SBIR Phase II: Towards Precision Ultra-Portable 13C/12C CO2 Atmospheric Isotopic Ratio Monitors Using Quantum Cascade Laser Spectroscopy

SBIR 第二阶段：利用量子级联激光光谱实现精密超便携式 13C/12C CO2 大气同位素比监测仪

• 批准号: 1230427
• 负责人: Stephen So
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: The Laser Sensing Company
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1230427&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Towards; Precision

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a robust, ultra-portable CO2 isotope ratio sensor. Typically, portable sensors cannot provide good sensitivity and accuracy. Sensors which do provide adequate sensitivity and accuracy are bulky, power hungry, high maintenance, and require a controlled operational environment. This is especially true for existing CO2 13/12C isotope ratio sensors, which require hundreds of watts of power. Portable 13/12C sensors are critical to enable new applications including remote sensor network CO2 sequestration monitoring, environmental carbon cycle measurements, and medical breath analysis. Novel technology using quantum cascade lasers and the latest compact optical cells can provide a compact, power efficient, sensitive, and accurate sensor platform for gas sensing. The research objectives for this project aim to break the tradeoff between power consumption, sensitivity, complexity, and size. This project targets the development of a robust, field-deployable, outdoor sensor, and verifies its performance against existing methods of measuring CO2 isotope ratio. The realization of the final product will deliver a portable 13/12C isotope ratio laser spectrometer that operates in harsh environments using less than 15 Watts of power.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project deals with enhancing environmental monitoring by: 1) Enabling more precise measurements of carbon sources and sinks to improve climate science; 2) Providing a map of real-time carbon emission which is useful for research, policy, and education; 3) Providing real-time, long-term remote carbon measurements for carbon trading markets; 4) Enabling extremely sensitive leak detection of CO2 in carbon capture and sequestration applications without the significant cost of mobile laboratory infrastructure. A more powerful set of gas sensors such as the ones developed through this project will dramatically lower the great expense currently required to precisely monitor greenhouse gases and air pollution, a critical global concern. Data generated by such carbon isotope ratio sensors will answer many critical questions related to the human impact of burning fossil fuels on the environment. These types of sensors will also simultaneously impact industrial and medical fields, providing new solutions for industrial process control and safety, and portable real-time medical breath analyzers.

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发一种坚固耐用、超便携的二氧化碳同位素比率传感器。通常，便携式传感器不能提供良好的灵敏度和准确性。能够提供足够灵敏度和精确度的传感器体积大、耗电量大、维护量大，并且需要受控的操作环境。对于现有的二氧化碳13/12C同位素比率传感器来说尤其如此，它们需要数百瓦的功率。便携式13/12C传感器对于实现新的应用至关重要，包括远程传感器网络二氧化碳封存监测、环境碳循环测量和医疗呼吸分析。利用量子级联激光器和最新的紧凑型光学单元的新技术可以为气体传感提供紧凑、节能、灵敏和准确的传感器平台。本项目的研究目标是打破功耗、灵敏度、复杂性和尺寸之间的权衡。该项目的目标是开发一种坚固的、可现场部署的室外传感器，并对照现有的测量二氧化碳同位素比率的方法验证其性能。最终产品的实现将提供一种便携式13/12C同位素比激光光谱仪，它在恶劣的环境中使用不到15瓦的功率。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力涉及通过以下方式加强环境监测：1)实现更精确的碳源和碳汇测量，以改进气候科学；2)提供实时碳排放地图，这对研究、政策和教育有用；3)为碳交易市场提供实时、长期的远程碳测量；4)在碳捕获和封存应用中实现极其灵敏的二氧化碳泄漏检测，而无需支付移动实验室基础设施的大量成本。一套更强大的气体传感器，如通过该项目开发的那种，将极大地降低目前精确监测温室气体和空气污染所需的巨额费用，这是一个关键的全球问题。这种碳同位素比率传感器产生的数据将回答许多与燃烧化石燃料对环境的人类影响有关的关键问题。这些类型的传感器还将同时影响工业和医疗领域，为工业过程控制和安全提供新的解决方案，以及便携式实时医疗呼吸分析仪。