I-Corps: Open-path, compact nitrous oxide sensor using quantum cascade laser spectroscopy

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Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas, has poorly constrained emissions to the atmosphere. To help meet certain societal needs and minimize effects on the environment, it is necessary to identify practices that mitigate N2O emissions at minimal economic costs. Existing commercial N2O instrumentation may be challenging to use in field environments due to their very high power consumption, large mass and bulky size. Few, if any, sensors are available that can measure N2O emissions under field environments or as part of sensor networks. Through this project, researchers propose to demonstrate a prototype open-path N2O sensor based upon quantum cascade laser spectroscopy. This project has potential applications for the atmospheric/greenhouse gas research community, biomedical sensing, automotive emissions and vehicle combustion as well as industrial gas monitoring. Successful demonstration of the commercial viability may result in an efficient path toward understanding greenhouse gas emissions and providing data to improve mitigation practices with minimal economic damage. Currently, researchers studying greenhouse gas fluxes, the nitrogen cycle, and air quality have few sensors available to understand nitrous oxide emissions. In addition, the proposed activities also have application in automotive emissions, combustion diagnostics and process control, biomedical sensing, and industrial trace gas monitoring.