Ultra-broadband infrared gas sensor for pollution detection

Project Information

TRIAGE

Grant agreement ID: 101015825

DOI

10.3030/101015825

Project closed

EC signature date 1 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 August 2024

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 5 853 623,50

EU contribution

€ 4 994 300,96

Coordinated by

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TRIAGE (Ultra-broadband infrared gas sensor for pollution detection)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Air pollution is one of the largest risk factors for disease or premature death globally, yet current portable monitoring technology cannot provide adequate protection at a local community level.

-TRIAGE developed a smart, compact and cost-effective air quality sampling sensor network for the hyperspectral detection of all relevant atmospheric pollution gases

TRIAGE aimed to provide smart photonic sensing for environmental air pollution monitoring, by prototyping a portable, high-performance, sensing system, based on cutting-edge photonic technology for pervasive air quality sensing. By accessing the infrared atmospheric window between 2-10 µm, high specificity and sensitivity for molecular gases is achieved as each molecule has its characteristic infrared absorption spectrum in this ‘fingerprint’ region. As such, TRIAGE can detect minute traces of molecules in complex gas mixtures and will provide real time information and analysis.

In TRIAGE, several technologies were developed, integrated and demonstrated:

Hardware
-2-10 micron supercontinuum sources by NORBLIS and DTU
-Rugged low noise 2 µm pump laser by NKT Photonics
-High-performance multi-pass absorption cell by Senseair
-Infrared detector modules by VIGO System
-FT spectrometer by Radboud University
-The system will be integrated by CSEM

Data analysis
-Reference database by Radboud University
-Analysis and deep learning algorithms by CSEM

Demonstration
-Linköping University was responsible for the tests of functionality and long-term demonstration of the TRIAGE system.
-Demo activities were conducted in real world settings (waste water processing plants and car exhausts)
-Several key players from the TRIAGE-NET were involved, including national agencies relating to environmental air monitoring and instrumentation manufacturers.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project made excellent progress in each of the topical areas, but unfortunately, the final integration and testing was not completed before the end of the project.

However, the project has an impressive legacy of results for each of the partners:
• DTU has established one of the only mid-IR fibre manufacturing capabilities in the EU
• SKU developed know-how on mid-IR SC for spectroscopy of gas mixtures for environmental sensing, but also analysis of plasmas, open-path emission and human breath analysis
• CSEM has progressed its expertise in several areas relating to gas sensing, integration and ML
• LiU developed methodological approaches for a low-cost trace gas electronic nose, hyperspectral techniques and drone-based trace gas assessments for greenhouse gas detection
• Six new products are planned based directly on TRIAGE technology developments, including:
o POLARIS-5 supercontinuum source from NORBLIS
o VIGO VLWIR and LWIR detectors.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

More details and contact info is provided below:

DTU
DTU has established and developed a new mid-IR fibre manufacturing facility: one of the only such capabilities in the EU. This will be used to support research and industrial development in future mid-IR supercontinuum development and other mid-IR technology.
Contact: Dr. Richard Crane [e-mail]

NKT Photonics
NKT Photonics has developed several aspects of 2 µm pump technology which have been transferred to the engineering department where further development is ongoing.
Contact: Dr. Dung-Han Yeh [e-mail]

Radboud University
SKU has developed significant know-how and insight on the application of MIR SC for spectroscopy of gas mixtures. This ongoing research has applications in the TRIAGE topic of environmental sensing, but SKU has also explored related use cases, such as analysis of plasmas (of great interest for renewable energy research), monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions from waste-water treatment plants or human breath analysis for medical diagnostics.
Contact: Roderik Krebbers [e-mail]

Senseair
The core business for Senseair is to be the world leader in affordable, reliable non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensors for a wide range of applications such as indoor air quality, personal safety, medical, environmental etc., for the benefit of a better life for everyone. One key component in most Senseair products, responsible for the company success, is a patented MPC boosting the performance of the gas sensors offered to the market. Thanks to this research, Senseair has, in addition to providing the project with the required MPC for the TRIAGE target system, also presented two very different MPC demonstrators to prepare for two future low-cost product platforms.
Contact: Dr. Hans Martin [e-mail]

CSEM
TRIAGE has been greatly beneficial for CSEM in progressing its expertise in several areas relating to gas sensing, integration and ML. Several advances will be used in further research and will contribute to other areas of CSEM activities. The wide-ranging nature of CSEM’s contributions are reflected in the scope of the exploitable results which it will take from the project.
1. Method for FFT calculation in FPGA which is quite generic and can be applied to many high frequency applications.
2. Detection method which can be applied for any lock-in measurement system
3. A calibration approach which will find application in any system with an FT spectrometer.
4. CSEM’s Digital Stack: a state-of-the-art unified framework and architecture that provides customers with cloud-based solutions regarding data management.
Contact: Dr. Laurent Balet: [e-mail]

NORBLIS
The TRIAGE project has provided a unique opportunity for NORBLIS to further develop its technology and bring it closer to commercialisation. The source delivered in TRIAGE had a supercontinuum spectrum covered from 2-9.5 µm. The development of new procedures in TRIAGE has already found its way into existing POLARIS-4 and the new POLARIS-5 products, and further research is in progress for exciting new products in the future based on TRIAGE developments.
Contact: Dr. Christian Rosenberg Petersen [e-mail]

LINKOPINGS UNIVERSITET
TRIAGE has generated several key results on trace gas analysis at LiU: a low-cost trace gas electronic nose approach, novel hyperspectral techniques, and a drone-based trace gas assessment which are important for greenhouse gas detection, a core expertise of the team. LiU is a public university, and in the LiU context exploitation means use of the results (which are quality assured via peer-reviewed publications) to create increased knowledge, to support activities, or to generate future opportunities within or outside academia.
Contact: Prof. David Bastviken [e-mail]

VIGO Photonics
The work on the MBE growth technology within the TRIAGE project finally led to the introduction of several new III-V materials-based LWIR detector products which are already available on the VIGO website. Their performance is comparable to or exceeds the performance of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detectors, the main competing material. The developed epitaxy technology and heterostructure design opened a way towards large-area high-resistance MWIR and LWIR devices operating at thermoelectrically achievable temperatures or even without cooling.
Contact: Dr. Łukasz Kubiszyn [e-mail]


Progress beyond the state-of-the-art is described in the ten journal and 31 conference publications available from the project website.

Hyperspectral trace gas analyses showing methane emissions (in red) from a lake and farm building.