Episode 68 -- Dr Phil Fox and Lachlan McLaren from Eco Detection/Grey Innovation

@AuManufacturing Conversations

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from Dr Phil Fox and Lachlan McLaren, CTO of Eco Detection and Project Manager at Grey Innovation Group respectively.
Eco Detection, part of Grey Innovation Group, was a Gold Award winner in our recent Australia's 50 most innovative manufacturers campaign.
Fox and McLaren tell us about the company's story, the many uses of electrophoresis, the need to connect manufacturers with design houses and other suppliers, and more.

Episode guide

0:20 – Introduction to guests

2:24 – An explanation of electrophoresis

3:10 – How the company got started.

5:26 – Going up the technology readiness levels, starting with understanding the market requirements.

6:50 – The period from engaging University of Tasmania to commercialising GreyScan and some of the things involved. “The capillary part was quite set, the electrophoresis, the CZE, that was quite set. It was all the infrastructure around that that took I think most of the development time.”

8:30 – What drove development of Eco Detection’s technology.

9:27 – Staff and what they do.

10:30 – Two iterations released so far.

12:20 – Where their customers are – environmental monitoring for rivers, compliance monitoring for discharge and wastewater.

14:27 – Ammonium monitoring and its use in wastewater treatment.

16:48 – The Linkage project with UTas.

18:20 – Nutrient runoff going into the Great Barrier Reef and the benefits of measuring them.

19:32 – Measuring inorganic carbon in seawater.

20:25 – How government procurement might drive new-to-market technologies.

21:18 – Why the National Reconstruction Fund needs to accept that some companies will fail, and to take risks.

22:50 – Lasting relationships from the notus ventilator project and why a better job is needed to connect manufacturers with design houses, contract manufacturers and others in Australia.

25:55 – Brokers have an important role in connecting manufacturers with suppliers.
Relevant links
Eco Detection's website
https://ecodetection.com/
Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers revealed
What did we learn from Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers?
$10.2 million in ARC Linkage grants announced for advanced manufacturing projects
Ventilator project lead wants to recreate ‘the model that changed the world’