INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS IN OKLAHOMA
Xplosafe, LLC: Detecting and Busting Bombs Before They Explode
Question: What do you get when you take two enterprising MBA students, two committed and tenacious scientists, and a university school of business that is investing significantly in experiential learning?
Answer: Xplosafe, LLC of Stillwater, OK—a case study in how the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Oklahoma is supposed to work. (www.xplosafe.com)
Earlier this year, Shoaib Shaikh, Liviu Pavel, and Jessie Loeffler decided to enter the 2009 Venture Challenge, an international competition for graduate students from around the world held in San Diego, CA. They needed a business plan.
Dr. Allen Apblett and Dr. Nick Materer, both associate professors of chemistry at Oklahoma State University (OSU), had been working for multiple years on developing a compound to detect peroxide-based explosives. They were ready to begin commercializing the technology. (Read more)
With the guidance of the Department of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business at OSU, the students and the scientists were paired up. “We got information about the business in November,” Shaikh says, “and came up with a business plan that got acceptance. We believed in the technology and the market and we were able to execute.” The team was one of twelve semi-finalists in the Venture Challenge.
“We were not picked for the final round,” says Shaikh, who is now CEO of Xplosafe. “We were still students and not yet committed to the company. On the plane trip home, Liviu and I decided that we needed to actively pursue and be committed to this. Since the day after graduation, we have been in the office working on it full time to get the company to the point where it is now.”
The company has office space at OSU’s Riata Center for Entrepreneurship. Drs. Apblett and Materer are serving as Xplosafe’s chief scientists; Pavel is CFO.
“We are lucky to be part of the Department of Entrepreneurship,” Pavel says. “This is a new thing, and they have been a basically unlimited resource to connect us to the help we need. We have acted on those resources. The patents have been filed for the underlying technology and through agreements with OSU, Xplosafe has secured the option to exclusively license the technology.”
Real-time detection and prevention systems for improvised explosives
Recently, the most frequent improvised explosives used are peroxide-based, commonly using triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a very volatile and easy-to-acquire chemical. The would-be shoe bomber used TATP. TATP was the main ingredient in the 2005 London subway bombing and the ingredient in the backpack bomb that was detonated outside a University of Oklahoma football game in Norman in 2006.
“The ingredients for TATP are available in grocery stores and if you have access to the recipe, you can synthesize it. It is so unstable that even a little bit of friction causes it to explode,” says Shaikh.
Xplosafe produces a nanometric ink (XploSens IN) that can detect and neutralize peroxide-, nitrate-, or chlorate-based explosive compounds. “We provide a one-step, instantaneous, real-time system,” Shaikh says. “Anyone can use it.” The ink is available in test strips (XploSens TS) which change color from greenish blue to yellow if the chemicals are present.
“We also have other prototypes including drops and sprays,” Shaikh says. “We have a capillary tube—imagine a coffee stirrer that is transparent and has inside it a small ring of ink. If you have a liquid meant for human consumption, you stick the small tube into liquid to test for the presence of explosives. Why is this important? Because 15,000 bottles of liquid are confiscated by TSA every day. Most are baby or breast milk. With no access to technology to test liquids at the checkpoints, if there is suspicion, TSA must confiscate the liquid.”
The capillary tube can be used at the checkpoint and doesn’t spoil the milk. It can also be used to test other liquids in carry-on bottles.
A Solution for Multiple Markets
While the Homeland Security market offers huge potential, Xplosafe isn’t putting all its ink on one page. The company has targeted the first responders market as well. “We are working out arrangements to test samples of our product with first responders, including organizations like the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, local fire departments, and hazmat teams to test our products, develop credibility, and apply solutions of importance to them,” says Shaikh.
There are companies in the market that produce explosive detection solutions, but Shaikh says they mostly detect TNT and RDX, an explosive used by the military and in industry. “The ones that do detect peroxide are multi-step, cumbersome, and not easy or efficient enough to use at the counter or in the field,” he says.
Xplosafe has a second technology called Solvent Protection Technology which prevents the formation of peroxide in organic solvents.
“What happens today in the lab environment in universities and pharmaceutical labs,” says Shaikh, “is that there are commonly used ethers that are so reactive to oxygen that over time they develop peroxides. If someone opens a bottle by mistake, the friction can cause the bottle to explode. Labs buy in small quantity and then dispose of the chemicals every three to six months. Sometimes people even add iron or nails to the liquid to slow the process, but that makes the solvent impure. Old bottles have to be disposed of by bomb squads or waste management companies at a cost of from $2,000 to $5,000.”
Still in development, Xplosafe sensor pellets when added to the ether will change color as the peroxide builds up. A third area of development for the company is a portable electronic sensor that tests for vapors of improvised explosives in the air.
Next Steps
“Our next challenge is to create sales to meet the forecast we have projected for ourselves,” says Shaikh. “We are bootstrapping the business so far and are in the first phase of applying for a Technology Business Finance Program award. The Department of Entrepreneurship has been very helpful. The commitment they have toward us gives us the confidence to keep going forward.”
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