Continuous and real-time indoor and outdoor methane sensing with portable optical sensor using rapidly pulsed IR LEDs

We designed a simple, portable, low-cost and low-weight nondispersive infrared (NDIR) spectroscopy-based system for continuous remote sensing of atmospheric methane (CH₄) with rapidly pulsed near-infrared light emitting diodes (NIR LED) at 1.65 μm. The use of a microcontroller with a field programmable gate array (μC-FPGA) enables on-the-fly and wireless streaming and processing of large data streams (~2 Gbit/s). The investigated NIR LED detection system offers favourable limits of detection (LOD) of 300 ppm (±5%) CH₄,. All the generated raw data were processed automatically on-the-fly in the μC-FPGA and transferred wirelessly via a network connection. The sensing device was deployed for the portable sensing of atmospheric CH₄ at a local landfill, resulting in quantified concentrations within the sampling area (ca 400 m²) in the range of 0.5%–3.35% CH₄. This NIR LED-based sensor system offers a simple low-cost solution for continuous real-time, quantitative, and direct measurement of CH₄ concentrations in indoor and outdoor environments, yet with the flexibility provided by the custom programmable software. It possesses future potential for remote monitoring of gases directly from mobile platforms such as smartphones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).