Low-Cost Sensors Calibration for Monitoring Air Quality in the Federal District—Brazil

Erick Frederico Kill Aguiar^*, Henrique Llacer Roig, Luís Henrique Mancini, Eduardo Neiva Caetano Botelho de Carvalho

Institute of Geosciences (IG), University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2015.62019                

Abstract

Critical situations that cannot be solved by conventional approaches (traditional air quality monitoring networks), have the possibility of being managed quickly by a wide network of portable systems with sensors. The purpose of this research was to calibrate and validate low-cost sensors. Pilot indoor and outdoor areas, in the central area of Brasilia (Brazil’s capital city) were chosen for corporative performance evaluation of the sensors. The CO at 99.999% volumetric injection method has been used in a gas test box, among two MiCS-5521 (CO/VOC) sensors, one being new and the other one with a short useful life. The number of injections adopted to each volume (from 1 ml to 6 ml) was 10, rising each sensor’s confidence interval mean. A increase of the injected volume (ml) of CO resulted in significant decrease in a resistance (Ohms), as shown by a good inverse relationship on the interaction of these two variables (r = 0.88), with good measurement accuracy, when compared to the manufacturer’s reference datasheet. Finally, a geospatial management system was built for the pollution data measured by the low-cost sensors.

Keywords

Low-Cost Sensors, Monitoring Air Quality, Calibration of Micro-Sensors MiCS-5521 (CO/VOC), WebGIS

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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