A Portable Gas Sensor System for Air Quality Monitoring
In ENEA, at Brindisi Research Center, a portable gas sensor system called NASUS IV based on solid-state gas sensors was built. This system is the last result of our technology researches in the area of tiny and portable sensor systems for air quality cont
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Introduction
Environmental monitoring is strongly required to protect the public health and save the environment from toxic contaminants and pathogens that can be released into air. Air pollutants include carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) that originate from various sources such as vehicle emissions, power plants, refineries, and industrial and laboratory processes. However, current monitoring methods are costly and time-consuming and limitations in sampling and analytical techniques also exist. Clearly, a need exists for accurate, inexpensive long-term monitoring of environmental contaminants using low-cost solid-state gas sensors that are able to operate on-site and real time. Calibrated cost-effective gas sensors are a very interesting solution for networked systems suitable to monitor air pollutants in urban streets and real scenario of smart cities with high spatial and time resolution. In ENEA, at Brindisi Research Center, a handheld gas sensor system called NASUS IV based on solid-state gas sensors was designed and implemented [1–3]. This system is the last result of our researches in the area of tiny and portable system building for air quality control based on cost-effective solid-state gas sensors. The main goal of the system designed and built in our laboratory is the development of a handheld device in order to detect some air pollutant gases such as CO, SO2, NO2, and H2S in urban areas at outdoor level, including their specific indoor applications for chemical safety.
D. Suriano (*) • G. Cassano • M. Penza Technical Unit for Materials Technologies—Brindisi Research Center, ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, PO Box 51 Br-4, 72100 Brindisi, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] C. Di Natale et al. (eds.), Sensors and Microsystems: Proceedings of the 17th National Conference, Brescia, Italy, 5-7 February 2013, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 268, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-00684-0_29, © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
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NASUS IV System
NASUS IV is formed by four modules or, better, by four printed circuit boards (PCBs): the main module, the sensor module, the wireless module, and the power module. The first three modules are packed in the same handheld case, but the power module is arranged in a separate case, as shown in Fig. 1. The main module is in charge of managing the communications with the wireless module and with the PC via USB port as well as driving the local display, driving the mini-joystick (which is one of the input system, but not the only), and driving the SD card memory for data storage. On the sensor module are arranged six sensors: a temperature sensor, a relative humidity sensor, and four electrochemical solid-state gas sensors (Alphasense Ltd, UK). The wireless module allows to control remotely the portable device by means of commands via short message system (SMS) sent from a mobile phone to NASUS IV. Fu
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