Real-time CO2 monitoring without batteries or external power

anyone can explain why this is such a big breakthrough?

vibration powered electricity generator is not new, neither is CO2 monitoring. so what's the big deal?

dfex · 2 months ago

More concerning - can anyone explain why there is such a variation in the results from the DC powered unit vs. the TENG-powered one? The graph at the bottom of the report shows a difference of 30-50ppm between both units when they are sitting side by side on the bench.

callmemclovin · 2 months ago

That's in the normal range of accuracy of modern CO2 sensors, for example SCD40 from Sensirion is described with an accuracy of ±50.0 ppm ±5.0 %m.v.

zipping1549 · 2 months ago

I skimmed the original article and it only mentions the graph and says that it's "comparable to DC powered unit". I'm guessing < 100ppm difference is somewhat acceptable?

mschuster91 · 2 months ago

The power consumption is the thing, these sensors usually run in the low-digit milliwatt range... and they managed to get it to run on a power generation of 0.5 mW, making the combination of both possible at all.

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nashashmi · 2 months ago

A low powered co2 monitor is likely a big deal. And one that fits to specific power generation systems is even a bigger deal.

ChemSpider · 2 months ago

The challenge with CO2 monitoring is the sensor, not the electronics. Sensor accurracy and service life are key information.

It is easy to create a low power chemical CO2 sensors with a service life of a few weeks/months. Obviously not pratical for real world applications. So critical data is missing in this press release.

tempodox · 2 months ago

> The core of this new system is an "Inertia-driven Triboelectric Nanogenerator (TENG)" that converts vibrations (with amplitudes ranging from 20-4000 ㎛ and frequencies from 0-300 Hz) generated by industrial equipment or pipelines into electricity. This enables periodic CO2 concentration measurements and wireless transmission without the need for batteries.

Ingenious, I love it.

Gravityloss · 2 months ago

I was thinking would there be a passive chemical alternative, something that changed color according to CO2 level. Kind of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicarbonate_indicator

These generally - as the article indicates - have the issue that they aren't just sensitive to CO2 but virtually anything else.

You could maybe get by with some sort of antibody coagulation stuff like in many rapid test strips, but these are to my knowledge not reversible.

supportengineer · 2 months ago

I was hoping it would be a mechanical system that uses no electricity at all

nikolayasdf123 · 2 months ago

Dead Comment

noisy_boy · 2 months ago

Tangential/Spoiler: I came to know about Kaist (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) in the Netflix series Devil's Plan (season 2) which had two of its students as the top three contestants.