AQMesh

Measure Where It Matters, Not Where the Power Is

The constraint on air quality monitoring has always been infrastructure. A reference station needs a building, mains power and a data connection, so measurements get taken where those exist, rather than where the question is.

AQMesh removes that. The pod carries its own power, from a solar pack, batteries or a mains supply, and its own communications over the mobile network, with LAN or power over Ethernet as options. It mounts on a wall or post with the supplied bracket, weighs 2 to 2.7 kg, and installs in a few minutes without experienced technical staff.

The practical effect is that a boundary can be monitored where a complaint comes from, and a work front where the work is happening. A pod can be moved when the question changes.

Pay for the Channels You Need

Each pod can be specified to monitor a single gas or up to six, plus particulate, noise, and wind speed and direction.

Gases available are nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and total VOCs, measured by electrochemical sensors, plus carbon dioxide by NDIR. Particulate is measured by a light scattering optical particle counter, covering PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10 and total particulate. Noise is measured with an omnidirectional microphone, and wind speed and direction by a meteorological sensor.

Pod temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity are measured on all pods as standard.

If a project needs two gases, you buy two gas sensors.

Wind Direction Is What Turns Data Into Evidence

This is the capability worth understanding, because it changes what the monitoring is for.

A pollutant reading tells you a concentration was present at the boundary. It doesn’t tell you where it came from, which is exactly the question in dispute when a neighbour complains or a regulator asks.

Adding wind speed and direction allows that question to be answered. Combining the pollutant reading with the wind at the time shows the direction the pollution arrived from. That helps separate emissions from your own site, which you can manage, from emissions arriving from a neighbouring operation or regional background, which you can’t.

In an argument about responsibility, that distinction is often the whole case.

Nitrogen Dioxide Measured, Not Calculated

This is a technical point that separates AQMesh from some small sensor equipment.

Nitrogen dioxide and ozone interfere with each other in electrochemical sensing, and some manufacturers use a calculation to give an NO2 reading. A calculated value inherits the errors of the measurement it came from, and depends on the assumed relationship holding.

AQMesh uses a unique ozone filtered NO2 sensor, for an accurate, direct measurement of NO2. NO2 is closely associated with diesel and traffic sources, so measuring it directly matters.

Traceable Data Processing

Small sensor air quality monitoring can have a credibility problem, and AQMesh addresses it directly.

The data processing algorithms are fully traceable and fixed by version number, and were developed without machine learning or artificial intelligence. AQMesh’s performance and long term stability have been proven over many years of independent co-location trials against certified reference equipment, in all seasons and across all continents.

That fixed approach sounds like a limitation, but it isn’t. An algorithm fixed by version number produces the same output from the same input today and in three years, so a data set collected over a long period stays consistent. On data meant to support a compliance position or a dispute, repeatability matters more than sophistication.

AQMesh has been on the market since 2012, with some customers still running the same pods they received seven years ago.

Weak Signal Isn’t Lost Data

Data is sent automatically to the AQMesh server. Where it can’t be transmitted, it’s stored locally on the pod until it can be.

That matters on the sites where this equipment is most useful. Remote mining operations, landfill perimeters, rural industrial sites and construction in areas with patchy coverage are exactly where a system that only reports live would produce a data set full of gaps.

Readings are processed and stored on AQMesh’s secure server, accessed by web login, by API for integration with another system, or emailed on a schedule. Measurement periods can be set from 1 minute to 1 hour, and transmission intervals from 5 minutes to 12 hours.

Low Maintenance by Design

Ongoing cost is low. AQMesh recommends replacing the electrochemical sensors at two year intervals, and replaces all sensors free of charge during the first year. NDIR, solid state and microphone sensors have an expected life of five years.

An optional heated inlet is available for particulate monitoring, where high humidity would otherwise affect particle sizing. That’s worth considering for coastal and tropical Australian installations.

Technical support from AQMesh is free of charge, wherever the pod is located.

Where It’s Used

Industrial fence line and boundary monitoring. Mining operations and haul roads. Landfill and waste facilities. Construction and demolition sites. Ports and bulk handling. Quarries and cement plant. Petrochemical facilities. Airports. Railways. Schools and community monitoring. Local authority networks. Baseline studies before a development. Complaint investigation and dispute resolution.