Handheld ‘electronic nose’ that could transform drinks industry attracts top Scottish university award

Scottish innovators developing a handheld “electronic nose” capable of rapidly detecting chemical changes in drinks have secured a top university award.

Scensai, led by Marcus Campbell Bannerman and Ammar Elhoweris at the University of Aberdeen, has been crowned winner of the flagship Converge Challenge for an invention which could give breweries, distilleries, wineries and other drinks producers rapid insight directly on the production floor.

The venture is developing an affordable portable sensor designed to flag subtle changes in a product before they become costly quality issues, reducing reliance on lengthy specialist laboratory analysis.

A prototype Scensai sensor.

Campbell Bannerman, who is project lead for the start-up, said: “Scensai is developing a handheld chemical analyser for the food and beverage industry that looks at product quality issues. For example, whisky manufacturers might use our device to detect sour casks before they’re filled, preventing that quality issue from maturing into a loss many years down the line.

“Accurate chemical analysis usually requires expensive lab equipment, which makes it out of reach for a lot of producers and means many quality issues are overlooked. Our innovation is in the software, which takes low-cost chemical sensors and transforms them into an accurate chemical analyser, making this kind of analysis much more accessible.”

The project secured the top Converge Challenge title after progressing through the programme’s intensive support for university founders seeking to turn research-led ideas into commercially viable businesses.

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Adam Kosterka, executive director of Converge, said: “Scensai is a strong example of university innovation being applied to a clear commercial challenge, giving food and drink producers access to technology that could help them identify quality issues earlier and reduce the risk of costly losses.

“For 15 years, Converge has supported ambitious founders to take promising ideas beyond the university environment and turn them into sustainable businesses. Scensai’s success shows the potential for technically sophisticated research to be developed into a practical tool with real-world applications and significant commercial potential.”

Runner-up in the Converge Challenge was Heriot-Watt University’s TissueMetrics, led by Michael Crichton and Sara Medina-Lombardero, also picking up The Data Lab special prize.

Record Converge funding is ‘watershed moment’ for academic entrepreneurship in Scotland