A Review of Optical Fibre Ethanol Sensors: Current State and Future Prospects

Memon, Sanober Farheen; Wang, Ruoning; Strunz, Bob; Chowdhry, Bhawani Shankar; Pembroke, J. Tony; Lewis, Elfed

doi:10.3390/s22030950

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A Review of Optical Fibre Ethanol Sensors: Current State and Future Prospects

Sanober Farheen Memon

^1,2,*

Ruoning Wang

^1,3,

Bob Strunz

²,

Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry

⁴,

J. Tony Pembroke

⁵

and

Elfed Lewis

^1,2,*

Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland

Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland

Key Laboratory of In-Fiber Integrated Optics of Ministry of Education, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China

⁴

NCRA-CMS Lab, IICT, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro 76062, Sindh, Pakistan

⁵

Department of Chemical Sciences and Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Roberto Pizzoferrato

Sensors 2022, 22(3), 950; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22030950

Received: 10 December 2021 / Revised: 14 January 2022 / Accepted: 21 January 2022 / Published: 26 January 2022

(This article belongs to the Collection Optical Chemical Sensors: Design and Applications)

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Abstract

A range of optical fibre-based sensors for the measurement of ethanol, primarily in aqueous solution, have been developed and are reviewed here. The sensing approaches can be classified into four groups according to the measurement techniques used, namely absorption (or absorbance), external interferometric, internal fibre grating and plasmonic sensing. The sensors within these groupings can be compared in terms of their characteristic performance indicators, which include sensitivity, resolution and measurement range. Here, particular attention is paid to the potential application areas of these sensors as ethanol production is globally viewed as an important industrial activity. Potential industrial applications are highlighted in the context of the emergence of the internet of things (IoT), which is driving widespread utilization of these sensors in the commercially significant industrial and medical sectors. The review concludes with a summary of the current status and future prospects of optical fibre ethanol sensors for industrial use. View Full-Text

Keywords: ethanol sensing; optical fibre sensors; absorption-based sensors; interferometric sensors; fibre grating sensors; plasmonic sensors

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Memon, S.F.; Wang, R.; Strunz, B.; Chowdhry, B.S.; Pembroke, J.T.; Lewis, E. A Review of Optical Fibre Ethanol Sensors: Current State and Future Prospects. Sensors 2022, 22, 950. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22030950

AMA Style

Memon SF, Wang R, Strunz B, Chowdhry BS, Pembroke JT, Lewis E. A Review of Optical Fibre Ethanol Sensors: Current State and Future Prospects. Sensors. 2022; 22(3):950. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22030950

Chicago/Turabian Style

Memon, Sanober F., Ruoning Wang, Bob Strunz, Bhawani S. Chowdhry, J. T. Pembroke, and Elfed Lewis. 2022. "A Review of Optical Fibre Ethanol Sensors: Current State and Future Prospects" Sensors 22, no. 3: 950. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22030950

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Author Biographies

Sanober Farheen Memon

Sanober Farheen Memon is a PhD Researcher at the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre, Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department, University of Limerick (UL), Ireland. She received a B.E Degree in Electronic Engineering and an M.E Degree in Electronic Systems Engineering from Mehran University of Engineering & Technology (MUET) Jamshoro, Pakistan in 2010 and 2014, respectively. Before starting her PhD, Sanober served at MUET, Pakistan, for more than 3 years, as a faculty member (Lecturer and Visiting Lecturer), and taught a variety of modules to B.Eng. students and co-supervised final-year projects. Her current research interests include optical fibre sensors, photonics engineering, instrumentation and measurement and intelligent systems. Sanober has been a recipient of the European Union EM INTACT Doctorate Scholarship, the UL Postgraduate Residential Scholarship, UL ECE Departmental Funding, and a Merit Scholarship from MUET, Pakistan during her undergraduate studies. She is a member of IEEE WIE, IEEE Photonics Society and IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society.

Ruoning Wang

Ruoning Wang received a B.S. degree in Electronic Information Science and Technology from Nanjing Agriculture University, Nanjing, China, in 2018. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Optical Engineering at the Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China. Her research interests include fibre-optic sensors and devices.

Bob Strunz

Bob Strunz graduated with a BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick in 1987 and was awarded his PhD from the University of Hull in 2005. He is a Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at the University of Limerick and a member of the Centre for Research in Intelligent Systems. Bob was formerly Technology Advisor to the University of Limerick and Chief Technical Architect of the National Digital Learning Repository. Bob also served for 16 years as the chief technical advisor to the board of the Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation and was a board member of the Birr Educational trust. In 2016, Bob was a visiting Researcher at the School of Engineering at Napier University, Edinburgh.

Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry

Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, PhD (Southampton, UK), FIEEEP, FIE, IEEE Senior Member, is a Distinguished National Professor, and Former Dean and Professor Emeritus at the faculty of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan. He is also a Member BOG Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. He has remained Guest Scientist/Associate of the ICTP (under umbrella of UNESCO/UNU), Trieste, Italy, for Twelve (12) Years. He is credited as editor/coeditor of the books “Wireless Networks, Information Processing and Systems”, CCIS 20, “Emerging Trends and Applications in Information Communication Technologies”, CCIS 281, and “Wireless Sensor Networks for Developing Countries”, CCIS 366, published by Springer Verlag, Germany. He has also served as a Guest editor of a Special issue of the Springer International Journal of Wireless Personal Communication. He has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals, as well as IEEE and ACM proceedings.

J. Tony Pembroke

Professor J T Pembroke holds a PhD in Molecular Biochemistry from the National University of Ireland, Galway. He was an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Leiden, the Netherlands, before taking up a faculty position at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Here, he served as Chair of Industrial Biochemistry, Head of Department of Chemical Sciences and Head of the School of Natural Sciences. He spent an OECD fellowship at the Rowett Institute, Scotland, and Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. His research interests include metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for biofuel production, process optimisation for ethanol production and genetic engineering for increased ethanol productivity. He was a partner in the 5-year EU DEMA (direct ethanol from microalgae) project with partners throughout Europe from industry and academia.

Elfed Lewis

Elfed Lewis graduated with a BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Liverpool University in 1978 and was awarded his PhD from the same institution in 1987. He is Associate Professor and Director of the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre at the University of Limerick, which he founded in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, IET, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He has authored and co authored more than 180 journal papers and made in excess of 400 contributions to international conferences. He currently holds 9 patents on Optical Fibre Sensor Devices. In 2005, he was a recipient of the University of Limerick Special Achievement in Research Award and was a Fulbright Scholar with CREOL (University of Central Florida) in 2008. He was a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Sensors Council for the period of July 2013 to June 2015 and General Chair of several recent international conferences held at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

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