Laboratory comparison of low-cost particulate matter sensors to measure transient events of pollution
Laboratory comparison of low-cost particulate matter sensors to measure transient events of pollution
Airborne particulate matter (PM) exposure has been identified as a key environmental risk factor, associated especially with diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular system and with almost 9 million premature deaths per year. Low-cost optical sensors for PM measurement are desirable for monitoring exposure closer to the personal level and particularly suited for developing spatiotemporally dense city sensor networks. However, questions remain over the accuracy and reliability of the data they produce, particularly regarding the influence of environmental parameters such as humidity and temperature, and with varying PM sources and concentration profiles. In this study, eight units each of five different models of commercially available low-cost optical PM sensors (40 individual sensors in total) were tested under controlled laboratory conditions, against higher-grade instruments for: lower limit of detection, response time, responses to sharp pollution spikes lasting <1 min, and the impact of differing humidity and PM source. All sensors detected the spikes generated with a varied range of performances depending on the model and presenting different sensitivity mainly to sources of pollution and to size distributions with a lesser impact of humidity. The sensitivity to particle size distribution indicates that the sensors may provide additional information to PM mass concentrations. It is concluded that improved performance in field monitoring campaigns, including tracking sources of pollution, could be achieved by using a combination of some of the different models to take advantage of the additional information made available by their differential response.
Air pollution, Laboratory study, Low-cost sensor, Particulate matter
Bulot, Florentin
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Russell, Hugo
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Rezaei, Mohsen
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Johnson, Matthew
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Ossont, Steven
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Morris, Andrew
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Basford, Philip J
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Easton, Natasha, Hazel Celeste
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Foster, Gavin
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Loxham, Matthew
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Cox, Simon
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15 April 2020
Bulot, Florentin
47870de2-3ba2-4425-b07a-16ce48ee3956
Russell, Hugo
82688a2f-7f7c-4ee3-80f0-3e125e470544
Rezaei, Mohsen
1166f6eb-0fc4-4d13-87bb-8743b23565da
Johnson, Matthew
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Ossont, Steven
6b903ec2-7bae-4a56-9c21-eea0a70bfa2b
Morris, Andrew
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Basford, Philip J
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Easton, Natasha, Hazel Celeste
56583bc7-b005-40d8-8571-99d335430a8f
Foster, Gavin
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Loxham, Matthew
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Cox, Simon
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Bulot, Florentin, Russell, Hugo, Rezaei, Mohsen, Johnson, Matthew, Ossont, Steven, Morris, Andrew, Basford, Philip J, Easton, Natasha, Hazel Celeste, Foster, Gavin, Loxham, Matthew and Cox, Simon
(2020)
Laboratory comparison of low-cost particulate matter sensors to measure transient events of pollution.
Sensors, 20 (8), [2219].
(doi:10.3390/s20082219).
Abstract
Airborne particulate matter (PM) exposure has been identified as a key environmental risk factor, associated especially with diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular system and with almost 9 million premature deaths per year. Low-cost optical sensors for PM measurement are desirable for monitoring exposure closer to the personal level and particularly suited for developing spatiotemporally dense city sensor networks. However, questions remain over the accuracy and reliability of the data they produce, particularly regarding the influence of environmental parameters such as humidity and temperature, and with varying PM sources and concentration profiles. In this study, eight units each of five different models of commercially available low-cost optical PM sensors (40 individual sensors in total) were tested under controlled laboratory conditions, against higher-grade instruments for: lower limit of detection, response time, responses to sharp pollution spikes lasting <1 min, and the impact of differing humidity and PM source. All sensors detected the spikes generated with a varied range of performances depending on the model and presenting different sensitivity mainly to sources of pollution and to size distributions with a lesser impact of humidity. The sensitivity to particle size distribution indicates that the sensors may provide additional information to PM mass concentrations. It is concluded that improved performance in field monitoring campaigns, including tracking sources of pollution, could be achieved by using a combination of some of the different models to take advantage of the additional information made available by their differential response.
Text
sensors-20-02219
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 April 2020
Published date: 15 April 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Next Generation of Unmanned Systems Centre for Doctoral Training supported by the Natural Environmental Research Council grant number [NE/L002531/1]; the Leverhulme Trust through the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute. Matthew Loxham is supported by a BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship, grant number [BB/P011365/1], and an NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre Senior Fellowship. Hugo S. Russell was supported by Airlabs, Aarhus University Graduate School of Science and Technology (GSST), and BERTHA—the Danish Big Data Centre for Environment and Health funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme (grant NNF17OC0027864). The APC was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Keywords:
Air pollution, Laboratory study, Low-cost sensor, Particulate matter
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 439529
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439529
ISSN: 1424-8220
PURE UUID: 7a6e4d99-a611-4b7d-901b-796c44dcaf64
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Date deposited: 24 Apr 2020 16:45
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:35
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Contributors
Author:
Florentin Bulot
Author:
Hugo Russell
Author:
Mohsen Rezaei
Author:
Matthew Johnson
Author:
Andrew Morris
Author:
Natasha, Hazel Celeste Easton
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