Development of a portable mid-infrared methane detection device

• Published in: Optoelectronics letters 2017-03, Vol.13 (2), p.100-103
• Main Author: 刘慧芳 何启欣 郑传涛 王一丁
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption spectroscopy; Data processing; Embedded systems; Error detection; Gas sampling; Infrared detectors; LabVIEW; Lasers; Methane; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Portable equipment; Response time; Sensors; Variations; 中红外; 便携式; 嵌入式系统; 数据处理能力; 样品浓度; 检测装置; 红外传感器
• ISSN: 1673-1905; 1993-5013
• DOI: 10.1007/s11801-017-6286-4

Based on direct absorption spectroscopy（DAS）, a portable methane（CH_4） detection device was implemented. The device mainly includes a dual-channel non-dispersive infrared sensor（integrated with an infrared light source, light path and pyroelectric detector）, a driving circuit of the sensor, an ARM11 embedded Win CE system, and a Lab VIEW-based data-processing platform. Experiments were carried out with prepared CH_4 samples to investigate the sensing performance. The relative detection error is less than 9.14% within the measuring range of 0—7×10~（-2）. For a CH_4 sample with concentration of 0（i.e., pure nitrogen）, the measured concentration fluctuation range is-1.2×10~（-5）—＋2×10~（-5）. An Allan deviation analysis on the gas sample with concentration of 0 indicates that the 1σ limit of detection（LoD） of the device is 4.8×10~（-6） with an average time of 1 s. Experiments were performed on three CH_4 samples with different concentrations to test the response time, which is validated to be less than 20 s. Due to the small size of the ARM11 embedded system and the powerful data processing capability of the Lab VIEW platform, the proposed portable and miniaturized CH_4 sensor shows a good application prospect in mining operations and some other industrial fields.