- 1Norwegian Institute of Air Research NILU, Kjeller, Oslo
- 2European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
- 3Fab Lab Barcelona, Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Barcelona, 08005, Spain
- 4Laboratory of atmospheric processes and their impacts, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 5inBiot Monitoring, 31192 Mutilva, Spain
- 6ENRACT, Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Science & Technology, Energy & Safety, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Athens, Greece
- 7Centre for Applied Bioanthropology, Institute for Anthropological Research, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- 8Lab Service Analytica srl, via Emilia, 51/C. 40011 Anzola dell’Emilia, Bologna
- 9International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga s/n, Braga 4715-330, Portugal
- 10IMEC, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Indoor air quality (IAQ) plays a vital role in providing healthier indoor environments, especially considering that most human activities occur indoors. Since indoor and outdoor air pollutants are closely interrelated, monitoring both can provide insights into IAQ dynamics.
The IDEAL (Indoor Air Quality Health) Cluster comprises seven Horizon-Europe funded projects (InChildHealth, INQUIRE, LEARN, K-HealthinAIR, SynAir-G, TWINAIR, and EDIAQI) and the Working Group (WG) on Sensors aims to enhance understanding of knowledge gaps in IAQ, identifying IAQ determinants and to assess their health impacts using various sensor technologies. The goal of the WG on Sensors is to develop common documentation on sensor types, operation modes, characterization, calibration, performance, assessment and validation methods for indoor air quality monitoring and health impact assessment.
The documentation is informed by the different technologies and methodologies used across the seven EU-projects. We have found that the most commonly measured parameters include particulate matter, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), CO2 and comfort parameters (temperature and relative humidity) although other parameters are also monitored based on the specific needs of each project. Low-cost sensors for indoor air quality monitoring are used across all the IDEAL cluster’s projects, although they come from different manufacturers. For example, VOCs are monitored using metal oxide sensors from Sensirion, Alphasense, and Figaro, with non-distinction of the VOC species to be the common challenge across all low-cost sensors. All the projects have planned for co-location to understand the data quality. Sensor-measured particulate matter is mainly validated against reference measurements in the field, and in two out of seven projects co-location campaigns conducted in various European countries to assess how the sensors respond in different indoor environments.
In this transfer learning approach, all projects share their experiences, highlighting the advantages, limitations, and challenges associated with using different sensor technologies to measure air pollutants. All information gathered is mapped to identify possible similarities and challenges in measuring common parameters across the seven IDEAL Cluster’s projects. This information can be proven useful also to projects pertaining to other citizen science initiatives that are interested in monitoring IAQ.
Acknowledgments: We acknowledge funding for INQUIRE project from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No.1011057499.
Pernilla Bohlin Nizzetto, Norwegian Institute of Air Research NILU, (pbn@nilu.no INQUIRE) Gaetano Settimo, Italian National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy (gaetano.settimo@iss.it) Chiara Giorio, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK (cg525@cam.ac.uk) Evangelia Chatzidiakou, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, UK (ec571@cam.ac.uk) Evangelia Diapouli, Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Science & Technology, Energy & Safety, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Athens, Greece (ldiapouli@ipta.demokritos.gr) Marta Almeida, Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Bobadela LRS, Portugal (smarta@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt) Ian Colbeck, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK (colbi@essex.ac.uk) Bernard Grundlehner, Eindhoven, Netherlands (bernard.grundlehner@imec.nl) Hans Wyss, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Microsystems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, 5600 MB, Netherlands (h.m.wyss@tue.nl) Varun Kumar, Department of Environmental science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark (varunkm@envs.au.dk) Olympia Ageli, Civil Engineering Department, University of Patras, 26500 Rio, Greece (olumpiaageli@gmail.com) Antonis Papamanolis, Project, Infrastructure and City Management Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece (anthony.papamanolis@gmail.com) John Gialelis, University of Patras, Department of Electrical Engineering, Patras, Greece (gialelis@ece.upatras.gr) Jorge Merino Garcia, University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering, Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge, UK (jm2210@cam.ac.u) Ivano Battaglia, Lab Service Analytica srl, via Emilia, 51/C. 40011 Anzola dell’Emilia, Bologna (bativ@labservice.it) Gianna Karanasiou, WINGS ICT Solutions, Athens, Attiki, Greece (gkaranasiou@wings-ict-solutions.eu)
How to cite: Salamalikis, V., Hasani, A., Castell, N., Kephalopoulos, S., González, Ó., Nenes, T., Figols, M., Eleftheriadis, K., Lovrić, M., Battaglia, A., De Beule, P., and Brongersma, S. and the IDEAL CLUSTER - WG5 Memebers: Opportunities and challenges of sensor technology for indoor air quality monitoring, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19930, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19930, 2025.
