Aplicabilidad del uso de sensores electroquímicos de bajo costo como alternativa en la medición de la calidad del aire : caso PM2.5

Abstract

Air pollution is an important public health problem, being responsible for a considerable number of deaths and illnesses around the world. For this reason, air quality management turns out to be a substantial task if we want to improve people's quality of life and reduce morbidity and mortality rates associated with high concentrations of pollutants; However, this work has not been developed in a consistent way, because the air quality monitoring networks present in large cities of the world are unable to adequately characterize the quality of the immission air, due to its low spatio-temporal resolution. Under this scenario, this project evaluates the applicability of low-cost electrochemical sensors as an alternative for measuring air quality, in the case of particulate matter less than 2. 5 microns – PM2. 5. For this purpose, three methodological phases were considered: the first with the purpose of carrying out a description and technical evaluation of the automatic monitoring equipment approved by the EPA and five low-cost sensors of different brands and models, identifying the requirements for their implementation within an Air Quality Surveillance System - SVCA; The second phase was aimed at comparing the two types of technologies mentioned through a monitoring around the concentration of PM2. 5, which took place at the Aduanilla de Paiba headquarters of the Francisco José de Caldas District University over five months, and the analysis of the results using descriptive and exploratory statistical tools; and a third phase aimed at defining the implementation of low-cost sensors in the monitoring of air quality in two linear type sources. The main results of the research indicate that, according to their technical characteristics, the five low-cost sensors studied are appropriate for the measurement of particulate matter lower than 2.5 microns; However, the proposed statistical study showed regular R2 values, which indicates a considerable uncertainty in the data reported by this type of measurement tools. In this way, it is estimated that low-cost sensors can become an important tool in the task of complementing current air quality monitoring networks, but, for now, they can only be used to make indicative assessments of air quality.