SubseaMonitoring
Hydrocarbon Leakage Detection
Leakages in production lines and subsea equipment are among the main concerns in the oil and gas industry, not only because they result in extra costs and production interruption but also because they can lead to severe environmental damage. On account of this, several techniques were developed to detect and locate these flaws.
The most widely used methods for detecting hydrocarbons are based on techniques using capacitive properties, conventional photoluminescence visualization and underwater imaging, processed satellite images, conventional spectroscopy, modulated or derived electromagnetic field, or acoustic sensing.
A tight trade-off limits the maximum distance between the sensor and the oil spill and the method’s sensitivity for most techniques. On the other hand, some more sensitive techniques have strictly local detection, so the hydrocarbon must contact the sensor.
As a result, current techniques have a generally limited use scenario with specific actions.
In the proposed solution, the conventional imaging technique is combined with photon-counting detection, which considerably increases system sensitivity. This technique can detect the spectroscopy of the light emitted (or reflected) by the target material, giving information about its constitution. Due to the high sensitivity of the photon-counting detectors, the system may transmit this information carried by the light from the target via optical fiber over short distances, allowing multiple collectors with installation of only one primary photon-counting detector.
A wide range of applications can therefore be covered using this technology in the same equipment.
- High sensibility;
- Spatial region monitoring (not spot region);
- Differentiation of some material classes;
- Low energy consumption.
