Asia Pacific Chemical Sensors Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Asia Pacific Chemical Sensors Market is expected to reach a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period 2020-2025. The chemical sensor devices are used in sensing and detecting parameters across various industries, and electrochemical sensors play a significant role in the industry and in everyday life. There has been a strong demand for short reaction time and for highly sensitive, selective, responsive, stable, and efficient sensors. Due to their unique electrochemical, optical, and mechanical properties, graphene-based composites have enhanced the development of a new generation of sensors.

Key Highlights

• Developments in Miniaturised and Portable Electrochemical Sensors are driving the market. To enable electrochemistry-based sensors to be applied undersize and cost-sensitive conditions, China researchers developed a thumb-size electrochemistry instrument system (MiniEC) with integrated components including an electrochemical sensing interface, signal transduction, amplification, filtering, processing, and transmission with a cost of around only USD 15. It provides a potential application in the laboratory and various industrial units.
• Similarly, in addition to blood samples, sweat contains various health-related biomarkers, including biomolecules and electrolytes, and thus has been chosen for noninvasively assessing individual’s physiological state by detecting biomarkers in sweat. Pioneer researchers from China have developed various noninvasive and flexible sensors for sweat analysis, including electrochemical sensors.
• Increased investments in new plants in oil and gas is driving the market. Accurate monitoring of environmental pollutants has become a primary concern due to rapid progress in the oil industry during recent years. Amongst the ten countries of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), energy demand has grown by 60% over the past 15 years. Looking ahead, the region’s energy demand is expected to grow by two-thirds by 2040 (source: IEA). Many oil and gas companies encourage the adoption of electrochemical sensors, as they can detect a specific kind of gas with high accuracy, even detecting the smallest leak.
• However, Nanoparticles (NPs) for electrochemical sensing are emerging as crucial tools for pollutant monitoring such as aromatics hydrocarbon, polyphenols, and toxic gases produced by the oil industry. Also, researchers from The Islamic University of Indonesia have researched the latest nanoparticles used for electrochemical sensing, including parameters such as sensitivity, selectivity, specific mechanism detection of analyte targets.
• Further, the growth of the pellistor bead chemical sensors is currently being hindered by a decrease in automobile emissions testing due to the falling number of vehicles that need to be tested via the tailpipe. Also, the trend towards the electric vehicle is hindering the market growth as robust chemical sensors are required to efficiently control automotive combustion engines for both gasoline and diesel applications.
• Due to the covid-19 pandemic, with the temporary shutdown of industrial units, the demand for the market had slow down. However, in the current time, the operations have been started in the Asian region along with the expansion in increase capacity. Such as, Australian oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum announced plans to increase capacity at its Scarborough gas field located off of Western Australia by 20%. The project was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in the medical sector, the usage of biochemical sensors has become a frontier for the rapid detection of the virus.

Key Market Trends

Defense Security to Register the Fastest Growth

• The defense sector has an urgent need for the development of sensors for early warning and protection of military forces against potential chemical and biological (C/B) attacks. The continued trend in heavy military spending among Asia’s military powers comes amid a broader upward trend in global defense spending.
• Chemical detection using existing sensor systems is facing a major challenge of selectivity. They are often slow, expensive, unwieldy, lab-based, and usually lack sufficient sensitivity and selectivity. Terrorists use biological agents because they are often difficult to detect, and illness onset may be delayed for hours to days, increasing dispersal. Among a variety of detection methods that have been developed, electrochemical sensors offer the unrivaled merits of high sensitivity, specificity, and operational simplicity.
• However, the ongoing war on terrorism and the rising security concerns are driving the need for newer, faster biosensors against bio-warfare agents for both military and civil defense applications. Nanotechnology is playing an increasingly important role in the development of biosensors.
• With a huge amount of investments being made in research and development activities and the advent of advanced new generation nanosensors, equipment that helps in the detection of toxic gases such as anthrax is expected to have a positive impact on the market. In military and homeland security, nanosensors are also used for the detection of biotoxins and radiations. Thus, nanotechnology has enabled the manufacturers to develop advanced Warfield gear such as self-repairing tents and lighter vehicles, which in turn is driving the market.
• For instance, China is building the world's largest multifunctional research platform for nanotechnology. The Vacuum Interconnected Nano-X Research Facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, integrates the state-of-art capabilities of material growth, device fabrication, and testing in one ultra-high vacuum environment. It is expected that in the coming future, the market for nano chemical sensors in defense security will cater the market growth.

Medical Industry Accounts for Significant Market Share

• The healthcare sector is a major market for chemical sensors, owing to the increasing demand for rapid, compact, accurate, and portable diagnostic sensing systems. The rising demand for the next generation of clinical diagnostics, measuring, and monitoring sensors for applications in implantable and wearable devices have created huge opportunities with exponential growth potential for the market.
• Recently, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed chemical nanosensors that rapidly analyze the components of exhaled breath to detect trace molecules associated with certain diseases.
• Further, with the increasing rates of patients suffering from diabetes, government bodies in various countries are investing in developing effective diagnostic techniques. For instance, the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan granted national reimbursement for the FreeStyle Libre glucose monitoring system. The revolutionary system was aimed to be widely available to more than a million Japanese nationals aged six and above with diabetes. This stimulated the chemical sensors adoption in the healthcare sector.
• India has a huge population suffering from diabetics, so the requirement of a device integrated with a chemical sensor is most vital. Recently in December 2019, researchers, including Indian scientists from the CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI) have invented a semiconductor-based sensor that can simultaneously detect glucose and generate power from bodily fluids. The sensor will be useful for the early diagnosis of diabetes and other related metabolic disorders. They developed a fuel cell using the sensor, which converts the chemical energy of glucose and oxygen into electrical power.
• It generates enough power to operate an organic electrochemical transistor. The researchers say that the innovation could pave the way for the development of low-cost, stable biofuel cells that would utilize glucose to power other electronic devices.
• Further, a wide scope of untapped potential lies in harnessing the nanoscale architectural properties of natural biological materials to develop high-performance sensors. The researchers from Singapore and China provided the development of an ultrasensitive chemical sensor that is based on the three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic templating of a structurally hierarchical butterfly wing.
• In conjunction with graphene sheet coating strategies, the porous 3D architecture enables highly selective detection of diabetes-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including a rapid response time (≤1 s), a low limit of detection (20 ppb), and superior mechanical properties. It provides a significant opportunity in the future to integrate natural biological materials into high-performance sensors, with excellent potential for wearable and flexible sensors.

Competitive Landscape

The Asia Pacific Chemical Sensors Market is fragmented due to the rise in chemical sensor companies. The manufacturing cost of the sensor is low and is driving the attention of new players toward the market, along with new innovations. Key players are AirTest Technologies Inc., Smiths Detection Inc., etc. Recent developments in the market are -

• April 2019 - A cost-effective, easy to use sensor platform to facilitate an earlier stage diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is being developed by a research group led at the Centre for Incubation, Innovation, Research and Consultancy (CIIRC), Jyothy Institute of Technology, in Bengaluru. They are using a combination of pre-analytical techniques and a sensitive electrochemical sensor for the early diagnosis.

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