ICCBT2008

Data Acquisition System for Gas Monitoring in Landfills

F. N. M. Fauzi, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA

N.A. Abu Bakar, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA
T. Syed Jalal, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA
N. Md. Din*, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA

ABSTRACT

Landfill energy extractions comprise of a large number of gas wells used to yield the gas
methane for electricity generation. These wells are dispersed over a large land area. To
manage the gas wells manually would require visiting each one of the wells to inspect the
conditions of the wells. This paper describes an effort to develop a data acquisition
framework for a centralized gas monitoring system in landfills for a location in Malaysia. It
describes the options of utilizing sensors, signal conditioners, communication links and
centralized consoles. Initial development of the data acquisition system and signal
conditioning circuit using LABVIEW are presented.

Keywords: Landfill, Data acquisition system, Gas monitoring, Sensors, Signal conditioning.

*Correspondence Authr: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norashidah Md Din, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia. Tel:
+60389212395, Fax: +60389212116. E-mail: norashidah@uniten.edu.my

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1. INTRODUCTION

Worldwide, mankind produces an abundant amount of wastes where the handlings become
increasingly difficult with time as the world’s population grow and land becomes limited and
more expensive. Improper waste treatments also pose hazardous impacts to the ecology,
environment and health. With these effects in mind, the concept of waste to wealth is on the
rise where waste can be made into useful materials and energy sources to promote good waste
management. The next figure shows the massive supply of waste available in Malaysia to be
tapped for energy.

Table 1. The annual amount of waste in Malaysia [1]

Year Population Estimated amount

of waste
(Tonnes/Year)
1991 17,567,000 4,488,369
1994 18,917,739 5,048,804
2015 31,773,889 7,772,402
2020 35,949,239 9,092,611

Landfill is a common solution for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management in Malaysia.
In landfills, methane is naturally produced through anaerobic process in the MSW
decomposition. Besides methane, landfill gas is composed of a mixture of hundreds of
different gases. By volume, landfill gas typically contains 45% to 60% methane and 40% to
60% carbon dioxide. Landfill gas also includes small amounts of nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia,
sulfides, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and nonmethane organic compounds (NMOCs) such as
trichloroethylene, benzene, and vinyl chloride. Since the MSW degradation process is a
natural and spontaneous process, the amount of methane varies from time to time, depending
on the external factors that influence the chemical process.

A centralized monitoring system for gas wells monitoring and gas composition monitoring is
proposed in order to ease the operations in collecting the methane at landfills. The methane
levels in wells are to be monitored using appropriate sensors. The wells are to be clustered to
a data acquisition box and a Wirelass Local Area Network (WLAN) access point. WLAN
communications will then be made between access point and centralized monitoring station
located at the main office. The centralized monitoring station will be the focal point for
database management and escalation process. The escalation process includes sending short
message service (SMS) messages to the person-in-charge.

2. DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

Data acquisition is the process of gathering or generating information in an automated fashion

from analog and digital measurement sources such as sensors and devices under test. Data
acquisition uses a combination of PC-based measurement hardware and software to provide a

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flexible, user-defined measurement system [2]. The hardware part is made of sensors, cables,
signal conditioning, data acquisition card. The software part is made of the data acquisition
logic and the analysis software and some other utilities that can be used to configure the logic
or to move data from data acquisition memory to the central console.

In this work, a data acquisition system [3] for gas monitoring was designed using LABVIEW
software. Several monitoring specifications have been identified in order to design the
monitoring system. The specifications include methane classification and factors that affect
the landfill methane gas production rate. Methane classification is shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Methane Classification

0% - 5% 5% - 15% 15% - 60%
Failure Need Checking OK
st
(both lights (1 light turns
turn red) red)

Figure 1. Block Diagram of the Monitoring System

Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram layout of the monitoring system. This program utilized
the g-programming language by LABVIEW. This monitoring system is designed by
considering one of the factors that affect the methane production rate in the landfill which is
temperature.

Methane production rate is directly proportional to the change of temperature. As the

temperature decreases, the methane percentage also decreases. Based on figure 1, it can be
seen that the block diagram consists of two simulated signal components which generate
signals for the thermometer and the methane percentage meter. In this program, the knob is

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used to represent the input and to adjust the increment and decrement in temperature. The
knob represents the gas sensor. It is connected to the first simulated signal component to
increase or decrease the temperature which is in the range of 20ºC to 80ºC. At landfill the
temperature is approximately 40ºC to 60ºC, but in this design, average value is used as the
initial temperature which is 50ºC. The temperature is then displayed on the temperature graph
as well as the thermometer to improve the readability.

The second simulation signal component represents the methane percentage. The value of the
methane is displayed using the meter and also the value is displayed numerically. In the
graphical programming, comparison Boolean is used to ensure that the light will turn red at
certain condition according to methane classification. At the same time, when the value of the
methane is within 5% to 15 %, the first light will turn red indicating that the system needs
checking. When the methane percentage goes below 5% then both light will turn red
indicating the system failure. The typical value of methane at landfill is within 54% to 60%.

Figure 2. During normal Condition

Figure 3. Failure Condition

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Figure 4. Need Checking Condition

3. OPTICAL GAS SENSOR

Optical measurements are the most accurate and reliable method for gas analysis. Optical gas
sensors [4] depend on measuring the transmission of light at different wavelength for each
gas. The particular wavelength identifies the gas and the amount of light absorbed by the gas
determines the gas concentration.

Figure 5. A Basic Fiber Optic Sensor System

Figure 6. Absorption of Common Gases

The concentration of methane in landfill gas can be monitored by using an optical gas
detection system. The methane will be absorbed by a gas absorption cell. A light source at a

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specific wavelength is passed through the cell and interacts with the absorbed gas. The
returned light is then examined to determine the amount of power absorbed by the gas cell.
This is then translated into the concentration of methane gas.

A multiplexed system can be used to monitor multiple wells simultaneously. One single
source can possibly be used to power up all gas absorption cells. An intelligent data
acquisition can collect data and send it to a central processing computer for data storage and
analysis. The connection from the source to the each individual well is made using a normal
fiber optic cable.

There are several methods of methane gas detection over optical fiber paths that can be used
[5]. One of them is by using a broadband white light source and a rotating-
chopper/interference-filter arrangement to sequentially interrogate the transmission of the
sample cell, over the desired fiber optic cable link. Semiconductor LED sources can also be
used in conjunction with a fiber-remoted methanometer. The useful power that can be
extracted from a broadband incandescent or LED source can be increased by using Fabry-
Perot cavity having the wavelength spacing equal to that between each of the rotational
absorption lines of methane gas.

Figure 7. Absorption Spectrum of Methane

4. OPTICAL SENSOR IMPLEMENTATIONS

Basically, there three are types of optical sensor implementations as shown in Figure 8 [6, 7].
They are:

1. Point sensor.
The measurement is carried out at a single point in space, but it is possible to use
multiple channels to address multiple points.

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2. Distributed sensor.
The parameter of interest is measured with a certain spatial resolution at any point
along a single optical cable.

3. Quasi-distributed sensor.
The measurand is determined at a number of fixed, discrete points along a single
fiber optical cable.

Figure 8: Optical Sensor Implementation [6, 7]

5. FIBER OPTIC METHANE SENSOR

Figure 9 shows the components of fiber optic methane sensors [8]. White light and optical
filters are used to measure methane concentration using differential absorption techniques.
The gas concentration is determined by the amount of light absorbed by the gas. Detectors
that are located behind each of the filters convert the light into electrical signals that are
processed to calculate the concentration of methane present in the gas cell.

Figure 9. Fiber Optic Methane Sensor

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6. ADVANTAGES OF OPTICAL SENSORS

Optical sensors have significant advantages compared to conventional sensor types, in terms
of their properties. Following are the advantages of optical sensors [9-11]:
• Immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI), cross talk and space radiation.
• Completely passive
• Small size, light weight, low cost, low power.
• High sensitivity, large dynamic range and resolution
• Remote operation over several miles length without any lead sensitivity
• Can measure a large number of points along a single optical cable.
• Can monitor a wide range of physical and chemical parameters.
• High temperatures resistance.

7. SIGNAL CONDITIONING

Usually the output of a sensor is only in the range of milivolts. The signal is not strong enough
to pass through to the data acquisition system. Therefore, signal conditioning is needed to
amplify the output sensor so that the data acquisition can process the data.

Figure 10 shows the schematic of signal conditioning circuit that had been designed for the
centralized gas monitoring system. Meanwhile, Table 3 shows the results obtained from the
circuit simulation. From the results, we can see that this signal conditioning amplify the
output sensor with a gain of 10 [12].

Figure 10. Signal Conditioning

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Table 3. Sensor Outputs after Amplification

Input (mV) Output (V)
480.5 4.805
532.2 5.322
633.8 6.338
710.6 7.106
789.2 7.892
822.6 8.226

8. CONCLUSION

By developing a data acquisition system for centralized gas monitoring in landfills, the
manpower can be reduced. Besides that, accurate results can be obtained with reduced human
errors.

Taking advantage of the capacity of optical fibers to send and receive optical signals over long
distances, it shows that using optical sensor for gas monitoring is a viable solution for the
centralized monitoring system. By using optical sensors, it is not necessary to convert between
electronics and photonics separately at each sensing site, and thereby reduces costs and
increases flexibility.

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[2]. Data Acquisition (DAQ), National Instruments, 2008

[3]. Nurul Akmar Abu Bakar, "Data Acquisition Software for Centralized Landfill Wells
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[4]. Mary Jane Perry, "Optical Sensors", School of Marine Sciences and Ira C. Darling
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[8]. Thomas H. Dubaniewicz, Joseph E. Chilton, and Harry Dobroski, Jr., "Fiber Optic for
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[12]. Fara Nadiah Mohd Fauzi, "Monitoring System for Landfill Gas (LFG) Power
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