Carbon Dioxide Monitoring inside an Australian Brewery Using an Internet-of-Things Sensor Network

Maintaining a high standard of indoor air quality (IAQ) is vital to ensuring good human health. The concentration of CO(2) in air is a good proxy for IAQ, while high levels of CO(2) have been shown to cause cognitive or physiological impairment. Work environments that generate CO(2) as an inherent part of their business present a unique and significant risk in terms of poor IAQ. Craft breweries generate CO(2) and, unlike larger breweries, often lack the technology to capture and re-use the fermentation CO(2) for beer carbonation. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the venting of fermentation CO(2) and the unintentional venting of CO(2) during the filling of CO(2) storage tanks can cause the indoor CO(2) levels to rise significantly. This is shown by monitoring CO(2) levels inside an Australian craft brewery using a newly developed system containing three Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes positioned strategically in different sections of the brewery. The maximum CO(2) level recorded was in excess of 18,000 ppm, with the maximum time period levels exceeding 1000 and 10,000 ppm being equivalent to 425 and 26 min, respectively. The identification of differences in measured CO(2) at different times and locations throughout the brewery reveals that a single hard-wired CO(2) sensor may be inadequate to support IAQ monitoring. For this purpose, a network of portable or wearable CO(2) sensor nodes may be most suitable. The battery life of the sensors is a key consideration, and the current sensor battery life is too short. Low-power sensors and communication protocols are recommended for this task.