AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Development of an Environmental Chamber for the Laboratory Evaluation of "Low-Cost" Air Quality Sensors
VASILEIOS PAPAPOSTOLOU, Hang Zhang, Brandon Feenstra, Andrea Polidori, South Coast Air Quality Management District
Abstract Number: 133 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Recent technological advancement in air monitoring devices has promoted the use of low-cost air quality sensors in various ambient monitoring and measurement applications. The sensors have the potential of gapping the measurements between sparse government monitoring sites and the abundant need for personal exposure assessment. To provide guidance and clarity for the ever-evolving sensor technology, a state-of-the-art integrated chamber system has been developed to evaluate the performance of low-cost air quality sensors under controlled environmental conditions. The system consists of two professional grade chamber enclosures. A 1.3 m3 stainless-steel outer chamber and a 0.11 m3 Teflon-coated stainless-steel inner chamber are used to generate controlled aerosol and gaseous atmospheres, respectively. Both chambers are temperature and relative humidity controlled with capability to generate a wide range of environmental conditions. The system is fully equipped to generate stable and reproducible aerosol and gaseous pollutant concentrations at low, medium, and high concentrations. An array of Federal Reference Method (FRM), Federal Equivalent Method (FEM), and Best Available Technology (BAT) reference instruments are used to characterize sensor performance. This work discusses the development of the chamber system and the experimental methods to quantitatively evaluate sensor performance. Considering that a significant number of academic and research institutions, government agencies, public and private institutions, and individuals are becoming interested in developing and using low-cost air quality sensors, it is important to standardize the procedures used to evaluate their performance. The information discussed herein provides a roadmap for entities who are interested in characterizing air quality sensors in a rigorous, systematic and reproducible manner.