Company Profile

Wireless Industrial Technologies Inc, spun out from research done at University of California Berkeley, applies wireless sensor networks and energy scavenging technology in order to improve the productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental footprint of heavy industries. These industries typically are major and inefficient consumers of energy, with low levels of instrumentation and a lack of instrumentation contributing towards these inefficiencies. WIT’s sensors offer an innovative wireless technology installed in each sensor and receiving device and have been developed to be “energy scavenging,” operating off adventitious energy rather than batteries or plug power. The costs and dangers of running wires precluded improved instrumentation at these plants; wireless instrumentation now makes this enhanced monitoring and control possible. The firm has put its initial focus on the aluminum industry, which has more than doubled its production volume since 1970 and will likely undergo further expansion as demand from developing economies grows. This industry consumes more electrical energy than the whole of France, mostly in large electrolytic cells that are used for converting aluminum oxide into metal. The energy consumed is more than twice the minimum expected from thermodynamic data. Further markets for this technology include aluminum plants around the world – there are approximately 200 – and other metal production facilities. A prototype has been tested for a major copper producer. The zinc industry, nickel industry etc. employ similar processing and have similar