Manchester spinout Chromition announces Shell Luminspheres reservoir surveillance agreement

Chromition Ltd, a UK-based photoluminescent technologies and University of Manchester spinout company, has announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with the Shell GameChanger Programme. 

The agreement sees Chromition and Shell GameChanger validate Chromition's proprietary Luminspheres tracer system for next-generation oil reservoir surveillance. 

Chromition aims to offer unprecedented characterisation and mapping of complex geological environments, by leveraging multicoloured Luminspheres extraordinary brightness and tuneable size for high-sensitivity multiplex in-situ monitoring of fluid flow between wells for efficient reservoir management. 

Over the next year, Chromition will design, prepare and test Luminspheres tracers specifically for use in Shell's reservoir environments. Successful validation of Luminspheres tracers under reservoir conditions is an enabler to potentially progress to a subsequent field trial and commercial rollout. 

Chromition's multicoloured photoluminescent Luminspheres technology was invented in the Organic Materials Innovation Centre (OMIC) within The University of Manchester's Department of Chemistry. 

In 2014, Proof of Principle funding was awarded by the Innovation Factory to exemplify the technology and protect the associated intellectual property in a priority patent application. Professor Mike Turner and Mark McCairn founded Chromition and secured venture capitalist (VC) investment to spin-out from the University in 2016 to develop Luminspheres into commercial applications. 

Since this time, Chromition has developed Luminspheres into diagnostics, authentication, lighting, decorative and horticulture applications and secured multiple development contracts, grant funding awards, rounds of VC investment and revenues.