Can the Processing Industries Feel Safe with Traditional Gas Leak Detection? “increasing safety with ultrasonic gas leak detection” - Martin T Olesen

Introduction
Fixed ultrasonic gas leak detection systems have been widely used for installations in the processing industries - and in particular the oil/gas industry - for almost a decade now. But only recently it has become a natural part of the decisions that almost any project group takes regarding the fixed gas detection system. This indicates that there is an increasing focus on gas leak detection all over the world. At the same time it indicates that traditional gas leak detection systems (open path and point gas detection) have some imminent shortcomings. To support this statement, a recent HSE report illustrates that only 65% of all hydrocarbon gas leaks in the UK sector were actually detected by the traditional fixed detection systems.

Due to the changing weather conditions found on most outdoor installations, the wind may simply blow the gas cloud away or the gas cloud may dilute before it can build up a concentration and come into physical contact with the traditional detectors. This leaves the industry with a vital challenge. How do you measure/calculate where to locate the detectors for optimal detection and how do you verify that they will actually detect the gas leak – without being influenced by extreme weather conditions?

Besides from discussions on how to optimise the existing technologies, this calls for an alternative to the traditional detection methods.

This article gives an overall view on the technical aspects of the traditional gas detection technologies. Furthermore, it gives detailed insights into how and why to use ultrasonic gas leak detection in order to dramatically increase the total system performance of the plant gas detection system.

Ultrasonic Gas Detection Technology is now installed and recognised world-wide by leading companies within the processing industries as an alternative to traditional gas detection in outdoor gas installations. Innova Gassonic has delivered more than 2000 ultrasonic gas leak detectors world-wide.

Due to extensive market research, Innova Gassonic has recently released the next generation of ultrasonic gas leak detectors, the GASSONIC OBSERVER.