Designing CO2 Monitoring System for Agricultural Land Utilizing Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) Sensors for Citizen Scientists

The increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration due to anthropogenic activities has led to the development of low-cost, portable, and user-friendly sensing technologies. Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) sensors offer reliable CO2 detection with high sensitivity, which makes them ideal for citizen scientists. In this context, we designed two low-cost CO2 monitoring systems: an automatic opening chamber with a lid and a portable device using NDIR sensors. These monitoring systems were calibrated (R2 = 0.99) with known CO2 concentrations. Besides its reliability and accuracy, the Automated CO2 Monitoring System costs approximately USD 220.77 and portable CO2 device costs USD 151.43, which makes them suitable for citizen scientists. Due to CO2 gas monitoring system’s simplicity, structure, and operation, non-expert users can use and actively participate in environmental monitoring data collection. This promotes public engagement in climate and air quality monitoring and enables citizen scientists to have reliable data for CO2 monitoring and environmental awareness.