Gas sensors are important to industries, enterprises, buildings, and residential areas. Detection of hazardous gases in industrial environments, atmosphere, and indoors is essential for safety. Increasing global population leading to poor gas quality is a serious threat to mankind now. Governments, businesses, and individuals are highly conscious of the ill effects of the toxicity and are increasingly rooting for gas sensing and detection. Industrial gas detection is highly governed by regulatory bodies and industries need to comply with the safety norms.
Continuous evolution of the gas sensors has resulted into a wide range of applications. Traditionally gas sensor found maximum usage in industrial applications; however, in the recent years sensors have gained high acceptance in automotive and commercial markets. Continuous research and development (R&D) by gas manufacturers, advancements in semiconductor technology, and advancements in nanotechnology have resulted into development of a wide range of miniaturized sensors that are perfectly useful for the home and office environments, medical institutes, and automotive. Sensors capable of detecting more than one type of gases have also boosted the popularity and demands across applications. Smart homes and smart cities are also driving the sales of advanced gas sensors. Norms and regulations regarding automotive emissions and the goal toward achieving minimum emissions are driving the automobile manufacturers to integrate gas sensors into the vehicles.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors, carbon monoxide (CO) sensors, and volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors are highly in demand in the industrial as well as commercial applications. Food storages use CO2 sensors to check spoilage of food, automobiles are installed with CO2, and CO sensors to check the emissions and for safety purposes of the drivers. Oxygen (O2) gas sensors are also witnessing growth due to demands in healthcare and other commercial applications. Other than gas detectors, and used in industrial devices and machineries, the gas sensors are also increasingly being embedded into various devices such as smartphones, tablets, wearables, and refrigerators. Such embedding of sensors into gadgets and smartphones ensures proper safety in smart homes and buildings.
Wireless sensors are also highly popular in smart industries and smart commercial applications. These smart wireless sensors are easy to install, can be used remotely, are capable of gas sensing in difficult environments, and are cost effective. Such product features and applicability make the wireless sensors preferable in emerging applications and challenging areas.
With the growing number of smart cities worldwide, gas sensors are expected to continue the growth momentum. Smart cities deploy advanced gas sensors for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, pollution detection, and chemical system detection for security. Recent technology development such as low-power and chemical-sensitive field-effect transistor (CS-FET) sensor that can operate at room temperature and detect a variety of gases in the atmosphere; development of nano gas sensors that can detect harmful gases to parts per billion and can be incorporated with connected devices are paving way for higher adoption of gas sensors in smart cities.
The United States and Europe are the biggest consumers of gas sensors; however, Asia-Pacific is expected to become the largest consumer due to growing demands from China and India. Latin America and other emerging economies will also witness growth owing to increasing automation in industries and expanding automobile sector. Industries in China are increasingly adopting miniaturized sensors that can be embedded into handheld devices for detecting toxic, hazardous, and inflammable gases. Other countries that are witnessing industrial growth, such as India, Russia, Brazil, would follow the similar trends and would contribute to higher growth of gas sensors in industrial applications. Growing urbanization, power generation, and transmission are other factors driving growth of gas sensors in these regions.
