An E-Nose developed by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur
Sensor array
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 Technologyof 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.
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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