Gas Leak Detection

Gas Leak Detection

Leaking flammable hydrocarbon gas can lead to health risks, environmental poisoning and high economic costs. The detection of gas leaks will help to limit and prevent these negative consequences. NDIR gas leak detection can be used for many different areas like natural gas (methane) in the fracking, petroleum and petrochemical industry to prevent them from uncontrolled release into environment. Also in households, gas leaks can lead to dangerous situations where gas leak detection can prevent harm from the people. In many HVAC applications, the detection of leaking refrigerants can save money as they are precious gases. Other industry-specific applications of gas leak detection include the food packing industry, where food like raw meat is packaged in a special atmosphere to keep it fresh.
NDIR gas sensors respond very well to most small molecule gases and are highly selective. With a suitable narrow band optical filter, it is possible to measure only the gas of interest. In contrast, other technologies like electrochemical sensors can have high cross sensitivity and might react also to other gases. Therefore, applying NDIR detection can result in high accuracy cost effective measurements.

For leak detection, small concentrations may be of interest and gas detection limits have to be taken into consideration. Due to the fact that thermopiles do not provide the highest detectivity, their detection limits are higher than some other technologies, but they provide the advantage of very affordable prices. The detection limit for a thermopile NDIR CO2 sensor is in the range of 9 ppm, while other technologies can achieve 4 ppm or less.
gas flame

In most cases thermopiles will be sufficient for the measurement task and is therefore often preferred over other technologies.

Recommended sensors for gas leak detection are:




For custom filters please contact our customer support at sales@heimannsensor.com .

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