Applications

Water quality testing

1.1 billion people still do not have access to an improved source of water. To improve this situation the water and sanitation industry must innovate, creating technologies that are affordable, accessible and that creatively blend with existing infrastructure. One such innovation is PortaTherm, which can be used to make water quality testing more accessible and affordable.

Today, water quality testing is expensive and requires skills, infrastructure and resources. In particular, current water quality testing relies on electric incubation, either in laboratory or portable field incubators. These incubators run on mains electricity or batteries and are difficult to maintain when there is a lack of relevant skills or parts. Moreover, electric incubators are unaffordable to small organizations or local communities in developing countries as they typically cost between $1000 and $5000.

Porta Therm is a new type of incubator that eliminates these barriers. With this and other technologies like it, we aim to help the 1.1 billion people who still do not have access to a safe source of water.

Transporting microbiological specimens

We have been working with InterActive Research and Development and the Microbiology Department of the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, to explore the applicability of PortaTherm to transporting blood samples.

In many clinical situations in developing countries, a microbiological lab is not available 24 hours a day. However, diagnostic tests are most effective when a sample is taken from a patient before they are given antibiotics. This means that patients are either unable to access potentially life-saving microbiological analysis, or do not get the most effective tests. PortaTherm may be useful as a temporary incubation, and transportation devise. Our initial in-vitro test results are promising, and we are looking for further funding to pursue this research.

Other applications?

If you think you have a need for PortaTherm, then let us know. We are always interested to experiment and adapt PortaTherm to new applications. If you would like to trial PortaTherm please contact us.