Make your own greenhouse gas logger

Date:
July 27, 2020
Source:
Linko"ping University
Summary:
Researchers have developed a simple logger for greenhouse gas
flows. It is built using inexpensive and easily available parts,
and provides data on levels of methane, carbon dioxide, temperature
and humidity.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Linko"ping University's Department of Thematic Studies, Environmental Change, have developed a simple logger for greenhouse
gas flows.

It is built using inexpensive and easily available parts, and provides
data on levels of methane, carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity.


==========================================================================
"So far, measurement instruments have been so expensive that society's
mapping of greenhouse gas emissions has had to rely on rough models. It's extremely important that we can make lots of proper measurements locally,
so we can test whether measures for reducing emissions actually work. We
hope that our simple and cost-efficient logger can contribute to more such measurements" says David Bastviken, professor at Environmental Change,
and author of an article in Biogeoscience.

A current limitation when it comes to determining the greenhouse gas
fluxes has been the lack of reliable low-cost measurement methods that can
be widely available in society. In 2015, David Bastviken and colleagues described and published a logger for carbon dioxide, which is now used
for various types of environmental measurements. However for methane,
more complicated and expensive measurement equipment has so far been
required. In the current article in Biogeoscience, the researchers
describe an inexpensive sensor for methane.

Methane, CH4, is one of the most important long-lived greenhouse
gases which contributes greatly to global warming. Since the 1750s,
its relative increase in the atmosphere has been greater than for
other greenhouse gases. There are many different sources and examples
including incomplete combustion, handling of natural gas and biogas,
and microbial production in agriculture, wetlands and lakes. However
the large number of sources that can vary greatly in ways not fully
understood makes it difficult to quantify fluxes and to propose best
practices for flux mitigation. In addition, the discovery that lakes,
rivers and flooded forests are large sources of methane, made by David Bastviken and his colleagues as recently as 2011 and later, shows that
major methane sources are still being discovered.

"We have now built and tested a simple logger based on the open-source
Arduino hardware. The parts are available in many electronics stores; they
can be ordered online and cost about 200 euro. We have also developed more precise ways to calibrate the methane sensor, to enable the measurement
of greenhouse gas fluxes at a very low cost," says David Bastviken.

The researchers hope that the logger will make it easier for all
interested, and in e.g. education and environmental monitoring, to
monitor greenhouse gas emissions.

"We also propose simplified but satisfactory ways to calibrate the
sensors that don't require continuous access to advanced research
laboratories. This can make measurements easier, for instance in
developing countries," says David Bastviken.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Linko"ping_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. David Bastviken, Jonatan Nygren, Jonathan Schenk, Roser Parellada
Massana, Nguyen Thanh Duc. Technical note: Facilitating
the use of low- cost methane (CH4) sensors in flux
chambers - calibration, data processing, and an open-source
make-it-yourself logger. Biogeosciences, 2020; 17 (13): 3659 DOI:
10.5194/bg-17-3659-2020 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200727125342.htm

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