Politecnico participates in the new European RAVEN project to combat air pollution

Green Deal direction: the new European project RAVEN was set up with the aim of developing innovative sensors to monitor greenhouse gases and various pollutants produced by human activity. An initiative conceived with a view to supporting, through research, the European Union's “Zero Pollution for Air, Water, and Soil” action plan, a key component of the pact that aims to achieve climate neutrality on the continent by 2050.

Politecnico is among the supporters of the project along with other universities based in five European countries: Finland, France, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. 

Specifically involved are the University of Eastern Finland - the proposal coordinator - Brighterwave Oy, Gasera, Picophotonics, Tampere University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, A2 Photonic Sensors, Cedre, INP Grenoble, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, Teem Photonics S.A, Uniwersytet Gdanski, VIGO Photonics S.A., CIC nanoGUNE and MODUS Research and Innovation. 

With funding of EUR 4.8 million from the Horizon Europe programme, the project entrusts an interdisciplinary team of researchers with the development of the next generation of compact, low-cost gas detection systems over the next four years.

In detail, these will be sensors capable of measuring various pollutants and greenhouse gases such as CO2, CO, O3, CH4, N2O, CH3OH, NH3 and NO2, substances which are then detected and differentiated while meeting stringent requirements on performance, energy consumption, size and cost. Capable of operating completely independently, these sensors will provide cost flexibility to meet the different needs of end users.

We are dealing with cutting-edge technologies that will be able to be deployed in situ and on demand in remote locations thanks to innovative data acquisition, processing and interpretation techniques that enable low power consumption and operation without mains power.

Politecnico team working on the project is coordinated by Emiliano Descrovi, lecturer at the Applied Science and Technology Department-DISAT, and is composed of DISAT lecturers Federico Bosia and Antonio Gliozzi. The focus of the work carried out at the University is the realisation of a miniaturised optical device for the spectroscopic analysis - measurement of an electromagnetic spectrum - of atmospheric gases at high resolution. 
This device integrates laser sources and light detectors on a dielectric platform - an insulator, as these materials ideally have no free charge and therefore do not conduct electricity - in which various nanostructured elements allow light radiation to be propagated and confined in such a way as to maximise its interaction with the gas and thus lower its detection thresholds. 
The implementation strategy is based on the team's extensive experience gained, in particular, in the field of nano-optics and photonic crystals, the potential of which has been demonstrated in the past for certain bio-sensor applications. Here too, the generation of light waves confined to the sensitive surface of the device will be the key to realising the principle of transduction - the conversion of one physical quantity into another - underlying the spectroscopic detection of the gases to be monitored.

RAVEN thus harnesses expertise from different fields - materials science, microfluidics, data processing and micro- and nano-fabrication - to offer a versatile, high-performance sensing solution in a compact and widely applicable system. The aim of the project is to provide countries with sensitive, precise and highly accurate technology to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and monitor air pollutants at ppb - parts per billion - concentrations while meeting the strictest air quality standards. The sensor technology will also be able to measure air pollutant concentrations at the water surface, enabling the detection of accidental spills and releases of hazardous substances (HNS) into the sea. What's more, the technology will have the ability to detect concentrations of dissolved greenhouse gases in seawater - an important action that will help assess the impacts of climate change on the marine environment while estimating sources and sinks of greenhouse gases for future climate projections.