SST sensors provide leak detection monitoring at CLH hydrocarbon facilities
Spanish oil storage and transportation company CLH Group has installed leak detection systems by Smart Sensor Technology (SST) for early warning of hydrocarbon.
The detection systems, formed by a grid of wireless sensors placed in existing monitoring wells, were installed in late 2015 in 12 CLH facilities.
“This technology entails a perfect complement to all our efforts to be at the forefront on environmental best practices,” said Fernando Garcia, head of environment and security at CLH.
The detector sensors float in the air-water interface, and they broadcast once per day or at set times a signal that can be visualised from any computer or mobile device.
The sensors work using a physical-chemical reaction to avoid false alerts and they allow users to know the type of contaminant.
The devices are ATEX-certified, rated to the IP68 standard, and SST says they function up to 10 years on a single battery.
The system is completely wireless, with the sensors communicating with each other at a 868MHz frequency, and, if needed, it can use repeaters to cover larger distances to connect to the GRPS control unit.
The devices are easy to install, as they only require dropping the sensor inside the piezometer (from 2” and over) and setting the transmitter at the top of the monitoring well.
The installation takes no more than 10 minutes for each piezometer and no civil work is necessary.
The operating range of the transmitters is about 100m, but installation in the metallic chamber of a monitoring well can reduce signal strength to only a few meters.
In this case a simple repeater is installed near the emitter in order to extend the signal up to the normal 100m, and more than one repeater can be used to reach a range of several hundred meters.
The control unit is installed in the client’s office, where it collects raw data from the sensors and sends it to a server in order to be available from any computer and mobile device through a cloud-based solution.
