Aim: Safe monitoring of LNG installations

Technologies: Fiber Bragg Grating e Distributed Temperature Sensor

Description: The installations of LNG tanks and plants are greatly increasing worldwide, so the needs of acceptable design, construction and operation are more and more relevant. For these plants, fiber optic sensor systems can really represent an effective solution, especially for their intrinsic compatibility to ATEX zones. The European Standard EN 1473:2007 promptly identifies Distributed Temperature Sensors as a technology suitable for LNG spillage detection, in facts, several applications can be addressed and many tanks can be monitored by only one DTS system, placed in the control room (safe zone).
Cryogenic temperatures due to a leakage of fluids can be located by a fiber optical cable looped within a tank and the temperature can be measured on the whole base slab along the heating element in order to optimize the power consumption and detect hot and cold spots. Moreover, the spills of fluids can be detected very fast by monitoring the perimeter of containment areas.
More complete monitoring systems can also be designed combining the distributed measurement capabilities of DTS systems to the multi-parametrical capabilities of the FBGs, adding to the previously detailed characteristics the monitoring of other critical parameters, such as pressure or strain.