The Netherlands faces significant challenges related to pollution, known as the exposome. Air pollution is a major source of pollution and causing political and societal debate. Major transitions in sectors like mobility, energy, and agriculture are occurring in residential areas. These transitions affect air quality, leading to conflicts and decreased mutual trust between governments, companies and residents. There is a clear need for better technological measurement methods and stakeholder involvement in the collection and analysis of air quality data.
ExpACT addresses these gaps by combining innovative measurement technologies with participatory methods, focusing on industrial, agricultural, urban, and workplace environments. Radboud University is one of the consortium partners in this project, which is led by Utrecht University.
Life Science Trace Detection Lab
In this project, the team of the Life Science Trace Detection Lab (TD-Lab) received € 840,000 to develop and apply two innovative techniques for in-situ detection and monitoring of the chemical exposome in air at different length scales:
- Field deployable mid-IR coherent open-path spectroscopy (COPS) instrument to measure chemical exposome components in air. This will be combined with the satellite spectroscopy for mapping the air pollutants with unprecedented accuracy, high spatial and temporal resolution.
- Mobile Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (ToF-MS) for real-time chemical analysis of volatile organic compounds and (organic) aerosols. Here, we go beyond the state-of-the-art by including an innovative particle inlet system that will allow the extension of the range of detectable molecules to semi-volatile, intermediate-volatile and low-volatile organic compounds (e.g. polyaromatic hydrocarbons - PAHs).
