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、最轻的碳氢化合物，它燃烧干净，没有其他燃料中存在的长链碳氢化合物、硫氧化物或一氧化二氮的**“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，因此对国际能源行业非常重要。世界上许多地方都使用天然气来发电和家庭供暖，许多司法管辖区已被强制从煤炭转向天然气。**虽然不那么为人所知，但甲烷的温室效应大约是其 70 倍比 CO2 更强大。它**目前是全球温室效应的第二大贡献者，其大气浓度**自工业化前时代以来**增加了一倍。快速检测天然气生产**和运输设施的无组织排放是未来尽量减少温室气体排放到**大气中的关键部分。该提案旨在开发一种微型光学甲烷传感器原型，该传感器体积小且**便宜，足以形成一个监测系统，能够检测大**地理区域的甲烷释放情况。通过使用微电子学中的标准程序将该设备整合到硅芯片上，批量生产应该相对简单。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、廉价的设备感测低水平的**甲烷。这项参与赠款将允许阿尔伯塔大学团队致力于**微光子学的甲烷传感基础科学，并利用他们的成果**开发原型，为加拿大领先的坎贝尔科学公司解决一个重要问题**环境监测和控制解决方案。