CSIR-Neeri Develops a E-Nose for Environmental Monitoring: Sniffs out the Dangerous Stuff
Nagpur
based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC) of Department of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government
of India have jointly developed an ‘Electronic Nose’ for environmental
monitoring that can help sniff out a variety of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) and odorants at a pulp and paper mill industry with a prime objective to
protect the health of thousands of workers working in this industry. This portable
device measures odour concentration and odour intensity.
This
has been the first attempt in India to develop such a product using odour
sensors that make use of intelligent software to identify odorous molecules. It
is also possible to train the software by feeding information based on
observation of experts.
The
pulp and paper industry emits a variety of gases, namely, hydrogen sulphide,
methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide, and dimethyl disulphide all of which
beyond a certain concentrations may adversely affect the environment and human
health, This newly developed Electronic Nose helps in continuous monitoring of
these gases, overcoming all limitations of the available analytical instruments
that are not only expensive and time-consuming. The Electronic Nose can easily
be operated at a pulp and paper mill industry and is currently functioning
successfully at The Mysore Paper Mills Limited, Bhadravathi, Karnataka and Tamil
Nadu Paper Mill. Besides,
it also establishes a correlation between sensory and analytical measurements for the
sulphurous odorants generated from pulp and paper industries, tanneries and
distilleries.
The Electronic Nose uses an array
of sensors that function on the principle similar to that of human olfaction.
The sensor array generates a pattern based on the type of aroma. The patterns
obtained are trained to help interpret and distinguish amongst various odors
and odorants as well as to recognize new patterns using advanced mathematical techniques,
such as pattern recognition algorithms, principal component analysis,
discriminant function analysis, cluster analysis, and artificial neural
networks.
The researchers are currently
working on the application of Electronic Nose to monitor gas emissions from any
source, be it an industry or leakage of petroleum pipes going through fields or
farms.
Sensor array
For
any further scientific details on this development, please contact:
Dr.
R.A. Pandey - Chief Investigator, CSIR-NEERI
Mob.
No. 09975055593
Dr.
(Ms.) Sharvari Deshmukh - CSIR-SRF, CSIR-NEERI
Mob.
No. 09890507711
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