DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Design and evaluation of a low-cost sensor node for near-background methane measurement

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)

Abstract. We developed a low-cost methane sensing node incorporating two metal oxide (MOx) sensors (Figaro Engineering TGS2611-E00 and TGS2600), humidity and temperature sensing, data storage, and telemetry. We deployed the prototype sensor alongside a reference methane analyzer at two sites: one outdoors and one indoors. We collected data at each site for several months across a range of environmental conditions (particularly temperature and humidity) and methane levels. We explored calibration models to investigate the performance of our system and its suitability for methane background monitoring and enhancement detection, first selecting a linear regression to fit a sensor baseline response and then fitting methane response by the sensor deviation from baseline. We achieved moderate accuracy in a 2 to 10 ppm methane range compared to data from the reference analyzer (RMSE < 0.6 ppm), but we found that the sensor response varied over time, possibly as a result of changes in non-targeted gas concentrations. We suggest that this cross sensitivity may be responsible for mixed results in previous studies. We discuss the implications of our results for the use of these and similar inexpensive MOx sensors for methane monitoring in the 2 to 10 ppm range.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
2337732
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online), Journal Name: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online) Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 17; ISSN 1867-8548
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English

References (17)

The calibration and deployment of a low-cost methane sensor journal June 2020
Metal oxide-based gas sensor research: How to? journal January 2007
Potential of a low-cost gas sensor for atmospheric methane monitoring journal January 2017
Performance of artificial neural networks and linear models to quantify 4 trace gas species in an oil and gas production region with low-cost sensors journal March 2019
Calibration and field deployment of low-cost sensor network to monitor underground pipeline leakage journal March 2022
Development of compact electronic noses: a review journal April 2021
A cautionary report of calculating methane emissions using low-cost fence-line sensors journal May 2022
A Review of Methane Gas Detection Sensors: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives journal July 2020
Metal Oxide Gas Sensors: Sensitivity and Influencing Factors journal March 2010
Metal Oxide Gas Sensors, a Survey of Selectivity Issues Addressed at the SENSOR Lab, Brescia (Italy) journal March 2017
Assessing a low-cost methane sensor quantification system for use in complex rural and urban environments journal January 2018
Long-term reliability of the Figaro TGS 2600 solid-state methane sensor under low-Arctic conditions at Toolik Lake, Alaska journal January 2020
Continuous methane concentration measurements at the Greenland ice sheet–atmosphere interface using a low-cost, low-power metal oxide sensor system journal January 2020
Characterization of inexpensive metal oxide sensor performance for trace methane detection journal September 2022
Characterising the methane gas and environmental response of the Figaro Taguchi Gas Sensor (TGS) 2611-E00 journal July 2023
Design and evaluation of a low-cost sensor node for near-background methane measurement posted_content January 2024
Performance of a low-cost methane sensor for ambient concentration measurements in preliminary studies journal January 2012