Desenvolvimento de um sistema de monitoramento de dióxido de carbono em espaços confinados de unidades de pré-processamento de grãos

Abstract

The shortage of storage capacity has generated concern in the national scenario. In general, actions aimed mainly at the construction of new units and in compliance with the parameters that preserve the quality of the grains and the environmental safety of the workers, includin g the surveys of harmful gas concentration data generated by the pre-processing activity . The alternatives to monitor the concentration of gases in these places are still few, so it was aimed, with this work, to develop an apparatus to monitor concentrations of carbon dioxide and evaluate the performance of a semiconductor sensor of low cost. The apparatus and sensors were tested when subjected to a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide in a controlled environment. The results indicate that the apparatus worked satisfactorily and even allowed the evaluation of different sensors. The semiconductor sensor did not present satisfactory performance to be used as an alternative in the measurement of carbon dioxide gas under the conditions studied. In addition, the sensor showed interference with humidity variation. The infrared sensor presented satisfactory performance, and due to the relatively low cost, presents potential for application in the scenario of confined environments in grain pre-processing units.