TO DETECT LEVEL OF CARBON

DIOXIDE IN AIR USING OP-AMP

Heli Patel (19BEC037), Hitarth Patel (19BEC039)
Electronics and Communication Department, Nirma University

[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract – This paper consists of low cost indoor air quality

monitoring wireless sensor network system. The system is
designed by Arduino, XBee modules and CO2 gas sensors.

I. INTRODUCTION
In environmental public health risk air pollution secures its This sensor system is created Arduino, XBee module, and CO2
place among the top 5. According to surveys and studies an gas sensor.
average person spends an estimated 90% of his time indoors and
Database and
thus the poor indoor air quality can pose as a serious threat to Base Station
(Coordinator) Web Server
Internet

public health. This poor air quality can lead to increased short
term health issues like nausea and fatigue and can also be as
Sensor Node Sensor Node
serious as chronic respiratory diseases, heart diseases and lung (Router) (Router)
Web Clients

cancer. This does not only affect the health of the individual but
also the productivity loss of a country. There are various reasons Sensor Node Sensor Node Sensor Node Sensor Node
(End Device) (End Device) (End Device) (End Device)
for this particular issue:

• First and foremost the poor air quality is not something Fig.1 Wireless Sensor Network System Architecture
that human beings can easily identify.

• Secondly the air quality sensors that are present are II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
highly expensive and thus can only be used by
professionals.
• People often tend to believe that the indoor air quality To detect the level of CO2 present in air using operational
is better than outdoors whereas the studies show that amplifier. Thus, this paper shows a way to design a low-cost air
the amount of pollutants indoors are 2-5 times more quality monitoring sensor using operational amplifier that can be
accessible to all.
The use of various air fresheners and other chemical household
cleaning products tends to decrease the quality of air. The
improved air quality can not only protect us from all the health III. WIRELESS SENSOR SYSTEM
issues but studies also show that better air quality also motivates
people. Thus, it becomes a prominent need to establish such a Main components of the system includes : sensor node, base
CO2monitoring system that can provide intuitive sense of air station, database and web server and the base station. Sensor
quality conditions. nodes gives data to the base station periodically. Data from base
station is forwarded to database server for storage and
management. A web server can be implemented to provide a
In this paper we present an air quality monitoring system that is convenient web interface for the users to access the data and
lower in cost and is capable of collecting six different air quality manage the sensor network system remotely. Wireless
parameters from different locations simultaneously. We have Communication and networking capability of the sensor node is
implemented by using the Digi XBee module. The XBee module
also worked on a linear least square based method for sensor
implements IEEE 802.15.4 radio and ZigBee networking
calibration and measurement data conversion. We have protocol. IEEE 802.15.4 standard specifies the physical as well
stimulated our design and checked its performance by as medium access control layers for low data-rate wireless
comparing it with professional grade air quality monitoring personal area networks. ZigBee is a low-cost, wireless mesh
systems, made observations and have concluded our results. networking standard which is built upon 802.15.4 . It consumes
low power.
XBee module can be configured into three types of devices The wireless communication is obtained by XBee module which
namely: coordinator, router, and end device. Coordinator is consists of coordinator, router and end device. The coordinator
capable of controlling the entire network. Router can pass the controls the entire network. Router relays the messages in tree or
messages in a mesh network topologies. End device is capable
mesh network topologies and the end device communicates with
of communicating with the coordinator or the router.
the coordinator or router. Sensor shield consists of CO2,
Maximum number of one coordinator can be present in a humidity and temperature sensors. This temperature and
network whereas the number of router or end device is not humidity sensor is placed in order to observe the variations
limited. A coordinator device is capable of supporting a network
in the output of the CO2 sensor with changing the humidity
of up to 65536 nodes, which is limited by the 16-bit network
address of each node. XBee modules are configured on sensor and temperature.
nodes as a router or end device, whereas XBee module is
configured as coordinator on base station.

V. INTERFACING OF CO2
SENSOR

When CO2 sensor is interfaced on the Arduino board, its power

requirement and signal conditioning should be fulfilled. The CO2
sensor (MG811) is a chemical sensor. This sensor can detect
350-10000ppm (parts per million) of CO2 concentration in air.
Fig.2 XBee Module It works on the basis of solid electrolyte cell principle. When
sensor MG811 is exposed to air , chemical reactions occurs in
cell which produces electromotive force. Surface temperature
IV. SENSOR NODE DESIGN should be high for these reactions to take place. So, separate
heating circuit is used to heat the sensor to the required
temperature. Output voltage of the sensor is very low (100mV-
Our sensor node consists multiple sensors, a processing unit, 600mV), it needs to be amplified to a value of so as to improve
wireless communication and a mesh networking module. The the accuracy of measurements. It requires a gain of 5/0.6=8.3. It
processing unit is the Arduino Uno whose microcontroller is also requires an external heating supply to satisfy the power
requirement. Hence it is necessary to develop a signal
16MHz Atmega328 which belongs to the Atmel 8 bit
conditioning and heating circuit for the sensor. The non-
microcontroller family with advanced RISC architecture. It inverting amplifier circuit designed for CO2 sensor for signal
consists of : conditioning purpose which is based on operational amplifier
MCP 6001. Gain achieved with this amplifier circuit is:
• 32KB flash memory along with read-while-write R1
A = 1 + = 7.8
R2
capabilities.
The maximum sampling frequency is 10kHz. Since, the CO 2
• 1KB EEP-ROM, 2KB SRAM, 23 general purpose I/O concentration in the air varies, a low pass filter of cut off
lines (GPIO), frequency 210 Hz is included in the conditioning circuit to
reduce the sampling noise. CO2 sensor requires a current of
• 10 bit A/D converter. 200mA and a heating voltage of 6V.

Fig.3 Arduino Board

Fig.4 Non-inverting amplifier circuit for CO2 sensor signal
conditioning.
 • It has good sensitivity and selectivity towards CO2
• Its dependence on the temperature and humidity is also
very low
• It also does have longer stability and better
reproducibility

The structure of the MG811 CO2 sensor:

Fig.5 Simulation circuit for heating the sensor

Fig.8 CO2 Sensor (MG811)

Fig.6 Frequency Response The sensor is composed of

• Solid electrolyte layer
• Gold electrodes
• Platinum Lead
• Heater
• Porcelain tube
• 100mm double layer stainless net
• Nickel and copper plated ring
• Bakelite
• Nickel and copper plated pin

It is also composed of solid cells:

Air, Au|NASICON|| carbonate|Au, air, CO2
As for the working principle of the MG811 CO2 sensor it works
Fig.7 Regulated power supply for heating CO2 sensor on the principle of a solid electrolyte cell.

VI. MG811 CO2 SENSOR When the internal heating element of the sensor is activated it
responds to CO2 gas and generates a small amount of voltage in
By keeping in mind to allow a microcontroller to determine proportion to the amount of CO2 gas present in the part of the air
when or how much the level of carbon dioxide gas is present a to which the internal element is exposed. It is a device of high
CO2 gas sensor is designed. Here as the host microcontroller we impedance and thus in order to measure its output it requires a
used Arduino. buffer or an amplifier.

The sensor module is designed in such a manner that it can On its exposure to CO2 the electrodes react on both the cathode
easily compare gas sources and also set an alarm limit when the and anode in the following manner:
source exceeds certain limits. It also should be compatible with At Cathode: 2Li + +CO2 + ½ O2 + 2e- = Li2CO3
most of the microcontrollers and should shave low power At Anode: 2Na + +½ O2 + 2e- = Na2O
standby mode.

The CO2 sensor that we have used here is the MG811 sensor.
We selected this particular sensor because of its various So the overall chemical reaction that takes place is
important features: Li2CO3 + 2Na+ = Na2O + 2Li + +CO2
Now this reaction that happens at the electrodes leads to an where, y = [y[1], y[2], . . . , y[N]] T and θ = [a, b] T
Electromotive force or EMF which can be given by Nernst’s H is the observation matrix with the n-th row
equation as follows: h[n] = [(5000 − v[n]), 1].
EMF = Ec –(R * T)/ (2F)ln (P(CO2))
Where, (P(CO2)) is the partial pressure of CO2
Ec is the constant volume
R is the gas constant volume VIII. RESULT
T is the absolute temperature
K is Faraday’s constant
As we can see from the circuit diagram of MG811 CO2 sensor In order to calibrate the gas sensors, firstly we used one set of
when the sensor heating voltage is supplied from the other measurement data obtained using both the Gray-Wolf and the
circuit the surface temperature becomes high enough and the Indoor Air Quality sensor that we have developed using the
sensor can be treated as equivalent to a cell i.e. its two sides
would give us the output voltage signal and thus its result would method described in the least square method for sensor data
then be in accordance to the Nernst’s equation. calibration to derive the linear conversion models for CO2
sensors.

The derived model parameter values:

VII. LEAST-SQUARE METHOD FOR Parameters CO2 Sensor

SENSOR DATA CALIBRATION. model Eq. (2)
a 0.3618
b -472.47
CO2 sensor MG811 provides the output signal in terms of unit of y[n] ppm
voltage level. So, to measure the sensor output in terms of gas
The obtained results after applying the derived conversion
concentration units, sensor needs to be calibrated. Equipments
such as special chamber for maintaining gas concentration at models:
fixed levels and a reference instrument for measuring actual gas
concentration are required for calibration of sensor. These
equipments are expensive.

Hence, as a result simplified sensor calibration method is used.

This method does not require measurements at any predefined
fix levels.

For this purpose sensor node is placed in a plastic sealed

container along with the sensor probe of professional grade air
quality measurement system, “Gray-Wolf Direct Sense IAQ
610”. Gray Wolf system is capable of detecting CO2 , CO,
Ozone, humidity and dew point. The gas concentration inside
the container is varied by injecting any particular gas of interest.
Here CO2 is injected. The data obtained from sensor is then
calibrated against the Gray-Wolf system by using the least- Fig.9 LS Modelling Results
square based method. If compressed gas source is not available
different gas concentration condition can be created by different In order to test the usefulness of the derived conversion models,
approaches. Following linear conversion model for the CO 2 they were applied to a second set of measurement data obtained
sensor MG811 is employed. As the voltage output signal of the by using a sensor system in different gas concentration
sensor decreases, the CO2 concentration level increases. conditions. The results were then compared to the data obtained
using the Gray-Wolf system in the exact same experiment. It was
y[n] = a(5000 − v[n]) + b observed that measurement results from both the systems follow
the same trend in a close manner.
where y[n] is data measured in ppm and v[n] is data measured
in mV at the time n. a and b are unknown parameters. When a For the temperature and humidity variations, we observe that the
set of N measurement (1 ≤ n ≤ N) are available, the signal model gas sensors are independent of slight variations in temperature .
in the vector form can be represented as and humidity. However temperature readings from the sensor
node modules are higher and the humidity readings are lower
y= Hθ than that of the Gray-Wolf system. The reason behind this is the
heat development on the shield by the gas sensors. level of carbon dioxide present in air and maintain its level
to prevent us from the various health issues that arise
IX. APPLICATIONS because of poor air quality.

Operational Amplifier used as a CO2 detector can be used in ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

many applications. It is used to observe the changes in level of
CO2 in air with temperature and humidity. Some of its Firstly, we would like to express our special thanks
applications are:
to Mr.Bhupendra Fataniya Sir as well as to
• It is used for measuring CO2 level in the office, Ms.Amisha Naik Mam for providing knowledge
buildings, school premises, gymnasiums etc. CO2 about operational amplifiers .Also, we would like
should be maintained to appropriate level inside the to express our thanks to our institute for providing
buildings so as to improve the cognitive abilities and a platform where we can perform such projects,
reduce the risk of airborne diseases. explore new things and knowledge about different
• It also a wide application in medical areas. It is used
things.
for detecting CO2 level in body cells and to manage
ideal growth of cell and tissue.
REFERENCES
• It is used for detecting level of carbon dioxide that is
given off during fermentation process.
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2
• It is used in industrial application. Many harmful gases
97650563_Design_of_A_Low-
are present in industries. CO2 sensor is used to detect
the level of carbon dioxide present in industrial Cost_Wireless_Indoor_Air_Quality_Senso
environment. r_Network_System

• Also, it is used in agricultural applications. It is used to [2] https://peer.asee.org/testing-of-carbon-

detect carbon dioxide with aim to maximize plant monoxide-and-carbon-dioxide-sensors-
yields. It is also used for monitoring plant disposal as
well as composting. with-simple-apparatus-in-an-engineering-
education-laboratory.pdf
• It is used for packaging of products that may [3] https://www.jameco.com
deteriorate with time i.e. perishable products. It is used
for measuring CO2 level present in the packaging in
order to increase the lifespan of perishable products.

• It is used in transportation industries for measuring the

CO2 level in cargo for transporting dry ice.

• It is also used in measuring CO2 in fire suppression

applications.

X. CONCLUSION
In this paper we discussed about how operational amplifier
can be used to detect level of CO2 present in air. The system
is designed using Arduino Uno and easily available and low-
cost micro gas sensor. The mesh networking capability of
the system simplifies the development of wireless sensor
network system. Also, to calibrate the gas sensor a least
square estimation-based method is formulated. Thus, such
low-cost CO2 detector is extremely useful to monitor the