NDIR gas sensor for spatial monitoring of carbon dioxide concentrations in naturally ventilated livestock buildings
Résumé
The tracer gas ratio method, using CO2 as natural tracer, has been suggested as a
pragmatic option to measure emissions from naturally ventilated (NV) barns without the
need to directly estimate the ventilation rate. The aim of this research was to assess the
performance of a low-cost Non-Dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR) sensor for intensive spatial
field monitoring of CO2 concentrations in a NV dairy cow house. This was achieved by
comparing NDIR sensors with two commonly applied methods, a Photo-Acoustic
Spectroscope (PAS) Gas Monitor and an Open-Path laser (OP-laser). First, calibrations for
the NDIR sensors were obtained in the laboratory. Then, the NDIR sensors were placed in
a dairy cow barn for comparison with the PAS and OP-laser methods. The main
conclusions were: (a) in order to represent the overall barn CO2 concentration of the dairy
cow barn, the number of NDIR sensors to be accounted for average concentration
calculation was dependent on barn length and on barn area occupation; and (b) the NDIR
CO2 sensors are suitable for multi-point monitoring of CO2 concentrations in NV livestock
barns, being a feasible alternative for the PAS and the OP-laser methods to monitor
single-point or averaged spatial CO2 concentrations in livestock barns.
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