Monitoring of gas emissions at landfill sites using autonomous gas sensors

Executive Summary This report details the work carried out during the Smart Plant project (2005-AIC-MS-43-M4). As part of this research, an autonomous platform for monitoring greenhouse gases (methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2)) has been developed, prototyped and field validated. The modular design employed means that the platform can be readily adapted for a variety of applications involving these and other target gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia (NH3) and carbon monoxide (CO) and the authors are in the process of completing several short demonstrator projects to illustrate the potential of the platform for some of these applications. The field validation for the greenhouse gas monitoring platform was carried out at two landfill sites in Ireland. The unit was used to monitor the concentration of CO2 and CH4 gas at perimeter borehole wells. The final prototype was deployed for over 4 months and successfully extracted samples from the assigned perimeter borehole well headspace, measured them and sent the data to a database via a global system for mobile (GSM) communications. The data were represented via an updating graph in a web interface. Sampling was carried out twice per day, giving a 60-fold increase on current monitoring procedures which provide one gas concentration measurement per month. From additional work described in this report, a number of conclusions were drawn regarding lateral landfill gas migration on a landfill site and the management of this migration to the site’s perimeter. To provide frequent, reliable monitoring of landfill gas migration to perimeter borehole wells, the unit needs to: • Be fully autonomous; • Be capable of extracting a gas sample from a borehole well independently of personnel; • Be able to relay the data in near real time to a base station; and • Have sensors with a range capable of adequately monitoring gas events accurately at all times. The authors believe that a unit capable of such monitoring has been developed and validated. This unit provides a powerful tool for effective management of landfill site gases. The effectiveness of this unit has been recognised by the site management team at the long-term deployment trial site, and the data gathered have been used to improve the day-to-day operations and gas management system on-site. The authors make the following recommendations: 1. The dynamics of the landfill gas management system cannot be captured by taking measurements once per month; thus, a minimum sampling rate of once per day is advised. 2. The sampling protocol should be changed: (i) Borehole well samples should not be taken from the top of the well but should be extracted at a depth within the headspace (0.5–1.0 m). The measurement depth will be dependent on the water table and headspace depth within the borehole well. (ii) The sampling time should be increased to 3 min to obtain a steady-state measurement from the headspace and to take a representative sample; and (iii) For continuous monitoring on-site, the extracted sample should be recycled back into the borehole well. However, for compliance monitoring, the sample should not be returned to the borehole well. 3. Devices should be placed at all borehole wells so the balance on the site can be maintained through the gas management system and extraction issues can be quickly recognised and addressed before there are events of high gas migration to the perimeter. 4. A pilot study should be carried out by the EPA using 10 of these autonomous devices over three to five sites to show the need and value for this type of sampling on Irish landfill sites

Greenhouse Monitoring with Wireless Sensor Network

Financially profitable greenhouses are fully automated. The producer defines the monitoring limits for the ideal growth environment and then, the system controls automatically each adjustment to keep indoor climate at the optimal level. Increasing greenhouse sizes have forced the producers to use several measurement points for tracking the changes in the environment, thus enabling energy saving and more accurate adjustments. When each measurement point needs its own wire, the costs and cabling work increase exponentially. Once the measurement spot has been built, it is tedious to be relocated. Wireless sensor networks are gained ground in various industries. Agriculture and especially microclimate monitoring and controlling have many promising targets where the benefits of wireless devices can be exploited. In this M.Sc. thesis we discuss the wireless sensor networks applications for greenhouses monitoring. Moreover, we have built the system practically and assist the applicability of such wireless networks through real-side measurements. Star topology network measured temperature, humidity and irradiance –important developmental factors of the plants in Martens greenhouse research foundation. Test setup greenhouse was divided into vertical blocks and nodes monitor one block at a time. The idea of the vertical distribution was to gather information about the differences occurs in the climate between lower and upper flora. The measurement results proved the functionality and reliability of the wireless sensor network inside the dense and high moisture greenhouse.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

A REVIEW OF REAL TIME SMART SYSTEMS DEVELOPED AT UNIVERSITY OF NIŠ

This paper presents the bibliographic review of smart systems implemented so far and their application. Also this paper is dedicated to new smart mobile system developed for monitoring microclimatic parameters. This system is primarily intended for monitoring real-time microclimatic parameters, such as air quality where the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) is monitored, as well as other microclimatic parameters. The mobile system which will be described in this manuscript can be installed in public transport (to obtain information on microclimatic parameters on a known route). Also, to obtain information on microclimatic parameters from a random route, it is possible to install the system in a taxi vehicle. This system provides the ability to generate a map using the data provided by the system based on GPS coordinates. The system is based on a group of embedded sensors, GPS module, PIC microcontroller as a core and server system, and wireless internet using Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM) module with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) as a communication protocol

Building energy metering and environmental monitoring - A state-of-the-art review and directions for future research

Buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy use and contribute towards 30% of the total CO2 emissions. The drive to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has acted as a catalyst in the increasing installation of meters and sensors for monitoring energy use and indoor environmental conditions in buildings. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in building energy metering and environmental monitoring, including their social, economic, environmental and legislative drivers. The integration of meters and sensors with existing building energy management systems (BEMS) is critically appraised, especially with regard to communication technologies and protocols such as ModBus, M-Bus, Ethernet, Cellular, ZigBee, WiFi and BACnet. Findings suggest that energy metering is covered in existing policies and regulations in only a handful of countries. Most of the legislations and policies on energy metering in Europe are in response to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), 2002/91/EC. However, recent developments in policy are pointing towards more stringent metering requirements in future, moving away from voluntary to mandatory compliance. With regards to metering equipment, significant developments have been made in the recent past on miniaturisation, accuracy, robustness, data storage, ability to connect using multiple communication protocols, and the integration with BEMS and the Cloud – resulting in a range of available solutions, selection of which can be challenging. Developments in communication technologies, in particular in low-power wireless such as ZigBee and Bluetooth LE (BLE), are enabling cost-effective machine to machine (M2M) and internet of things (IoT) implementation of sensor networks. Privacy and data protection, however, remain a concern for data aggregators and end-users. The standardization of network protocols and device functionalities remains an active area of research and development, especially due to the prevalence of many protocols in the BEMS industry. Available solutions often lack interoperability between hardware and software systems, resulting in vendor lock-in. The paper provides a comprehensive understanding of available technologies for energy metering and environmental monitoring; their drivers, advantages and limitations; factors affecting their selection and future directions of research and development – for use a reference, as well as for generating further interest in this expanding research area

IoT-based weather station with air quality measurement using ESP32 for environmental aerial condition study

This article discusses the design of a weather station device that also functions to measure the concentration of gases in the air. This real-time telemetry device based on the internet of things (IoT) uses the ESP32 board to process measurement data. Some of the weather parameters measured are wind speed, wind direction, humidity, ambient air temperature, air pressure, rainfall, and ultraviolet (UV) index. Meanwhile, the gas concentration parameters in the air are ozone, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The readings from all sensors are processed by the ESP32 board and uploaded to the server. Then a client device will receive the data set and then processed, displayed on the monitor, and stored in the form of a text file. Furthermore, the monitor and the data are used for the analysis of the surrounding air quality and weather conditions

Distributed environmental monitoring

With increasingly ubiquitous use of web-based technologies in society today, autonomous sensor networks represent the future in large-scale information acquisition for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to in vivo sensing. This chapter presents a range of on-going projects with an emphasis on environmental sensing; relevant literature pertaining to sensor networks is reviewed, validated sensing applications are described and the contribution of high-resolution temporal data to better decision-making is discussed

Internet of Things for Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change

Our world is vulnerable to climate change risks such as glacier retreat, rising temperatures, more variable and intense weather events (e.g., floods, droughts, and frosts), deteriorating mountain ecosystems, soil degradation, and increasing water scarcity. However, there are big gaps in our understanding of changes in regional climate and how these changes will impact human and natural systems, making it difficult to anticipate, plan, and adapt to the coming changes. The IoT paradigm in this area can enhance our understanding of regional climate by using technology solutions, while providing the dynamic climate elements based on integrated environmental sensing and communications that is necessary to support climate change impacts assessments in each of the related areas (e.g., environmental quality and monitoring, sustainable energy, agricultural systems, cultural preservation, and sustainable mining). In the IoT in Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change chapter, a framework for informed creation, interpretation and use of climate change projections and for continued innovations in climate and environmental science driven by key societal and economic stakeholders is presented. In addition, the IoT cyberinfrastructure to support the development of continued innovations in climate and environmental science is discussed

Measuring air quality with low-cost sensors in citizen science applications

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesAir pollution is unquestionably a public health emergency, and the rates of pollution continue to rise at an alarming rate in cities all over the world. Nevertheless, the traditional monitoring equipment is very expensive, and the available measurements are not sufficient to precisely classify air quality in several locations in a city. Recent advancements in air quality measuring technology provide a potential opportunity to increase the air quality data, and to raise public awareness of health issues arising from air pollution. This study focuses on the development and evaluation of a new prototype for the monitoring of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). It describes the design approach and the evaluation methods, in which a series of field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the prototype and of a commercial low-cost device in comparison with a reference monitor. The results showed that the prototype presented a good performance in environments with a high variation of particle concentrations (variations above 100μg/m³), such as cooking-environments and exposure to cigarette smoke, for most of the experiments (R² = 0.55-0.85). However, their agreement was very poor in environments without high variability of particle concentrations. The performance comparison between identical sensors purchased in the same year revealed a very high agreement (R² = 0.92), but prototypes which utilized sensors acquired in different years presented a very weak correlation in most of the experiments. The analysis of the commercial low-cost device’s performance revealed a moderate to strong linear correlation with the reference monitor in all the experiments (R= 0.51-0.93); this study also demonstrates that the maximum limit of detection of the device was much lower than the value given by the manufacturer (approximately 180μg/m³, in contrast to the value of 400μg/m³). For applications of real-time measurements, the prototype developed in this research may be especially utilized as indicative of PM2.5 hotspots and trends in ambient conditions, primarily in residences, monitoring the frequency and duration of high exposure events, such as cooking, smoking, and biomass burning. Nevertheless, this research demonstrates the necessity for individual sensor performance testing prior to field use, and that presumptions about the representativeness of measurements of PM2.5 carried out by low-cost sensors should be made with caution

ATMOSPHERIC CO2 GAS AND TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT ROBOT

In the age of industrial revolution the atmosphere is disturbed by the human acts one of which is the global warming, a major threat of this century. Thus in order to control these adverse effects an monitoring of atmospheric CO2 and temperature robotic system is developed the system to collect data through various sensors. It gives a review of these systems based on existing technologies and also proposes an economical and generic automatic environment pollution control system based on wireless sensors with GSM for environment pollution control system controller and remote monitoring system. This system has simpler features of low cost and effective with less power consumption using sensors for remote monitoring and controlling devices which are controlled via SMS using a GSM module. The system informs user about any abnormal conditions like temperature rise, even concentration of CO2 via SMS from the GSM module to the higher authority mobile and actions are taken accordingly by the authority personnel. In future, the industry will be able to monitor and control the parameter by GSM technologies, and to provide safety and security for humans