Sonata Scientific — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.13

Description

Fruits and vegetables are a fundamental food resource and prolonging their storage life is acritical challenge for our society especially during storage and shipping.Ethylene is a planthormone that promotes ripening but in high concentrations (>100 ppb) it causes over-ripeningand increased susceptibility to pathogens and senescence.Reduction of ethylene to below 5 ppbis therefore a major opportunity to increase shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables (FF&V).Whereas several ethylene mitigation schemes are known they can be hazardous compatibleonly with select produce inefficient and costly stifling widespread adoption.Ultravioletphotocatalysis is known to be effective to remove ethylene and kill fungal spores although useof UV has limited its implementation.The opportunity exists to create a cost-effective game-changing technology to control ethylenein the FF&V environment.In Phase I Sonata Scientific developed a novel high-surface-areatitania photocatalyst that is driven by efficient inexpensive LEDs. These materials are opticallyengineered and optimized for a range of high humidity levels. This photocatalyst has adramatically different form relative to existing products and will enable a new generation ofethylene mitigation products. In Phase II the photocatalyst will be integrated in a highly efficientand low cost product for use in cold storage areas such as walk-ins. This technology platformwill enable a range of efficient and effective ethylene removal products for produce cold storageareas transportation containers and distribution centers.