Optimizing a wireless environmental monitoring system for automated methane quantification in landfills and industrial facilities

Biocovers are earthen structures built into landfills and other industrial facilities to collect and degrade greenhouse gas emissions from the site. They are widely considered one of the most effective ways to combat methane. In order to assess the performance of those biocovers, operators have to attend to the biocover regularly and use a flux chamber and handheld analyzer at different points on the cover and the landfill in order to measure the system’s methane destruction efficiency. The challenge with this method is that it is time-consuming, expensive, and produces very sparse data points.

Spero Analytics is an IoT startup which deploys wireless environmental monitoring systems for the waste management and oil and gas industries. Our aim with this project is to adapt our monitoring system to fit inside an automated, solar-powered flux chamber, thereby converting it into a wireless, autonomous system that can take methane flux measurements every hour with no external, thereby eliminating the need for manual measurement. The research for this project will include designing a robust flux measurement protocol, creating an efficient data transmission and cloud-based analytics system, and ensuring the system is energy efficient.

Faculty Supervisor:

Norah McRae

Student:

Partner:

Spero Analytics

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: