4
Gas Detection
Environmental Protection with a FLIR Optical Gas Imaging Camera
Some industrial, pharmaceutical and petrochemical plants emit gases that can harm the environment and impede the health of company employees and inhabitants of the surrounding area. Environmental protection agencies have the responsibility to make sure that these emissions fall within governmental and international policy guidelines. To help them with that task environmental protection agencies can use an optical gas imaging camera.
After using the FLIR GF320 optical gas imaging camera for a few months Van Doorn was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy with which he could detect leaks using the camera.
One of the first European environmental protection agencies to embrace this technology is the Dutch agency DCMR Environmental Protection Agency Rijnmond. “This technology helps us to get a clear view of the real life fugitive emissions by companies within our jurisdiction” explains Rob van Doorn, technical manager of DCMR. “This really is a great tool for agencies such as DMCR to actively and efficiently enforce emission control policies.”
Arguably the most important task of the DCMR is to uphold the regulations regarding fugitive gas emissions, as it directly influences the health and quality of life of inhabitants in the surrounding area. According to Van Doorn it was very difficult, however, to monitor fugitive emissions before the purchase of the FLIR GF-Series optical gas imaging camera. “There are calculations and models that can be used to attain a theoretic value for fugitive emission of storage tanks and pipelines and such, but many recent international studies have shown that the real life emission figures are usually much higher than the theoretical value predicted by the formulas. These formulas do not take into account the possibilities that storage facilities might contain broken man holes that do not close properly without any of the company employees noticing or other forms of unnoticed maintenance issues which may cause additional fugitive emissions.”
At first Van Doorn hired external consultants to investigate the real life fugitive emissions. “We soon found that this was not an efficient solution in the long term, however. Consultants charge hefty fees for each inspection and with the inspection frequency we wanted to achieve the total of fees would exceed our budget. That is why we decided to look into buying a fugitive gas monitoring tool ourselves.”
Contact Details: FLIR ATS
Address: 19 Boulevard Bidault
F77183, Croissy Beaubourg, FRANCE Tel: +33 (0)1 60 37 01 00 Fax : +33 (0)1 64 11 37 55
Email:
gasimaging@flir.com Web:
www.flir.com
The FLIR GF320 optical gas detection camera can visualize most hydrocarbons used in the petrochemical industry.
FLIR GF-Series requires little to no training
After comparing several techniques Van Doorn and his colleagues opted for a FLIR GF320 optical gas imaging camera. “The external consultants we had hired previously utilised technologies like SOF (solar occultation flux) and DIAL (differential absorption light detection and
Using the high sensitivity mode (HSM) even the smallest of gas leaks can be spotted. A leak that barely shows up on the regular thermal image (top) shows up clearly in high sensitivity mode (below).
IET March / April 2012
www.envirotech-online.com
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