Sensor could aid construction of real-time pollution maps

Duvas Technologies’ system is based on ultraviolet-absorption spectroscopy, which can detect a range of pollutants simultaneously — replacing the need for the whole set of different instruments currently used to monitor local emissions.

Currently, more than one billion people a year suffer from respiratory diseases associated with pollution and, according to the World Health Organization, more than three million a year die from its effects.  

Indeed, the UK government is currently facing the threat of a £300m fine as a result of London repeatedly falling short of EU air-pollution targets.

’In order to be able to manage a problem, you have to be able to measure it well,’ said Duvas scientist Steven Wilkins.

‘At the moment, the situation in London is that you have a very limited number of sites trying to put together a picture of what is happening across the capital.’

To test the performance of its sensors, Duvas turned to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which came up with a novel gas-dilution technique to simulate the trace-emission gases found at ambient concentrations in the environment.