Why I’m building a portable HPLC

For the last 15 years, my work has centered on a simple, and stubborn, problem: how do you get lab-grade chemical analysis to the place where the sample actually is, instead of the other way around?

Environmental monitoring, in particular, still runs on a slow and expensive loop. Someone collects a sample in the field, packages it, ships it to a certified lab, and waits, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, for a result. By the time the data comes back, the river has moved on, the spill has spread, and the moment for a fast decision has passed.

PalmChrom is my answer to that loop. It combines two techniques I’ve spent my career developing, Bead Injection and Sequential Injection Chromatography, into a single portable instrument fully capable of automated sample preparation and compound-specific quantification. No manual extraction. No shipping. No week-long wait. Just inject the sample, select what you want to measure, and get a result in 20 minutes, wherever you are.

I’m now in the final stretch of development, finishing the casing and electronics, with certification and field validation expected by the end of 2026. I’ll be sharing progress here as I get closer, the wins and the setbacks alike. If you work in environmental monitoring, field research, or citizen science and want to follow along, or tell me what would make this tool genuinely useful for your work, reach out.

From the patent to a working prototype, in five pictures.