Accuracy improvement to low-cost air quality monitoring devices to enable their use in traffic management

In the wake of the industrial revolution, air quality monitoring became the primary interest of the international health organizations and other related institutions, due to the increase in air pollution level which led to:
➢ increase number of deaths caused by the air contaminant
➢ economic loss due to crops damaging
➢ Global Warming

Air quality monitoring is a technology used to detect air contaminant level and collect precise data to enable the concerned institutions to take action in reducing air pollution. This aspect became the subject of technical improvement as part of EU reporting regulation, air annual status report (ASR), annual progress report (APR). Since the cost of the currently used methods is a significant high which are approximately £120 to 150K for each device in Kirklees area, a reliable and cheaper method is required to replace this conventional method that will be addressed in more details further in this thesis.

Air pollution elements can be defined in three types:
1- Solid particles such as particle matter PM10 and PM 2.5 etc. sources mainly from vehicle emission, factories process, dust, spores, volcanic ash also brakes and tyre friction.
2- Liquid droplets from contaminant steam condensation
3- Gases from power stations and vehicle emissions such as NO, SO2, CO, and O3, etc.
This thesis mainly focusses on of the following pollution elements PM10 and PM2.5 as these elements have a very significant impact on human health.