Ecological transition for the gas mixtures of the MRPC cosmic ray telescopes of the EEE Project

TL;DR

This paper discusses the transition of the EEE Project's MRPC cosmic ray telescopes to eco-friendly gas mixtures with lower GWP, evaluating their performance compared to traditional gases.

Contribution

It introduces and assesses new environmentally sustainable gas mixtures for MRPC detectors in the EEE cosmic ray telescopes.

Findings

New gas mixtures show comparable detector performance.

Significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Successful implementation in several telescopes.

Abstract

The Extreme Energy Events (EEE) Collaboration is fully involved in an ecological transition. The use of the standard gas mixture, \ce{C_{2}H_{2}F_{4}}+ \ce{SF_{6}}, has stopped in favor of an alternative green mixture based on \ce{C_{3}H_{2}F_{4}} with the addition of He or \ce{CO_{2}}. The choise of these new mixtures is motivated by the significant lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) to reduce the emission of gases potentially contributing to the greenhouse effect. The EEE experiment consists of 61 muon telescopes based on Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs), each telescope composed of 3 chambers filled with gas. Several EEE detectors are today completely fluxed with the new ecological mixture. This contribution will report recent results about the telescope performance obtained from studies with the eco-friendly alternative mixture carried out in the last years.