February 27, 2023
Ball Wave Inc.
JDRONE Co., Ltd.

Announcing the world's first drone-mounted sniffer for industrial-plantirregularities
Drone-mounted ultra-miniature gas chromatograph successfully detects andidentifies multiple components in smokestack gas■ Overview
Ball Wave Inc. (Headquarters: Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; CEO: Shingo Akao) has
successfully mounted a Ball Wave gas chromatograph* on a drone operated by JDRONE
Co., Ltd. In tests conducted at the Fukushima Robot Test Field (RTF, a public facility
operated by Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework), this autonomous flying sensor
successfully sampled—and analyzed with high sensitivity—gases emitted from thesmokestack of a test plant. These tests demonstrate the feasibility of using drone-mounted
gas chromatographs for operational monitoring and accident prevention at industrial plants.
These results will be presented on March 17, 2023, in a joint presentation by JDRONE,RTF, and Ball Wave at the 2023 Spring Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics(JSAP).

ThispresentationwasselectedasaHighlighted

Seminar(https://meeting.jsap.or.jp/highlighted) by the JSAP program committee.

*When a blend of two or more gases passes through a specialized flow path—consisting of a hollow
tube wrapped around a reel and known as a column—the various components of the mixture arenaturally separated in time. A gas chromatograph is an analytical instrument that exploits this
temporal-separation phenomenon to identify and measure the concentrations of the constituents ofgaseous mixtures. Conventional gas chromatographs are large instruments typically installed intabletop configurations; although portable versions have been developed, their sensitivity andprecision are generally inferior to those of larger instruments.

■ A breakthrough in sensing technology
Safe, efficient operation of industrial plants—such as chemical plants or power plants—requires continual maintenance informed by frequent inspections. However, many locationsin industrial plants are off-limits to human inspectors due to dangerous heights, hightemperatures, or toxic gas emission. The breakthrough reported here solves this problem
by mounting Ball Wave's ultra-miniature gas chromatograph on a drone operated byJDRONE (Figure 1). To ensure that the gas samples analyzed by the chromatograph are
not disturbed by strong air currents from the drone’s propellers, the gas chromatograph isfed by a sampling unit constructed from a 3-meter-long tube made from carbon-fiberreinforced plastics (CFRP).
To enable the rapid sensing required for plant monitoring, the usual 30-meter length ofthe metallic solenoid column—the component of the gas chromatograph responsible forseparating gases—has been reduced to 10 meters to shorten analysis times.

Drone（DJI Matrice 300RTK）(67x81x43cm)
Sampling Unit（3m long CFRP Pipe）
Micro Gas Chromatograph (Sylph)

Pump

From Sampling 10 m long Column
5%diphenyl-95%poly-dimethylsiloxane
UnitTrap

Hydrogen
Carrier gas
Ball SAW Sensor（Sensitive film PDMS）

Figure 1: Drone-mounted ultra-miniature gas chromatograph with specialized
sampling unit.
■ High-sensitivity analysis with short measurement times
To test the new drone-mounted sensor's capabilities for industrial-plant monitoring,experiments were conducted at the RTF chemical plant. After sampling a test gas emitted
from the plant's smokestack for 30 seconds, the sensor correctly detected threecompounds commonly observed at oil-burning plants—heptane (C7), octane (C8), andnonane (C9)—all in just 3 minutes including sampling time (Figure 2). After a separate
procedure to calibrate the sensor, the average nonane concentration in the sampled testgas was found to be 17 ppmv (parts per million by volume). The low noise content of thedetected signal allows high-sensitivity analysis with detection thresholds below 1 ppmv—
despite the extremely challenging conditions posed by in-flight sampling of local gases.
This exceptional performance is made possible by the high-precision control capabilities ofthe drone, which allow the sensor's sampling unit to be held in a stable position at the edgeof the smokestack.

Delay timechangeSignalDetection (ppm)

C93 Air+Humidity C8P

2
1
00

C7

C7：Heptane
C8：Octane
C9：Nonane
P：Propylene
Glycol1Time (min)(min)

2Figure 2: Smokestack from which gases were sampled (left) and results ofcomponent analysis (right).
■ Detecting irregularities in plant operation
A particularly noteworthy result of these tests was the unambiguous detection of a peak
for propylene glycol (P) in the immediate vicinity of the octane (C8) peak, despite the factthat these gases have entirely different properties. Typical plants do not produce propylene
glycol when operating properly; thus, this detection result demonstrates the ability of thedrone-mounted sensor to separate standard gases from irregular gases indicating
abnormalities in plant operation.
The key component responsible for this breakthrough in sensing technology—the first of
its kind anywhere in the world—is Ball Wave's ultra-miniature gas chromatograph [1],which, at just 1.2 kg, is dramatically smaller and lighter than conventional gas
chromatographs. This device, in turn, is made possible by the ball-SAW sensor, Ball
Wave's proprietary sensor technology based on novel physical principles [2]. The newdrone-based monitoring system will allow detection of irregularities during plant operation,
helping to prevent accidents and optimize operating conditions to improve energy
efficiency. More generally, this approach will also be useful for improving safety in public
spaces, including preventing accidents and detecting and identifying toxic substances.
References: [1] Iwaya et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 61, SG1051 (2022).
[2] Yamanaka et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 2729 (2000).

■ About Ball Wave Inc.
Ball Wave Inc. is a startup company founded to develop the technology of the ball-SAWsensor—a chemical sensor that blossomed from technical seeds sown at Tohoku
University—for high-speed, high-sensitivity detection of substances such as trace moistureand multiple gas species, thus helping to lay foundations for safe, secure, clean, andsustainable future societies. Ball Wave develops, manufactures, andsells measurement instruments—such as trace-moisture analyzers andgas chromatographs—equipped with ball-SAW sensors. In addition to
the high temperature, pressure, and corrosion resistance of crystalspheres, these sensors boast over 100 times the sensitivity of
conventional technologies and significantly faster response times.
Website: http://ballwave.jp/■ About JDRONE Co., Ltd.
With core expertise in the operational management of
unmanned aerial vehicles, JDRONE offers a variety of solution
services involving unmanned helicopters, unmanned airplanes, multicopters, and otherunmanned aerial vehicles optimized for specific objectives and customer needs. JDRONE'sunique capabilities in the field of unmanned helicopters with autonomous flight capabilities
have been used for continuous monitoring of radioactive substances dispersed from the
Fukushima nuclear plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, greatly assisting
the recovery effort. In addition to operating services for multicopters—commonly known asdrones—JDRONE also provides customization, maintenance, and operational instructionservices.
Website: https://jdrone.tokyo/lineup/
For questions concerning this press release, contact:
Ball Wave Inc. (Contact: Takuya Mori, Administration Department)
E-mail: mori@ballwave.jp / Phone: 022-302-6659
JDRONE Co., Ltd. (Contact: Hirokatsu Hirayama, Manager)
E-mail: Hirokatsu_Hirayama.jdrone@totec.co.jp / Phone: 0244-26-6966