TRACK - Portable dual GC-IMS with multi-element sensor system for fast and reliable detection of hidden people and goods (project no. 2414610)

There has been an increase in illegal human trafficking in Europe, which has led to the current migration and refugee crisis. People trapped in trucks and shipping containers take risks to their health and even their lives. Mobile detectors to detect hidden people, which are transported in containers and trucks, would help protect smuggled people and make border police work much easier.

In order to be practical, these sensors must function quickly and reliably under real conditions and be able to detect people even through sealed containers. Search and detection dogs are basically suitable for this task, but they tire quickly and require years of training. Our bilateral consortium therefore suggests the detection of hidden (or buried) people based on specific human odor signatures using suitable gas detectors.

In the current KIRAS project (DHS-AS), a portable prototype was developed that combines a commercially available aspiration ion mobility spectrometer (aIMS) with an electrochemical aldehyde sensor and three metal oxide sensors to measure a chemical fingerprint of volatile compounds in the human body. The biggest challenge is to ensure good selectivity even at low concentrations (ppt to ppb range - "parts per billion to trillion") in a portable system - small size, weight and power consumption. This task was only partially fulfilled, however, because the complexity of the volatile constituents emitted by different truck loads necessitated a more specific analysis of the olfactory components.

This challenge is now to be solved in the bilateral KIRAS TRACK project by combining a dual high-resolution ion mobility spectrometer coupled with a fast chromatographic separation unit (GC-IMS). To further increase the specificity, a polymer-based ammonia sensor and a biomimetic odor sensor based on dog odor proteins are being developed. The complementarity of the three sensor units and the expertise of the research institutions represented in them (Leibnitz University of Hanover, Airsense GmbH, University of Innsbruck, SLOC GmbH, Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH) enables an innovative and targeted approach.

The portable prototype is tested with test gas mixtures of specific volatile compounds as well as with human samples such as urine, breath, sweat etc. Various test scenarios (e.g. trucks and containers with and without cargo and with and without people, various transport goods) are carried out in field tests.

Public users and associated partners such as the BMI and the Johanniter Austria Ausbildungs und Forschungs GmbH on the Austrian side and the Bundespolizei and Johanniter Unfallhilfe e.V. on the German side will accompany the project throughout to evaluate the effectiveness under real conditions.

Website: https://projekte.ffg.at/projekt/3307444

Contact: Assistant Prof. Dr. Ruzsanyi (University of Innsbruck)