NDIR Gas Sensor for Spatial Monitoring of Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in Naturally Ventilated Livestock Buildings

Sensors

Luciano B. Mendes¹  Nico W. M. Ogink³  Nadège Edouard⁴  Hendrik Jan C. van Dooren³  Ilda de Fátima F. Tinཌo²  Julio Mosquera³ 

[1] Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Technology and Food Science Unit (T&V), Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium;Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa, Av. P. H. Rolfs, S/N, Viçosa, 36570-000, Minas Gerais, Brazil; E-Mail:;Wageningen UR Livestock Research, P.O. Box 135, 6700 AC Wageningen, The Netherlands; E-Mails:;4INRA-AgrocampusOuest, UMR1348 PEGASE, Domaine de la Prise, 35590 Saint Gilles, France; E-Mail:

关键词: ventilation rate;    CO₂ mass balance;    dairy barn;    open-path laser;    photo acoustic spectroscopy;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s150511239

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The tracer gas ratio method, using CO₂ as natural tracer, has been suggested as a pragmatic option to measure emissions from naturally ventilated (NV) barns without the need to directly estimate the ventilation rate. The aim of this research was to assess the performance of a low-cost Non-Dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR) sensor for intensive spatial field monitoring of CO₂ concentrations in a NV dairy cow house. This was achieved by comparing NDIR sensors with two commonly applied methods, a Photo-Acoustic Spectroscope (PAS) Gas Monitor and an Open-Path laser (OP-laser). First, calibrations for the NDIR sensors were obtained in the laboratory. Then, the NDIR sensors were placed in a dairy cow barn for comparison with the PAS and OP-laser methods. The main conclusions were: (a) in order to represent the overall barn CO₂ concentration of the dairy cow barn, the number of NDIR sensors to be accounted for average concentration calculation was dependent on barn length and on barn area occupation; and (b) the NDIR CO₂ sensors are suitable for multi-point monitoring of CO₂ concentrations in NV livestock barns, being a feasible alternative for the PAS and the OP-laser methods to monitor single-point or averaged spatial CO₂ concentrations in livestock barns.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.