November 2020. Atmospheric Sensors’ Products Selected for Air-Quality Project in India
Atmospheric Sensors Ltd’s AS 520 wearable air quality monitors have been selected to enable hyperlocal distribution of pollutants to be measured during the Innovating for Clean Air Programme in Bengaluru, India. The project is under the auspices of UK Research and Innovation, The Newton Fund and Connected Places Catapult (CPC) and is supported by a partnership of organisations within India. It is comprised of a set of activities to showcase technologies and approaches which can support Bengaluru in realising its air quality strategic goals, including creating and sustaining an urban testbed labeled the Clean Air Testbed.
The flagship initiative of the Clean Air Testbed is the “Clean Air Street” programme. As part of the programme, the CPC and Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) are collaborating with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Urban Morph to transform Church Street – _a central business district in Bengaluru - into a vehicle-free zone, which is labeled a “Clean Air Street”. _At the heart of the initiative is the creation of a healthy, citizen-centric street environment that encourages sustainable behaviour and acts as a demonstration area for green technologies and transport solutions.
As part of the Clean Air Street initiative, the Directorate for Urban Land and Transport (DULT) , supported by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Bengaluru Traffic Police, have organised for Church Street to be closed to motor vehicles over weekends for five months, starting November 2020. The Clean Air Street aims to reprioritise clean mobility and showcase UK and Indian solutions while demonstrating the benefits these bring. Insights gathered from the pilots have can also be used by participating government agencies to shape policies relating to air quality, electric mobility and support the long-term pedestrianisation of streets in Karnataka and across India.
Atmospheric Sensors Ltd. (ASL) is exploiting a new, digital, approach to gas sensor management, that allows the aggregation of a range of sensing technologies to achieve enhanced reliability, sensitivity and selectivity. The model AS520 addresses ambient air quality, by deploying the multi-technology approach in a wearable unit. The units_deploy electrochemical sensors, a particle monitor, relative humidity monitoring and temperature measurement. Data can be stored locally and can be transmitted to a central management site.
The motivation of ASL to take part in the test is to demonstrate the usage of personal exposure monitors in gathering valuable data on the personal exposure of a user group to air pollution. As the Clean Air Street initiative developes the data from the ASL sensors will complement data provided by the fixed-location sensors from Ambee and Pkruti, by providing a picture of air quality from the perspective of a single individual’s journey because it is recognized that air pollution is never uniformly distributed.
The deployment of the units will be assigned to two students, who will travel to Church Street, as well as up and down the street, at least five days a week, including Sundays (a day the street was closed to traffic). There will be different pairs of students, to provide insights from different streets around Church Street (as they take different routes to get to the street).