Low-cost air quality sensors to provide pollution data to residents

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, in partnership with a Mumbai-based start-up, has developed and installed first-of-its-kind, low-cost air quality monitoring sensors across 30 different locations in Delhi and the neighbouring satellite towns for more providing local data on the sources of pollution.

The data from the sensors, which have been designed to measure particulate matter of the size 10 microns (PM 10) and 2.5 microns (PM 2.5), would not only be available to anti-pollution agencies but local residents as well, the developers said.

IIT-Kanpur scientists explained that the sensors gathers and transmit data more effectively than the air quality monitoring stations in Delhi-NCR. Delhi has 36 monitoring stations run by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

Scientists said it is a collaboration between the IIT-Kanpur, Mumbai-based Respirer Living Sciences and Ericsson (India), which for the first time in has used the Narrow Bandwidth-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology in India.

The project is led by Sachchida Nand Tripathi, head of department (civil engineering) who is also a member of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and professor Abhay Karandika, director, IIT-Kanpur. Data generated from these sensors will be shared on a common platform to help community groups in understanding air quality situation in their areas and help government agencies plan mitigating measures.

The first batch of these sensors have been installed at 30 locations, including Dhaula Kuan, RK Puram, Mundka, Rohini, Najafgarh, and NCR towns of Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Noida. The data from these stations will be made available to the residents in a few days.

“This is a patent-pending technology that IIT-Kanpur has developed. These sensors are low-cost but they are very well calibrated. This will not only provide a clear picture of which local sources are acting up, but will also provide information of how much contribution is coming from outside,” said Tripathi.

“At present Delhi has 36 monitoring stations, but this number are barely enough. In cities such as Beijing and London, there are hundreds of air quality monitoring sensors, which ensures accuracy of information. With the success of this project, the number of these sensor installations can be scaled up,” Tripathi said.

Ronak Sutaria, founder and CEO of Respirer Living Sciences, which is the industry partner in this project, said that these sensors cost just 1/20th the price of reference grade stations that are currently installed in Delhi. Setting up a reference grade station may cost Rs10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh per station, but these new sensors cost around R50,000, with an accuracy of over 90%.

“One of the objectives of these sensors is to provide local residents information about what his happening in their neighbourhood. Also, when you are taking certain actions to improve the air quality you need such hyper-local air quality data, which is presently not available in the country. This device can also run on a single charge battery for at least six months. Unlike a traditional device that needs to be put on the main power source every 24 hours; this new technology can be installed in multiple locations while saving the cost of power,” Sutaria said.

Experts and residents both welcomed the concept.

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said that access to data and community engagement is the first step towards controlling pollution sources in the city.

“When you don’t know the extent of damage being done, how can you control it? Data access is the first step of solving the problem of pollution in the region. Hyper-local data will also help government agencies make dedicated plans for each area and address the sources more efficiently. Also, considering that these are developed by a highly reputed institute, there should be no question about its accuracy,” Roychowdhury said.

Prithvi Yadav, general secretary of Dwarka Joint Residents’ Welfare Association, said that if data is accessible, even if government agencies do not take action, community groups can initiate corrective measures to control local pollution.

“The RWAs and residents are extremely active in this area, so if we are better informed of the air quality levels in our neighbourhood, we can take steps to control that,” Yadav said.

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