ETHYLENE MONITORING AND CONTROL SYSTEM GEO-CENTERS, INC., NEWTON CENTRE, MA Innovation The GEO-CENTERS, INC. patented Ethylene Monitoring and Control System provides the only fully automated, simple, and fast means for monitoring and controlling ethylene concentrations in degreening, ripening and produce storage applications. Accomplishments - Pre-production prototypes are presently being manufactured by GEO-CENTERS and sold by its distributor, Beshaco Inc., Vero Beach, Fla. Units are being beta tested in other market areas. -Reliable and stable operation for over 1 year have been achieved in units installed in commercial citrus degreening facilities. Demonstrated accuracy of better than 0.5 ppm attained in these units. Laboratory demonstrations of a unit with 25 ppb ethylene sensitivity has been achieved. -Three units sold to degreening facilities (two in U.S. and one in Spain). Distribution agreement for units in citrus degreening applications is in place. - GEO-CENTERS has invested over $ 150,000 following the completion of the SBIR Phase II program to improve technology and for marketing. Commercialization - U.S. patent awarded and foreign patents applied for. - The system is being sold to control the environment in degreening rooms in citrus packing facilities. The market sector for the system is equipment for food processing and storage. - System is presently being sold to citrus degreening facilities worldwide. Units for ripening and produce storage markets are presently in beta site testing. - Over $50,000 cumulative sales revenues to date. - Units can and are being manufactured for sale within existing company framework. - Subsequent testing was undertaken at the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center at Lake Alfred. - The degreening process involves exposing citrus to ethylene concentration levels of approximately 5 ppm for a 72- to 96-hour duration. It has been found that exposing the fruit to ethylene concentrations as low as 15 to 20 ppm for portions of the degreening cycle can induce decay, causing peel breakdown sufficient to result in fruit loss of between 50% and 100%. The economic impact to the packinghouse for this level of fruit loss is between $15,000 to $100,000. This is the only system that can reliably and automatically monitor and control ethylene concentrations in this range. Government/Science Applications The SBIR Phase II program’s goal was to develop an ethylene monitoring system for measuring low levels ( < 25 ppb) ethylene concentrations in “closed” plant growth chambers for the KSC Biomedical Office’s Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS). This sensitivity could not be attained in the Phase II program and consequently efforts were redirected at developing a system that would find use in citrus degreening operations. Recently completed internally-sponsored work indicates the potential to develop systems with the originally-desired sensitivity. Points of Contact: - NASA: Dr. John Sager (321) GEO-CENTERS, Inc. - Bruce Nelson (617) SBIR Phase II; NAS Kennedy Space Center Date of Update: July 5, 2000 Success Story # Ethylene Monitor