Millennium Projects
Technical Details
Millennium Project Number:Millennium Project Number:
Project Title: Leak Monitoring For Gas Pipelines Using Optical Fiber Spectroscopy
Project Start Date: 2006
Projected End Date: 2008
Technical Details:
The first objective of the project is to develop a wireless gas leak sensor which would utilize optical fiber spectroscopy to monitor gas leaks in subsurface and exposed conditions. The project will use a technology approach that launches short pulses of light into a specially designed optical fiber that is permeable to the chemical or gas of interest.
Two detection methods will be investigated; Fluorescence and Absorption spectroscopy. Fluorescence spectroscopy applies the interaction of light to a chemical which generates a fluorescence signal. Absorption spectroscopy results in the absorption of a particular wavelength, which creates a signature that implies the presence of that particular substance.
The second objective of the project is to conduct a detailed analysis of the ability of optical fiber spectroscopy to monitor gas leaks either as a point or a distributed sensor. In the former, a short length fiber (a point sensor) would be used to determine the presence of gas at its location point. In the latter, a long fiber (a distributed sensor) would be buried next to a main or pipeline and would be able to detect not only a leak but also its location along the fiber with considerable accuracy.