ENHANCED SYSTEM FOR DETECTING CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS IN AIR AND SOIL
DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns an enhanced system for detecting the amount of carbon dioxide in air and soil.
The field of the invention is that of methodologies and related equipment, used to measure the amount of CO2 present in the atmosphere and emitted from the underlying soil.
Currently, there are techniques capable of measuring the CO2 exchanged between the air and the Earth's surface, in which the detection systems are placed on towers as tall as 100 meters and covering very large areas, up to 50 km2 and beyond.
However, the described known solution has the drawback of not being able to provide detailed information for a single hectare within the large area under examination.
Furthermore, the large dimensions of the known equipment also have the disadvantage of being very expensive, both in themselves and for their installation.
Publication US2020/232959A1 concerns an equipment for detecting natural gas leaks in oil facilities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a system that is less bulky and less expensive than conventional ones, and furthermore capable of offering more precise measurements of the distribution of CO2 between air and soil.
The invention further aims to allow also monitoring of humidity and air temperature in the CO2 detection area.
These and other objects are achieved with the system of claim 1 . Preferred embodiments of the invention result from the remaining claims.
Compared to conventional implementations in the field, the system of the invention offers the advantage of allowing a precise and detailed measurement of CO2 exchanges between air and soil, thanks to a distribution of detections carried out in a more thorough manner over smaller areas of land than those monitored with the system of the prior art.
The system of the invention also has the advantage of extending the measurements to the temperature and humidity of the air on which CO2 monitoring is carried out.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other objects, advantages, and features result from the following description of some preferred embodiments of the system of the invention illustrated, by way of non-limiting example, in the figures of the attached drawings.
In them:
- Figure 1 illustrates the schematic diagram of the operating principle of the system of the invention;
- Figure 2 illustrates the peripheral probe and its ground support, used to detect the amount of CO2 present in the air;
- Figure 3 illustrates in section the peripheral probe in Figure 2;
- Figures 4 to 6 illustrate a variant of the system of the invention, in which both the peripheral probe in Figure 3, and a peripheral probe for measuring the amount of CO2 emitted from the soil are used; and
- Figures 7 and 8 illustrate the structure of the master probe employed in the system of Figure 1 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In the diagram of Figure 1 an area of land 1 is shown, bearing vegetation 3 and overlaid by a volume of air 2.
On the land 1 are also arranged the components that form the system of the invention, whose purpose is to measure the amount (in ppm) of CO2 present in the air, and preferably also the temperature and humidity of the latter.
For this purpose, poles 4 are planted in the land 1 , said poles bearing peripheral probes 6 preferably placed at a height of 1.5 m from the ground (Figure 2).
The set of data detected by the peripheral probes 6 is then transmitted to the master probe 7 of Figures 7 and 8, which collects them. After a certain period of time, for example a week, the master probe 7 sends this data to a cloud 8 via the Internet, for instance by means of a satellite 10, LTE and the like 11 , or an ethernet cable 12.
Preferably, data exchange between the different peripheral units 6 and the transmission of the same to the master probe 7 takes place through a Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network) mesh network 13, which is a wireless communication standard with an open standard communication protocol based on IEEE 802.15.4g standards for broadband networks (LPWAN). This type of network is advantageous due to its very long range, low power consumption and the possibility of encrypting the information. Obviously, other types of networks for transmitting and exchanging data between the peripherals 6 and the master 7 are however possible.
In particular, thanks to the cited mesh network 13, the data relating to CO2 measurements, as detected by the individual probes 5 and 6, are not relayed directly to the master probe 7, but cascaded to the nearest probes 5, 6, until they reach the master probe 7. In this way, the system of the invention allows large areas to be covered, regardless of the terrain’s morphology.
The processing of the signals provided by the master probe 7 is carried out in the cloud 8, which processes the collected data, in terms of the amount of CO2, temperature and humidity measured by the probes 6, as a time/space average value of these data.
The peripheral probe 6 illustrated in Figure 3 comprises an upper cap 14 provided with an inlet 15 for the air 2 on which the measurements are performed.
Said inlet 15 in turn communicates with a chamber 16, which collects a corresponding volume of still or stagnant air on which the measurements are performed and which subsequently exits towards the outlet 17.
Below the cap 14 the probe 6 houses the electronics 18 that perform the measurements on the air in the chamber 16 and which are electrically powered by a battery or similar provided on the body of the support pole 4.
A preferred example of electronics 18 suitable for the invention is represented by the SENSE-SL probe from the manufacturer SensiEarth (Milan, Italy).
In the operation of the system of the invention, the electronics 18 measure the data of the air volume collected in the chamber 16, in particular the measurements of temperature, humidity and amount of CO2 present in the air, whose transfer between the inlet 15 and outlet 17 sections is promoted by the CO2 concentration differential between the air inside the chamber 16 and that outside the probe 6, enriched in carbon dioxide due to the presence of the vegetation 3.
In the variant of Figures 4 to 6, below the described peripheral probe 6 that performs measurements on the air 2, a peripheral probe 5 is mounted, which performs measurements on the amount of CO2 emitted from the soil 1 .
According to said variant, the flow 19 of CO2 coming from the soil rises along the internal duct 20 of the pole 4, having, for example, a tubular section.
As specifically illustrated in Figure 5, the buried portion 32 of the pole 4, which is located above the tip 26, has holes 27 for the entry of CO2 into the duct 20, which forms the upward flow 19 towards the peripheral probe 5.
The gas flow 19 then enters the chamber 21 of the probe 5, passing through the ducts 22 and a funnel-shaped path section 23 present on the body of said probe, so as to bring into the chamber 21 the flow of CO2 coming from the soil 1 .
A sensor 24, for example the CozlR-Blink-1 model from the supplier Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd. (Cumbernauld - UK), is placed inside the chamber 21 to perform the measurement of the amount of CO2 emitted by the soil 1 .
Downstream of the chamber 21 , the CO2 flow 19 is then discharged to the outside, passing through the chimney 25 of the peripheral probe 5.
According to the invention, the electronics 18 of the probes 6 and the sensor 24 of the probes 5 transmit their respective CO2 concentration signals to the master probe 7, via the Wi-SUN network 13.
The master probe 7 illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 comprises a CPU 28, its power supply via battery 29 or solar cells 30, a radio module 31 for communication with the Wi-SUN network 13 and the GSM/LTE connection 11 to the Internet 9.
Overall, the system of the invention is capable of performing widespread and detailed measurements of the carbon dioxide present in the air and that emitted by the soil.
In particular, according to the invention, the CO2 concentration signal that the probes 5 and 6 provide to the mesh network 13, is detected by the electronics 18 of the probes 6 and by the sensor 24 of the probes 5, to then be transmitted wirelessly to the probe 7.
Below are some examples of air and soil parameter measurements, using the system of the invention: where: Unix_Time: time interval of the measurements taken by the peripheral probes 5, 6 following the initial measurement (seconds) (e.g., 1st measurement at 10 seconds, 2nd measurement after an additional 600 seconds);
Temp: temperature measured by the peripheral probe 6 (°C); Humidity: relative humidity measured by the peripheral probe 6 (%);
CO2_1 : CO2 measured by the peripheral probe 6 (ppm);
CO2_2: CO2 measured by the peripheral probe 5 (ppm).