Key Concepts in Gas Detection

Gas-detection systems are important front-line watch dogs, and provide many process plants with early notification of dangerous releases. Proper design and layout is critical to the functionality of these systems, but poses a challenge for many users since little standardized guidance is available. A qualified safety professional should be involved in all ultimate design decisions. When designing a gas-detection installation, the user must remember that gas detection is only one part of a facility's comprehensive safety management plan. To be most useful during facility operation, monitoring system users should address not only how many sensors are required and where they will go, but also how the real-time data provided by these devices can be used to improve the overall safety of the plant and its workers.

What is a Gas?

• GAS - a substance that is normally in gaseous state at ordinary temperatures and pressures
• VAPOR - a gaseous form of a substance that is liquid or solid at normal temperatures and pressures
• FUME - airborne dispersion consisting of minute particles that come from heating a solid (often an oxide resulting from a chemical reaction between the particles and oxygen.

Click here to download the complete article in pdf format