Development of a low cost, field portable, Imaging Fourier Transform Interferometer for gas leak detection in the Petrochemical industry

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The Petrochemical Industry is very important to the United Kingdom both as a major employer and exporter. Petrochemicalfacilities extend over very large areas and have extensive, complex infrastructure to transport and store chemicals and gasesunder high temperatures and pressures. The health and saftey of the workers and of nearby residents is of paramountimportance and companies such as BP extend considerable effort and spend very large sums of money to ensure that theirpetrochemical facilities are as safe as possible. The current health & safety and pollution monitoring approaches at Petrochemical facilities involves the deployment of a large number of gas detectors as key locations around the petrochemical facility. These gas detectors while being extremely accurate are limited in the extent of the area that they can detect gas emissions coming from. Apart from missing gas leaks point-based detectors do not have the capability of identification patternson infrastructure indicative of stress or weakening of restraining material.Currently available imaging based gas monitoring instruments are not capable of meeting the essential requirements of thePetrochemical industry. Both Thermal cameras with filters and filter-based snapshot systems can detect the presence of high concentrations of a number of gas species but have very poor sensitivity, they cannot differentiate different species from a complex gas and are severely affected by the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere. Imaging Fourier Transform Interferometers (FTIRs) have the potential to overcome the sensitivity and accuracy limitations of these other technologies but current systems are very expensive, very heavy and have a very high power supply requirement with consequent severe effects on the portability and deployment in environments with hazardous leaking gas. There is therefore an urgent need for the development of a low-cost, highly portable imaging FTIR system that can differentiate and quantify gas species at the sensitivity required by the Petrochemical industry. The proposed instrument will be a development of a mid-infrared Fourier Transform Spectrometer, based on a novel static optical configuration, that has been developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). This instrument, known as the micro Fourier Transform Spectrometer (microFTS), employs a simple optical arrangement to split and then recombine light to form a complex modulated interference pattern (known as an interferogram). The instrument is compact (50 mm by 50 mm by 30 mm), lightweight (~0.9 kg) and has a very high data acquisition time rate (~1 x 10-4 s-1). An important, additional component of theproject will be the development of an easy-to-use gas identification and analysis software package which will enable the microFTS data to be processed into images showing both the presence and the concentration of the gas species of most importance to the Petrochemical industry.This project will involve collaboratoration with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The project will utilise new, state-of-the-art analytical facilities at NPL which will enable a comprehensive evaluation of the sensitivity of the new microFTS instrument in detecting the gas species of most importance to the Petrochemical industry (e.g. methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, acetic acid), at a range of temperatures (both gas and background), concentrations and mixtures.The project will also involve extensive collaboration with BP. A series of extensive field-based evaluation campaigns of the microFTS instrument will be carried out at the BP facilities at Saltend, near Hull. The opportunity to evaluate the design and capabilities of the instrument in real situations under normal atmospheric conditions will be enbale to ensure that the instrument produced at the end ofproject is an instrument that industry would wish to uti