IMPLEMENTATION OF OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR PORTABLE GAS LEAK DETECTION

Collaboration has been the key to the successful development of an optically based instrument, that provides an unconventional approach to remote gas leak detection. The VOGUE project (Visualisation Of Gas for Utilities and the Environment) was a EC cofunded development that involved representatives of four gas utilities, two universities and four technology providers. To improve our understanding of gas leak behaviour, infrared thermal imaging has been used to visualize low-pressure gas leaks for the first time and this has informed the design requirements of practical instruments. A remote laser pointer has been developed as a commercially viable instrument, with strict cost engineering applied from the very beginning. Typically used up to 15m from the leak source, the pointer exploits its unconstrained open path length to provide gas concentration measurements in ppm.metres. A prototype design was successfully evaluated with real outdoor leaks very early in the project, and has since been refined to give a user friendly, eye safe and portable device used for field evaluation. In development is a concept bolt-on scanner module that transforms the laser pointer into a gas leak imager allowing for highly intuitive interpretation of gas leak behaviour. Real time visualisation of gas leaks provides a step change improvement in the processes of zero tracing and leak location, with benefits that we are only just beginning to understand. Images prevent confusion resulting from changing wind conditions, and offer the potential to make meaningful records of the presence or absence of gas, for audit purposes.