SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Project SummarySouthwest Sciences proposes to develop test and commercialize a low power compactinstrument mounted on a small drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)for the simultaneousreal time detection of the three most important greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide methane andnitrous oxide - emitted from agricultural production sites or any other area where monitoring ofgreenhouse gas emissions is needed. The compact size low weight and low power specificationsmake this instrument highly portable so that it can be used not only for airborne measurements butalso any environmental measurement application where available power may be limited includingland vehicle and stationary ground-based measurements. The use of a drone or small UAV as thetransport vehicle for the instrument will greatly reduce the cost of making frequent measurementsover agricultural sites or other measurement targets.The Phase I project objectives are to:ï‚· Construct a laboratory prototype instrument to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.ï‚· Extensively characterize the sensitivity and stability of the system in the laboratory and instationary outdoor measurements.ï‚· Test the system in flight using a drone owned by Southwest Sciences.The results of the Phase I project will establish the feasibility of drone-based measurementof the three most important greenhouse gases using two diode lasers and will be the foundation foroptimizing the design of the Phase II prototype.Commercial applications exist in agricultural research and agribusiness where monitoringgreenhouse gas emissions is needed. The technology also has a connection to agriculturally-relatedenergy efficiency as the monitoring instrumentation could be useful in development of methanecapture and utilization technologies. It may be useful in optimizing nitrogen fertilization strategiesfor best crop production and minimal greenhouse gas emissions and for monitoring emissions fromanimal production facilities and guiding waste mitigation strategies.In addition to commercialapplications in agriculture this technology can be adapted to other gases and platforms for airquality and pollution monitoring in other industrial enterprises or atmospheric researchapplications.
