I-Corps: Optical Component for Improved Trace Gas Detection

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种轻质、紧凑、稳定的气体传感仪器，例如，可用于寻找天然气（甲烷）泄漏的来源。在全球范围内，每年有3%（300亿美元）的天然气在开采和使用之间流失。甲烷是一种强效温室气体，是导致气候变化的重要因素，因此能够有效地发现天然气泄漏对监管机构和油气公司都很重要。廉价和敏感的微量气体传感也有公共卫生应用：有毒气体可引起严重的健康问题，并可表明空气质量差。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种轻型、无人机安装的光谱仪，用于识别气体。每种气体在中红外光谱中都有已知的吸收特征，从而可以对其成分和浓度进行光谱测量。这种提出的技术在光谱仪中创造了非轴对称光学，比目前市场上的光谱仪更紧凑。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a lightweight, compact, and stable instrument for gas sensing and can be used, for example, in finding the source of natural gas (methane) leaks. Globally, each year 3% ($30 billion) of natural gas is lost between extraction and use. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and s significant contributor to climate change so it is important to both regulators and oil and gas companies that gas leaks are able to be found efficiently. There are also public health applications for inexpensive and sensitive trace gas sensing: noxious gases can cause significant health issues and can be indicative of poor air quality.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a lightweight, drone-mounted spectrometer for identifying gases. Each gases has known absorption features in the mid-infrared spectrum allowing for spectroscopic measurements of composition and concentration. This proposed technology creates non-axially-symmetric optics in spectrometers that are more compact than those currently on the market.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.