A world leader in the development of infra-red lasers, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), supported by Innovate UK, will work together to develop and test new instrument technology for real-time in-the-field measurement of common greenhouse gases (CHGs) and atmospheric pollutants such as methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and ammonia.
Chromacity lasers used to monitor agricultural greenhouse gas and pollution emissions. Image Credit: Chromacity
The aim is to provide a step change in capability, addressing limitations of current measurement solutions, and developing techniques for measuring source emissions in agriculture, agroforestry, forestry, landfill sites, anaerobic digestion plants, and wastewater treatment plants.
The proposed new Fourier-transform infra-red instrument works by analyzing the absorption of infra-red light over the light source to the reflector path. Absorption is dependent on the concentration of gas under analysis, allowing gas concentrations in the path to be measured. This technique is proven but limited by the type of infra-red radiation source used for the analysis.
CHROMACITY’s key advancement derives from the use of its patented state-of-the-art broad bandwidth, tuneable infra-red pulsed single-mode laser source. This advanced laser technology has a high-quality, high-brightness beam, which enables the system to cover an extremely wide measurement area, scanning a wide range of wavelengths that are absorbed by the main gases of interest.
The system will be capable of simultaneous stand-off detection of multiple pollutant gases, in real-time, and across a wide variety of agricultural settings. Using CHROMACITY’s patented optical parametric oscillator (OPO) technology, this demonstrator will be a showcase for greenhouse gas and pollution detection technologies.