An innovative concept for an electronic nose (eNose) system based on a unique combination of analog and digital sensors for online monitoring is presented. The developed system consists of small sensing arrays of commercially available semiconducting metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors in a compact, modular, low sample volume, temperature-controlled sensing chamber. The sensing chamber comprises three compartments, each of which may contain several analog and/or digital MOX sensors. Additional sensors within the digital compartment allow for pressure, humidity, and temperature measurements. The presented prototype eNose system comprises one compartment with 8 analog MOX sensors and two compartments with 10 digital sensors each and was explicitly tested here for the discrimination between midrange (3-18 ppm) concentrations of ethanol and acetone at dry and moderately humid conditions.
Keywords: VOC; analog; digital; eNose; electronic nose; low-volume sensing chamber; metal oxide (MOX) sensors; sensing array.