SBIR Phase I: Insu Health Design: Temperature Control System

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase I project is to offer novel opportunities to substantially improve temperature-controlled storage and transportation systems. The technology has the potential to become the ideal temperature-sensitive medication storage solution available to advance the health and welfare of the American public and third world countries by enabling a reliable means to protect and long-term refrigerate temperature-sensitive biomaterials such as medicines, blood, organs, vaccines, chemicals, and hormones even in areas that lack or have an unstable power supply. This project within the wireless technology area involves the integration of wireless and Bluetooth communication technologies for data capture and transmission to further support a wide variety of applications and services while maintaining full mobility, and long battery life for the system. Currently, there are over 200 different temperature-sensitive medications used by over 100 million people worldwide that the proposed innovation could provide monetary savings for individuals as well as decrease the $35 billion annual loss in the global biopharmaceutical industry due to failures in temperature-controlled logistics. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project tackles the problem of keeping a portable volume within a precise temperature range for extended periods regardless of ambient conditions and power grid availability. The objective of the proposed research focuses on innovating the heat transfer design in portable volumes where meaningful performance improvement can be achieved through building proofs-of-concept that will later inform and enable the production of advanced products that create better solutions in the healthcare industry and cold chain transportation sector. The research plan consists of developing multiple designs of specific components within the cooling system, testing their respective effects on performance using our platform, and quantifying the cold storage efficiency and temperature precision for long-term stability. The anticipated technical result is a tested system design with a robust proof of concept platform demonstrating the technology with data to support further development of this new technology for a product ready to bring to market. The company will have also gathered data for a broader understanding of the technology’s scalability in other potential markets.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.