A WSN based system for CO2 concentration monitoring in large-scale petrochemical plants

With the problem that concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) continues to exceed the standard at the inlet air of the air separation unit (ASU) in Maoming petrochemical refiner, a wireless sensor network (WSN) based system for CO₂ concentration monitoring in large-scale petrochemical plants is proposed. Collecting the information of the sensors around the ASU through the ZigBee terminal nodes, the system consists of the wireless monitoring networks, the remote monitoring center and mobile phone client. In the system, the ZigBee coordinator module transmits the data to embedded gateway, which processes the data with a protocol, data fusion and fuzzy processing, and finally converts it into visual information displayed on the QT interface. The gateway can also send instruction information to all the nodes in WSNs or exchange information with the exterior by Internet. The results of experimental test indicate that this system can detect temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, the concentration of CO₂ and other parameters around the ASU. In addition, it can realize the collection, processing, transmission of data as well as display data in real-time and online.