Electronic Nose Technology: Time To Battle India’s Air Pollution Problem

By G. Priyanka.

HYDERABAD: Air pollution in Delhi has touched alarming levels and has made it to the headlines since last November, and environmentalists have given a warning that other cities are also vulnerable to this. Hyderabad is no exception, but it is in the near future. However, researchers are finding new ways to face the oncoming challenges. In order to protect human health from environmental issues, human health monitoring researchers have found a highly sensitive gas sensor which is named as 'electronic nose'. This technology can detect smell more effectively than the human sense of smell. It can detect hazardous or poisonous gas which is not safe for humans.

This sensor technology device is an add-on to the already working sensors, because it uses a self-heating process that increases its sensitivity. It consists of a mechanism for chemical detection and uses an array of gas sensors which are overlapping selectively along with a pattern reorganization component.

Impact Of Air Pollution On Humans

Air Pollution has become a major health and environmental problem in all the countries. India has been facing its worst effects. The World Health Organization forecasts that overall pollution levels in Asia will be increased in the coming decades. According to WHO, around 3.4 million deaths occur each year due to the continuous inhalation of air which is polluted. World Global Ambient Air Quality Database reports depict that about 93 per cent of children in the world breathe the air with pollution levels which have exceeded their guidelines. Along with children, 80 percent of people living in urban areas breathe air with pollution levels that exceed health standards.

E-Nose Technology

E-nose technology is very useful in measuring and monitoring carbon and greenhouse-gas emissions. E-nose technologies are capable of monitoring industrial manufacturing processes to minimize the production of pollutants. E-nose technology is very helpful in designing more environmentally-friendly, clean technologies for energy production in various industrial processes.

Working

The Electronic nose works in a similar manner of human the brain. In the human brain, the smell is identified using receptors in the human nose. Receptor after identifying a particular smell, which is composed of molecules, sends the signal to the brain. After that, Brain identifies the smell associated with the particular molecule. In the case of Electronic Nose, it uses sensors as a receptor. After a specific sensor receives the molecules of smell, it transmits a signal to a program for processing.

Applications

The electronic nose has a variety of applications in  agriculture, environmental, food, water, biomedical, cosmetics and various scientific research fields. E-Nose has a wide range of pollution-detection applications which range from atmospheric pollutant, detection of carbon emissions from bio-fuel production plants and fossil-fuel production sources from industries.

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