Presented by
Heimo Adamski

Nominated by
Technical University Munich

4GENE´s innovative, biotechnological process allows for the production of a new form of sugar-bound odors (namely glucosides) as they naturally occur in crop plants. They can be released from their bound form by different triggers, such as heat. The possibility to realease a previously bound and non-volatile odor due to heat means, that the odor can be used as a warning signal in technical applications.

When placed onto technical devices like cables, tubing or printed circuits in the form of small labels as a carrier for the bound odor, they become pyrolysed in case of overheating and the released odor signature acts as the warning signal for overheating (>80–130°C) – the odor is “turned on”. When temperature isn’t in the critical zone, the odor is likewise “turned off”.

For this warning signal application, an odor that is uncommon in the surrounding of a technical installation but not awkward should be selected, and the odor should be removable by air conditioning. 4GENE offers 4 different odors or a mix of those for such use.

The major benefit of our solution is that you will be given enough lead time before something actually happens (e.g. fire) to shut down the machine or the device in question. This enables you to not only prevent the fire from starting but also it prevents financial damage and a shutdown of the damaged machine. Further more it helps to protect yourself, your family or in a corporate environment protect your employees. Compared to traditional solutions, the 4GENE flavor-on-demand technology does not use any hardware and therefore cannot fail. There is no equivalent or comparable solution available on the market today.

4GENE does not produce any pollution and we use green energy whenever possible during production.