The use of natural gas is expected to increase significantly in the next decades prompting the need of additional transport infrastructure. Transport via gas pipelines is already widely used but the new, more economic, and flexible transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) requires construction of LNG liquefaction plants, re-gasification terminals, and LNG carriers.
Although LNG facilities and carriers have an excellent safety record, concerns arise when it comes to building new LNG facilities. The LNG itself is relatively harmless when contained within storage tanks, piping, and equipment designed for use at LNG cryogenic conditions. However, accidental release of LNG can have consequences for the LNG facility and surrounding communities and should therefore be avoided at any cost.
Safety systems are used to mitigate the effect and hazard of an accidental release of LNG in case of a containment failure. For this level of safety protection, LNG operations use systems such as gas, cold, and fire detection to rapidly identify any breach in containment and deploy remote and automatic shut off systems to minimize leaks and spills. Additionally, monitoring of leaks, foundations and pipelines are possible.
LIOS PRE.VENT is an economic and reliable solution for supervision of an entire cryogenic plant
With its DTS technology, LIOS PRE.VENT is ideally suited as a reliable solution to detect and precisely locate any temperature anomalies caused by accidental release of LNG. Our innovative and patented OFDR evaluation method can determine a continuous temperature profile along the entire length of an optical fiber offering thousands of data points with a single measurement.
Based on our expert knowledge and impressive safety record we can detect temperature events fast and precise and even identify and pinpoint multiple events simultaneously allowing the operator to initiate proper countermeasures immediately.
Utilizing a single fiber optic cable as a purely passive sensor element, our system provides an inherently safe operation in explosive atmospheres. The sensor cable does not need any additional wiring, it is maintenance free and deployable in areas which are difficult to access. The sensor cable is designed specially to withstand cryogenic temperatures giving a maximum of life time even in rough environments – it is even easy to install.
With the capability to use up to eight optical channels and a measurement range of several kilometers per channel, the LIOS PRE.VENT system is a cost-effective solution for entire cryogenic plant supervision including containments, foundations, pumps, and piping.
The system supplies precise temperature information which facilitates the control of cool-down operations like load and unload procedures. Additionally, an optional loop set-up of the sensor cable enables a redundant operation of the system. Consequently, the entire measurement length keeps maintained in case of single fiber break.
Benefits of LNG/LPG monitoring with LIOS PRE.VENT:
- Full information of containment integrity – anywhere, any time
- Significantly less down-time due to exact pinpointing of leaks
- Effective and automatic counter measures can be effectuated
- Fast detection of slow and fast leaks
- Better control of load and unload procedures (cool-down operations)
- Maximum protection of people, assets, and environment
- Redundant operation thanks to loop set-up of the sensor cable
- Reduced installation efforts – additional wiring is not required
- Low maintenance efforts and cost
- Long lifetime
