MIT researchers have created a mobile, low-cost air pollution detector called Flatburn.
MIT News Office reports that the team behind the initiative has calibrated the device to the same standard as cutting-edge equipment, and it can be manufactured using cheap parts or through 3D printing.
The researchers have also released all the information needed to construct, use, and interpret the device's data.
The project aims to enable communities and individuals to assess and identify the causes of air pollution in their areas.
Ideally, this would result in feedback loops with officials and stakeholders, eventually improving air conditions in pollution-stricken areas.
Air Pollution
According to WHO data, 99% of the global population breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality guidelines and contains high amounts of pollutants, with the highest exposures occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
In fact, ambient air pollution is responsible for an estimated 4.2 million deaths worldwide, primarily from heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections.
With the introduction of the open-source Flatburn, the researchers say people in less developed countries and extremely polluted places can follow the project's approach and use data to launch initiatives to promote better air quality.
"The original idea of the project was to democratize environmental data, and that's still the goal," said Fabio Duarte, a principal research scientist at Senseable City Lab.
"We want people to have the skills to analyze the data and engage with communities and officials," the researcher added.
More About the Air Quality Detector
The Flatburn is a component of a project called City Scanner, which employs mobile devices to understand urban activity better. In 2017, MIT researchers began designing a mobile pollution detector to be installed in Cambridge, Massachusetts garbage trucks.
The detectors are battery-powered and rechargeable by power sources or a solar panel, and they record data on a card that can be remotely accessed.
The air quality sensor market is lucrative and is expected to be worth $7.99 billion by 2028.
But air quality sensors are notoriously expensive, but thanks to recent innovations such as improved computational and visualization capabilities, some are now affordable and widely available to consumers.
Producing Reliable Results
As reported by the researchers, the detectors were equipped to measure amounts of small particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide over a 10-meter radius.
Fine particulate matter refers to tiny particles typically linked with burning materials, such as power plants, internal combustion engines, and fires - frequent air pollutants.
The researchers discovered that the mobile detectors estimated slightly lower concentrations of fine particulate matter than the devices currently in use, but with a correlation strong enough that, with adjustments for weather conditions and other factors, the Flatburn devices can produce reliable results.
Testing the Device
The current extension of this project includes putting the devices to the test in New York City and the surrounding area of Boston and comparing them to existing pollution detection systems.
In New York, researchers deployed five detectors to capture 1.6 million data points over four weeks in 2021, comparing the results with state officials.
In Boston, the researchers evaluated the Flatburn devices against a state-of-the-art system deployed by Tufts University and a state agency using mobile sensors.
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