Qoil Technologies – a recent addition to Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) – couldn’t have come along at a better time. With drastic increases and unstable prices for oil and increasing concerns about air quality, Qoil Technologies promises to reduce oil consumption and lessen a fleet’s carbon footprint with its patented sensor technology.
The idea for Qoil (pronounced “coil”) was conceived when Frank Mess, president and CEO, and Steven Danyluk, the Morris M. Bryan Jr. Chair in Mechanical Engineering for Advanced Manufacturing Systems at Georgia Tech, recognized the need for a real-time sensor that could give fleet owners and operators instantaneous feedback on the condition of the engine oil in their trucks, buses and cars. The basic technology for the company originated in the lab of Danyluk, who also serves as director of Georgia Tech’s Manufacturing Research Center.
“Motor oil is the lifeblood of a vehicle, and understanding the chemical health of the oil allows insight into the overall health of the engine,” Mess said. “In sharp contrast to the reactive physical property measurements provided by other sensors, Qoil sensors and monitoring systems provide equipment owners and maintenance personnel with predictive information by monitoring changes in electrochemical properties of the oil.”
Qoil Technologies has developed new fluid sensors that measure chemistry of fluids in real time. In motor oil, Qoil sensors can detect thermal breakdown, additive depletion and contamination including fluids and metallic wear debris. Information from the sensors is used to create reports that allow maintenance to be performed based on real-time knowledge of engine health, rather than on arbitrary maintenance schedules. This can greatly reduce oil consumption, lead to lower maintenance costs, increase asset operating efficiency and prevent catastrophic engine failures.
The company plans to offer a wide range of products and services, including leased equipment and monitoring systems, along with on-demand Web-based reports for a monthly per-vehicle fee. The immediate target market for Qoil’s sensor systems is the fleet vehicle industry. Future applications include power generation, industrial equipment and military applications.
Qoil’s launch was supported by the Georgia Research Alliance and VentureLab, a Georgia Tech program that provides comprehensive assistance to faculty members, research staff members and graduate students who want to form startup companies to commercialize the technology innovations they have developed. In May 2008, Qoil gained admission to ATDC, a nationally recognized science and technology incubator.
Already Qoil has successfully completed several alpha trials on commercial vehicles, including some Georgia Tech buses. The company recently closed on a $1 million angel round of capital, which will be used for a substantial pilot of its technology with a large fleet operator. Mess plans on leveraging the company’s membership in ATDC to take Qoil to the next level.
“ATDC has tremendous resources. Our affiliation with ATDC has provided us with substantial benefits including increased exposure to the local, national and international technology sector,” Mess said. “ATDC is known for being involved with companies on the cutting edge of new technology and we’d like to believe we fall into that exclusive category. Our success is their success and we're ecstatic to have their full support.”
About the ATDC: The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is a nationally recognized science and technology incubator that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. ATDC provides strategic business advice and connects its member companies to the people and resources they need to succeed. More than 110 companies have emerged from the ATDC.
Headquartered at the Georgia Institute of Technology, ATDC has been recognized by both Inc. and BusinessWeek magazines as among the nation’s top nonprofit incubators. ATDC was formed in 1980 to stimulate growth in Georgia’s technology business base, and now has locations in Atlanta and Savannah. ATDC is part of Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. For more information, please visit (www.atdc.org).
Research News & Publications Office
Enterprise Innovation Institute
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contacts: Nancy Fullbright (404-894-2214); E-mail: (nancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (john.toon@innovate.gatech.edu).
Writer: Nancy Fullbright