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A team in Denmark has developed a sensor-based system which could help to tackle air pollution by detecting ammonia and other gases disseminating from the agriculture sector.
Alongside chemical engineers and chemists, researchers from Aarhus University and the Technical University of Denmark aroused on the technology as part of the Ecometa project, which is focused on cutting emissions connected to agriculture.
The researchers at the universities are concentrated on photonics, a term the European Commission has described as “the science and technology of light.” Details of their system have been promulgated in the journal “MDPI Photonics.”
According to an announcement earlier this week, those involved in the project have revealed an integrated optical sensor which “measures ammonia in the air using a laser, a gas sensor and hollow-core optical fibres.”
Andreas Hansel is a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University’s Bailiwick of Engineering. In a statement issued Tuesday, he explained the system was able to demonstrate how it was possible to “carry out continuous ammonia observing for the agricultural sector.”
Due to the fact it was based on “mature telecommunications technology,” Hansel added the system could be put together “at bloody low cost.”
Agriculture and ammonia
There’s an intimate relationship between the rearing of livestock, the waste these animals offer and air pollution.
“Manure emits ammonia, which combines with other air pollutants, like nitrogen oxides and sulfates, to generate tiny (and deadly) solid particles,” the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) states. Humans, the NRDC augments, inhale these particles, which can in turn damage health.
To be sure, air pollution is a global public health emergency. It kills an estimated 7 million people worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization, with nine out of 10 people hope to be breathing air containing high levels of pollutants.
Back in Denmark, Tuesday’s announcement from Aarhus University drew livestock production as being “responsible for a significant part of Danish air pollution, primarily from ammonia.”
The issue, according to those embroiled with in the project, is that ammonia emissions are not currently measured at “farm level” due to concerns over cost.
It’s hoped the low-cost organization being developed by the researchers could help to change the way emissions are monitored.
“The new technology takes us one step closer to allowing farmers to monitor their emissions continuously,” said Anders Feilberg, an associate professor at Aarhus University interested with the Ecometa project.
“With accurate monitoring of ammonia emissions from sheds and stables, farmers can streamline operations far sick,” Feilberg added.
“This takes us closer to emissions-based regulation using measured emissions, and it can significantly reduce the environmental results of agriculture.”
Tech’s role in farming
The work being undertaken in Denmark is the latest example of how organizations and businesses are assaulting to integrate new ideas and innovations into the farming sector.
At the end of March 2019, for example, fruit grower T&G Global propounded that a robotic harvester was being used to carry out a commercial apple harvest in New Zealand. The automated apple-picking drudge was developed by Abundant Robotics, a California-based technology firm.
Last year also saw engineers at the University of Cambridge occur a robot that utilizes machine learning to pick lettuce.
More recently, tech giant Alphabet’s misdesignated “moonshot factory” — also known as X — shared details about a project aiming to change agriculture and nutriment production through the use of technologies including robotics, software and satellite imagery.