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I would like to measure the air quality related to road traffic in a city for an IoT application.

The European Environmental Agency has defined quality indicators (good, bad, etc) according to the concentration of some gases in the air such as CO, NOx etc. I want to measure the concentration in the air of these gases.

I have come around the Waspmote board by Libellium which produces also some sensors boards. However the gas sensors, particularly the calibrated ones are really expensive. Does anyone know a more affordable solution or integrated product to measure air quality?

Francesco Boi
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I think it's non-existent today.

I work at a Dutch municipality and, though things might have changed now, in December 2017 our environmental department concluded that even semi-professional gas or dust sensors were just not good enough to determine the low levels needed for outdoor measurements. (Including everything Libelium offered at that time for CO, NOx and particulate matter.)

It's not my cup of tea, but the reasoning of our environmental department:

  • For particulate matter Libelium claimed to count PM 1. But outdoor measurements would only make sense for PM 0.1 (particulates smaller than 0.1 micrometer). Also, the weight of the counted particulates is not a constant, so converting the counts into some μg/m3 value, to compare to government regulations, is difficult if not impossible.

  • For NO2 Libelium claimed an accuracy of 0.1 ppm (parts per million) in ideal conditions. With, for NO2, 1 pbb (parts per billion) being equal to about 1.88 μg/m3, a claimed accuracy of 0.1 ppm = 100 ppb = about 188 μg/m3. But outdoor hourly averages of NO2 concentrations vary between 1 μg/m3 and 60 μg/m3, and the Dutch government indicators define an upper limit for the annual average of 40 μg/m3. So, a claimed accuracy of 188 μg/m3 does not suffice.

  • Any other measurements other than (ultra) fine dust and NO2 were deemed not interesting for air quality.

Of course, combining a lot of low-cost measurements and comparing those to the results of (very expensive) professional measurements might still yield useful indicators.


µg/m3 = ppb × 12.187 × M / T, where µg/m3 is micrograms of gaseous pollutant per cubic meter of ambient air, ppb is parts per billion by volume (i.e., volume of gaseous pollutant per 109 volumes of ambient air), M is the molecular weight of the gaseous pollutant, and T is the temperature in Kelvin. An atmospheric pressure of 1 atmosphere is assumed.

So, for a temperature of 25 °C: 1 ppb SO2 = 2.62 μg/m3; NO2 = 1.88 μg/m3; NO = 1.25 μg/m3; O3 = 2.00 μg/m3; CO = 1.145 μg/m3; Benzene = 3.19 μg/m3.

Source: DCE - Danish Centre For Environment And Energy.

Arjan
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Adafruit has a Volatile Organic Componds (VOC) / CO2 sensor built to monitor air quality (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3566 $19.95 USD) which sounds like would fit your requirements. Its not as fancy as the other ones you are looking at, but the price is right. Adafruit does have a number of gas sensors to choose from: https://www.adafruit.com/category/897

JD Allen
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