Objective
Thermie project OG./00119/91/IT/UK "GASTRACK" demonstrated a methane fiberoptics open path sensor with excellent performance but not commercially viable. This project aims to implement the new "FIRE&GAS" system for the simultaneous sensing of CO, H2S/CH4 and demonstrate it on a BP offshore rig in the North Sea. The principal aim of this project is therefore the demonstration of an innovative technology for safety which addresses two gases (CO&H2S) for which no satisfactory technology has been made available to date. CO detection is aimed to detect fires with special reference to smouldering combustion within the insulating lags of equipment. Furthermore fast, sensitive and reliable CO detection at the air intake points is ideal to control the shut-down of ventilation systems for living modules in case of fire. H2S is major hazard for those rigs where sour oil is produced and we propose a very performant solution which does not suffer of the problems of conventional point detectors (drift, slow response time, undetected failing, etc.) and with the additional recognised intrinsic advantage of open path detection.
The following results were achieved to date :
- final system specification
- choice of spectral lines
- choice of spectroscopic technique
- optimisation of spectrometric parameters
- system design
- RF test prototype development
- electronic design
- cells design and laboratory test.
In general the FIRE & GAS system is made of a variable number of open path cells than can be installed anywhere on an offshore platform and that are connected by fibres (length can be up to some kilometres) to a main unit where all the complex equipment is contained. The system has the advantage of having only low power optics in the field and therefore is exempted from any constraint relating to the presence of potentially flammable atmospheres. The system is self calibrating by an internal reference cell and needs almost no maintenance (cleaning the cells typically once a year). The baseline is intrinsically stable and the measurement is not affected by adverse atmospheric conditions or by the presence of other gases. The system is computer controlled, performs full self checking and has a user friendly interface for set-up and data display. It can be connected to a telemetry system or to an ESD or a DCS through relais contacts or by digital communication.
The system is based onhigh resolution infrared absorption spectrometry in the 1.6 um region where several gases including CO, H2S and CH4 have overtone or combination absorption bands. The light sources are tuneable DFB diode lasers which enable the measurement of the narrow and specific individual gas absorption lines. A fibre optics multiplexer allows to poll a number of cells (typically 10-20) per main unit) with a consequent cost saving. Each cell is made of a part to couple the IR light into a very low divergence beam and by a cubic corner retroreflector positioned at a distance typically ranging from 1 to 30 meters. Such a kind of cell was already demonstrated to operate on a Agip platform for 7 months in the OG./000119/91 project and the new model will be characterised by lower cost, size and weight. A laser diode and a driver is dedicated to each gas. The electronics is based on an industrial digital bus where the custom cards for the spectrometers are plugged in together with a D/A card, a CPU, a module for alarms and remote control and a communication card. Uninterruptable power supply is also included ad an add-on module. The custom spectrometer cards generate the driving signal for scanning the laser wavelength and also take care of the synchronous processing of the IR detector output. The combined CO, H2S and CH4 system is in principle a commercially competitive product that could be made available in a few months following its demonstration offshore.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringfibers
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardwarecomputer processors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsfibre optics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
24020 Scanzo Bergamo
Italy