The event was attended by staff of the Laboratory for Ecological Monitoring and Modeling, Dept. for Multidisciplinary Research KarRC RAS. They design and promote tech-intensive products at Karelian Research Centre’s innovative spinoff company NPP Analysis.
– Nowadays, it’s crucial for science to collaborate with industry and business. Otherwise, it would be impossible to have scientific results rolled out. We created the spinoff to realize our developments and promote them into practice so they serve to the benefit of businesses and academics. This requires being familiar with promotion mechanisms. That’s why this forum, where we learnt about quite a few instruments of doing business, turned out very useful, – tells Dmitry Yekimov, Leading Researcher of DMR KarRC RAS and Director of NPP Analysis.
A corporate innovative spinoff is a business entity that designs knowledge-intensive technologies and products and introduces them into industrial processes. NPP Analysis spinoff company was established at KarRC RAS in 2022, after Dmitry Yekimov and his colleagues had won a federal-level tech project competition Digital Challenge organized by Skolkovo TechnoPark. The first device designed by the company was an analyzer for the grain-size distribution of mineral fertilizers. The invention has passed industrial trials and the certification procedure, and is already being used in industry. Since 2023, the device has been in operation at an Uralchem Group nitrogen fertilizer factory in Perm.
Grain size distribution analyzer
The analyzer is a laser holographic device providing real-time particle-size information.
– The size of powders and granules is a factor for the rate of chemical processes. Finer fractions accelerate these processes, while coarser ones slow them down. For instance, if the dissolution rate is too high, mineral fertilizers will be quickly washed away with precipitation without lingering in the fertile soil layer, making fertilization ineffective, – the scientist explained.
Traditional granulometric equipment is based on vibratory screening: product particles are sieved through vibrating screens with different mesh sizes and thus measured by weight. It is a lengthy process, taking about an hour and done twice per shift in industrial settings. During this time, the product may change substantially, lose quality, and ultimately be rejected, causing financial losses. The analyzer designed at NPP Analysis is meant to optimize the production process and identify malfunctions promptly. The operation principle is optical: granules pass through a laser beam, and their size and shape are recorded by a receiver. Measuring a sample takes only two minutes. An automatic sampler picks the product up from the conveyor belt and forwards it to be analyzed. Technologists and the shop foreman get the results in a real time mode.
The device measures particles sized 0.1 to 10 mm. However, this range is customizable. It can, for instance, be used in the mining industry, where ore dressing requires grinding it down to certain fractions.
Another sector where powders and granules need to be measured is the pharmaceutical industry. It would also benefit from another similar invention of the KarRC RAS spinoff company – laser analyzer of droplet size.
Laser analyzer of droplet size during a trial of spray nozzles for sprinklers at Saratov State University of Genetics, Biotechnology and Engineering
Scientists are now working on a new portable device for measuring carbon dioxide fluxes from soil surface. Dmitry Yekimov presented this work at the webinar “Studies of Human-altered Ecosystems in BRICS Countries: Building an Expert Network”. Karelian scientists are engaged in monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. The new device is expected to reduce the time in fieldwork and to minimize error probability. It is currently in the trials and verification stages.
