Alivion AG

ALIVION AG (Zurich) was founded in 2020 with the aim of enabling electronic devices to smell through nanotechnology. The first product of the ETH spin-off is a mobile measuring device, the Spark M-20, which can determine the methanol concentration in liquids in less than 2 minutes. Further products based on the ALIVION SmartSelectTM technology are already in the pipeline. In the future, for example, one breath could be enough to learn more about a person's health. The company has already received prestigious awards such as the Emerging Technologies Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the highly endowed Entrepreneur Award of the W.A. de Vigier Foundation.

Our environment is full of chemical molecules that provide valuable information. For example, the air we breathe contains more than 800 molecules that can provide clues about illness or health. In the food industry, ripening and decomposition processes release gas molecules whose measurement allows conclusions to be drawn about product quality. In our working and living environment, there may be odourless gas molecules that are harmful to health and that we should not inhale.

Our research goal at ETH Zurich was to specifically measure gas molecules. The breakthrough came when we found a way to distinguish between two chemically very similar molecules - methanol and ethanol. Both belong to the alcohol group of substances, but methanol is highly toxic, while ethanol is desirable in distillates because of its intoxicating effect. We quickly found a variety of applications for our technology and one day we will make it so that even mobile phones can smell.

The Spark M-20 is our first product based on this technology. It enables rapid detection of methanol in just a few minutes, ensuring optimised safety and quality of spirits and other liquids.