A Microcontroller-Based Wireless Sensor Network System for the Detection of Soot in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

This paper is aimed at applying a wireless sensor network system for the detection of soot in Port Harcourt. The soot particle was collected by open-air trapping on white paper and was stored for characterization. The soot was characterized using Gas Chromatography – Flame Ionization Detector (GC – FID) and Fourier transforminfrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy methods. GC – FID provides the concentration of the compositions contained in a particular sample. The FT-IR analysis revealed the presence of the functional groups that identified the presence of NO2, CO2, NH2, CO, SO4, CH4 and H2S. From the research findings NO2, CO2, NH2, CO, SO4, CH4 and H2S were identified to be part of soot compositions. The FT-IR spectra showed the presence of some functional groups related to the presence of NO2, CO2, NH2, CO, SO4, CH4 and H2S. Based on the identified compositions a sensor-detecting system was designed and constructed for the monitoring and detection of soot. Each sensor module transmits the current levels of NO2, CO, SO4, CH4, H2S, CO2, NH2 through a GSM module. Also, findings from the study show that the detector system identified soot in different environments and was able to detect increases or decreases in soot concentration on a real-time basis. A GSM module was incorporated to store, monitor, process, and visualize the data received from the sensor network.