**6. References**


**14** 

*2eni SpA, 3Netsens Srl,* 

*Italy* 

**Real-Time Monitoring of Volatile** 

**Organic Compounds in Hazardous Sites** 

*1Centre for Technology for Environment Quality & Safety, University of Florence,* 

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are largely used in many industries as solvents or chemical intermediates. Unfortunately, they include some components, present in the atmosphere, that can represent a risk factor for human health. They are also present as a contaminant or a by-product in many processes, i.e. in combustion gas stacks and

Benzene, in particular, shows a high toxicity resulting in a Time-Weighted Average (TWA) limit of 0.5 ppm, as compared, for instance, with TWA for gasoline, in the range of

Detection of VOCs at sub-ppm levels is, thus, of paramount importance for human safety

The commonly used field-portable instruments for VOC detection are the hand-held Photo-Ionisation Detectors (PIDs), sometime using pre-filter tubes for specific gas detection. PIDs are accurate to sub-ppm, measurements are fast, in the range of one or two minutes and, thus, compatible with on-field operation. However, they require skilled personnel and

Wireless connected hand-held PID Detectors start being available on the market, thus overcoming some of the previously described limitations, but suffering for the limited

The paper describes the implementation and on-field results of an end-to-end distributed monitoring system integrating VOC detectors, capable of performing real-time analysis of

The system consists of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) infrastructure, whose nodes are equipped with distributed meteo-climatic sensors and gas detectors, of TCP/IP over GPRS Gateways forwarding data via Internet to a remote server and of a user interface which

The paper provides a survey of the VOC detector technologies of interest, of the state-of-theart of the fixed and area wireless technologies available for Gas detection in hazardous areas

gas concentration in hazardous sites at unprecedented time/space scale.

provides data rendering in various formats and access to data.

and a detailed description of the WSN based monitoring system.

**1. Introduction** 

300 ppm.

groundwater clean-up systems.

and industrial hygiene in hazardous environments.

cannot provide continuous monitoring.

battery life and relatively high cost.

Gianfranco Manes1, Giovanni Collodi1, Rosanna Fusco2, Leonardo Gelpi2, Antonio Manes3 and Davide Di Palma3

