniques, Alphasense commissioned UH to produce 150 OPC-N1 prototype devices and design the algorithms required to assess particulate matter (PM) and convert particle size and count data to PM₁, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ for air quality monitoring. The prototypes were sold into the UK, US and Europe as core components that could be incorporated into commercial air quality monitoring systems. Customer feedback verified that the low-cost OPC-N1 units provided PM data comparable to that from existing OPCs, which were many times more expensive.

UH’s technology had opened up a market that was previously unachievable; the OPC’s low cost made the sale of monitoring systems capable of measuring PM commercially viable and, unlike other OPCs on the market, it was designed for unattended operation in inaccessible locations such as rooftops and trunk roads [ 5.1]. Demand grew rapidly and Alphasense accelerated production, bringing the OPC-N2 to market in early 2015. Growth was aided by independent evaluations confirming the efficacy of the OPC’s field performance, which were published in peer-reviewed journals from 2017 onwards [ 5.1]. With further research support from Kaye’s group, the company released the OPC-N3 in March 2018, which, for the same price, extended the device’s capabilities to pollen and spore monitoring.

Economic impact via revenues for SMEs in UK and overseas – and the wider supply chain

At the end of 2020, Alphasense had sold 18,420 OPC-N2 and OPC-N3 units at £285 each, with sales rising to an average of ~500 per month. The OPCs have generated Alphasense £5.2m in revenue from sales in 70 countries, directly creating seven jobs at the company and making a significant contribution to its business performance [ 5.1, 5.2]. A further two FTE research roles have been created and sustained at UH through ~£100,000 a year in development funding from Alphasense. The product profit margin peaked at 64% in 2018. The company’s 2019 strategic report [ 5.2] read: “ The results for the year reflect further growth in turnover of 16% … Recently developed new products [referring to the OPCs] continued to perform well as concerns about air quality, especially in the Far East, led to impressive demand.” Summing up the strategic importance of the OPCs, Alphasense’s Technical Director said: “ Alphasense had concentrated on gas detection for 21 years but for the last seven years we have focused on developing our capability in particle monitoring, which has allowed us to cover all critical measurements in air quality at a time when air pollution has risen to the top of policy and media agendas [ 5.1].”

The majority of Alphasense’s customers over the impact period were commercial companies that manufactured and sold air quality systems and networks. Without the OPC, these products would not have come to market [ 5.1]. Thus, UH research has resulted in economic impact via the wider supply chain. Its customers range from large companies, including GRIMM Aerosol, Bosch and Thermo Fisher, to SMEs, including South Coast Science and Atmospheric Sensors Ltd in the UK and QuantAQ in the US. Other significant customers are Kunak Technologies and Libelium, both based in Spain, and Sail Hero, the largest provider of air quality systems in China. According to Alphasense’s Technical Director, the OPC-N3 has allowed these companies to enter or establish a competitive advantage in a global air quality monitoring market projected to reach $6bn in 2025 [ 5.1]. Based on its own data, Alphasense reports that at least £48m in commercial revenues were generated and 25 sales, manufacturing and engineering jobs were created and sustained over the impact period through third-party sales of integrated systems [ 5.1]. As an example of how an Alphasense customer has benefitted from the OPCs, GRIMM Aerosol selected the OPC-N3 for a new range of mid-cost PM instruments after finding it outperformed competitor sensors; the company deployed the OPC-N3 in a German government-funded project to establish a smart air quality network in the city of Augsburg. Having long manufactured high-end air quality monitoring reference and validation systems, the mid-cost instrument means GRIMM has the capability to offer a fully integrated network comprising three tiers of instrumentation, increasing its market share and enabling urban authorities to widen their air quality sensor networks [ 5.3].

Supporting the establishment of air quality monitoring networks in major cities to address the health impacts of air pollution and better inform citizens

In June 2014 the UN Environment Assembly, the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, adopted a resolution to ‘strengthen the role of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in promoting air quality’. In September 2015, UNEP unveiled a low-cost air quality monitoring device in September 2015, which the UN said could ‘ revolutionise air quality measurement in developing countries and help prevent deaths from air pollution that claim seven million lives each year’ [ 5.4]. The incorporation of Alphasense’s OPC, based on UH’s research and patented technology, allowed the device to measure harmful particulate matter; its low cost ensured the device’s viability [ 5.4]. UNEP’s Executive Director said its device cost $1,500 per unit, allowing governments to establish countrywide networks of monitoring stations for $150,000 - $200,000 – less than the cost of just a single monitoring station ($250,000) at that time [ 5.4]. UNEP published the blueprint for its UNEP Air Quality Monitoring Unit, specifying the use of the OPC-N2, ‘ as a global public good’ to ‘ enable governments and organisations to purchase, assemble or fabricate the units themselves’ [ 5.4]. UNEP launched the Unit in Nairobi to map the city’s air pollution hotspots before deploying the system in 30 cities in developing countries [ 5.4].

City authorities around the world are using Alphasense’s OPCs via the purchase of integrated air quality monitoring systems, in which the OPC-N3 is necessary to measure PM data [ 5.1]. As an example, Chinese SME Shenzhen Cambri Environmental Technology purchased ~800 OPCs from Alphasense, integrated them into their own air quality monitoring instruments and supplied them to city authorities in three Chinese cities (Shenzhen, pop. 12.5m; Dongguan, pop. 8.25m; Rizhao, pop. 2.8m) for measuring hyperlocal air quality [ 5.5]. Through the OPCs, environmental protection bureaus at these municipal governments can identify key sources of particulate emissions and enforce regulation where appropriate, e.g. if a factory is breaching emissions limits or operating without a license [ 5.5]. Shenzen Cambri reports that the availability of the OPCs has facilitated the rapid growth of the company; since its formation in 2018 it has created 25 jobs [ 5.5].

In the US, Massachusetts-based start-up QuantAQ, a spin out from MIT, uses the OPC-N3 in its integrated air quality monitoring system Modulair™-PM [ 5.6]. Example use cases [ 5.6] include monitoring indoor air quality in Georgia Institute of Technology’s classrooms during the Covid-19 pandemic to guide decisions around the resumption of in-person teaching. The Modulair is being used at several airports (e.g. Boston Logan International Airport) to measure emissions and their impact on local communities; citizen-led activist groups are collaborating on these projects. The US National Park Service is using it to monitor the impact of wildfires on air quality.

Facilitating UN-World Athletics collaboration to raise global awareness of air pollution, protect athletes’ health and study the impact of poor air quality on athletic performance

In May 2018, World Athletics (then IAAF) announced a five-year partnership with UNEP to install air quality monitoring systems at all of its 1,000 outdoor athletics tracks. The collaboration aims to study the correlation between poor air quality and athletic performance; to identify the best times for events to be held based on pollution levels; and to create greater global awareness of the wider importance of air quality monitoring. The IAAF awarded the contract for the provision of the air quality monitoring devices to Spain’s Kunak Technologies, a key customer of Alphasense. The first stadium air quality monitor (using the OPC-N3 to measure particulate matter) was installed in Monaco in September 2018, providing real-time, publicly available data. Monitors were then installed over an 18-month period in Addis Ababa, Sydney, Mexico City and Yokohama [ 5.7]. On launching the programme, the director of UNEP’s Global Environmental Monitoring System Unit said: “The IAAF partnership provides practical insight into the use of low-cost sensors, so it can be the first step to build capacity at city-level networks, bringing together science for policy; using evidence-based air quality assessments to develop better urban policies [ 5.7].” Air quality monitoring has since become a central element of World Athletics’ Sustainability Strategy, which pledges carbon neutrality by 2030. In August 2020 Kunak’s system captured air quality data along the Tokyo Olympic marathon course in Sapporo, a year ahead of the scheduled race itself [ 5.7].

Democratising access to air quality monitoring devices for civic activism on pollution

The low cost of OPC technology has helped open up air monitoring to citizen-led science projects designed to empower communities and pressure governments to act on air quality. US-based Safecast describes itself as a global volunteer-centred citizen science project working to empower people with data about their environments. Twenty of the organisation’s Solarcast air quality sensors, incorporating an Alphasense OPC-N2, were deployed around Los Angeles in September 2017 [ 5.8]. Three months later, when Southern California experienced serious forest fires, Safecast moved a number of these sensors “ to help give people an idea of what they might be breathing and where to go to avoid increased exposure”. The Arvin Air Quality Project is a citizen science project run by the Central California Environmental Justice Network across the city of Arvin which has some of the worst air pollution levels in the country. Having purchased air quality sensors from LA-based technology company Valarm, which were built around the Alphasense OPC-N2, the project deployed sensors across Arvin and real-time data was published on a dedicated website [ 5.8]. From 2018, the Open-Seneca initiative deployed citizen science networks of low-cost air quality sensors (using Alphasense OPCs) in Cambridge, Buenos Aires and Mendoza, Nairobi and Belo Horizonte. Local stakeholders have taken ownership of the sensor networks for long-term sustainability [ 5.8].