Mark Naples, General Manager at Umicore Coating Services writes: Laser absorption spectroscopy is a powerful tool for detecting trace gases and has been widely used in the monitoring of atmospheric greenhouse gases, pollution, and respiration processes, including human breath analysis. The detection is based on the absorption of light when it propagates through a medium.
Interest in air quality has dramatically increased in recent years, and sensor manufacturers are seeking out high-performance filters at competitive prices.
Application areas range from wellheads and production sites to offshore platforms and refineries. While it can be a matter of life or death in the extreme, it is also one of ensuring operational excellence daily.
Our IR filters are increasingly deployed, using fixed, portable and personal gas detection solutions, in efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, through helping oil and gas customers with the monitoring and reduction of fugitive methane emissions. These emissions are 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat.
Early detection is critical to ensure users are able to address leaks and other risks, minimise production losses, and maintain compliance with legislation. Non-dispersive IR sensors, which detect often noxious, harmful and/or corrosive gases in the atmosphere to parts- per-billion accuracy levels, remain a critical component to ensuring the health of the workforce, as well as being integral to a robust preventive maintenance system to ensure a site runs at optimal performance.
Our strong pedigree in gas detection and monitoring filters has remained consistent for the past 30 years, but increased affordability and access to our thin-film expertise have enabled a much-needed, and long overdue, holistic, and proactive approach to emission reduction.
This is why our existing and new customers are turning to our prototype design service with increasing regularity, as they look to push this highly specialised engineering and technology right through their product portfolios and businesses.
