An autonomous methane gas sensor on a silicon microchip

硅微芯片上的自主甲烷气体传感器

• 批准号: 529535-2018
• 负责人: Meldrum, Alkiviathes
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=659512
• 关键词: autonomous; methane; gas; sensor; silicon

Methane is an attractive energy source. As the simplest and lightest hydrocarbon, it burns clean, without the**"soup" of long-chain hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides, or nitrous oxides present in other fuels. As an energy source,**it releases less CO2 than coal. Methane is the major component of natural gas and is therefore important to**much of the international energy industry. Natural gas is used for electricity generation and home heating in**many parts of the world, and many jurisdictions have been mandated to switch from coal to natural gas.**Although not so well-known, methane's greenhouse effects are ~70 times more powerful than those of CO2. It**is currently the second largest contributor to the global greenhouse effect, and its atmospheric concentration is**believed to have doubled since pre-industrial times. Rapid detection of fugitive emissions from gas production**and transportation facilities is a critical part of future efforts to minimize the release of GHG into the**atmosphere. The proposal aims to develop a prototype micro-optical methane sensor that would be small and**cheap enough to form a monitoring system that would enable the detection of methane releases over large**geographic areas. By incorporating the device onto a silicon chip using standard procedures in**microelectronics, it should be relatively simple to mass produce. The basic idea is to deploy so-called**micro-optical "ring resonator" technology with temperature stabilization in order to sense low levels of**methane with a small, inexpensive device. This Engage grant will allow the University of Alberta team to work**on the fundamental science of microphotonics for methane sensing and use their results toward the**development of a prototype that would solve an important problem for Campbell Scientific a Canadian leader**in environmental monitoring and control solutions.

甲烷是一种有吸引力的能源。作为最简单和最轻的碳氢化合物，它燃烧清洁，没有其他燃料中存在的长链烃，硫氧化物或氮氧化物的“汤”。作为一种能源，它释放的二氧化碳比煤炭少。甲烷是天然气的主要成分，因此对国际能源工业很重要。天然气在世界上许多地方用于发电和家庭供暖，许多司法管辖区已被授权从煤炭转向天然气。虽然不太为人所知，但甲烷的温室效应比二氧化碳强70倍。它是目前全球温室效应的第二大贡献者，它在大气中的浓度据信比前工业时代增加了一倍。快速检测天然气生产 ** 和运输设施的散逸性排放是今后努力尽量减少温室气体向大气 ** 释放的一个关键部分。该提案旨在开发一种微型光学甲烷传感器原型，这种传感器体积小，价格便宜，足以构成一个监测系统，能够检测大面积的甲烷排放。通过使用微电子学中的标准程序将该设备集成到硅芯片上，它应该相对简单地批量生产。其基本思想是部署具有温度稳定性的所谓 ** 微光学“环形谐振器”技术，以便用小型廉价设备检测低水平的 ** 甲烷。这项Engage资助将使阿尔伯塔大学的团队能够 ** 从事甲烷传感微光子学基础科学的研究，并将其成果用于 ** 开发一个原型，该原型将为加拿大环境监测和控制解决方案的领导者坎贝尔科学公司 ** 解决一个重要问题。