Hey AirGradients enthusiasts,
I am trying to better understand our TVOCS in our neighbourhood and am looking into further measurements, especially regarding formaldehyde, benzene, and phenols.
Bit of background: We live close to an industrial place that installed a biomass energy plant two years ago, which started to really mess up the air. Thanks to our Airgradient sensor, we have proven that they did not have the necessary filters installed, and we keep monitoring. However, while we start to see some improvements on the 2.5, 10 particle side, we still have very high TVOC values, which also come with a bad smell. Long story short, we want to understand that smoke better and present facts and data again. We love our house, but that situation is killing the mood.
I did some digging and looked into studies exploring the environmental effects of biomass energy plants. Formaldehyde, benzene, and phenols are the most common side products and are likely behind some of our TVOC spikes. For formaldehyde, I found the SFA30 from Sensirion (https://sensirion.com/products/catalog/SFA30), which seems to be relatively straightforward, and it might be used by our outdoor monitors, or at least a different ESP32 board. In addition, I found the MQ138 for Benzene (Benzene, Toluene, Acetone, Formaldehyde sensor MQ138 breakout with easyC - Soldered), but phenols seem to be a different beast.
Has anyone had experience with the sensors above? Or even managed to connect them to the Airgradient sensor?
Any help or further insights, if you have had a similar issue, would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
David