(1888PressRelease)
December 03, 2008 - The Remote Methane Leak Detector (RMLD™) an R&D 100 award winner is an eye-safe laser-based natural gas sensor used to locate leaks in natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines. The RMLD can quickly and efficiently detect leaks up to one hundred feet away allowing remote detection of hard-to-reach areas and difficult terrains. Remote detection allows the user to safely survey areas that may be difficult to reach, such as busy roadways, yards with large dogs, locked gates, pipes suspended under a bridge and other hard to access places.
Available gas detectors that deploy technologies such as flame ionization must be positioned within the leak plume to detect the presence of methane. The RMLD does not have to be within the gas plume because it uses laser technology known as Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy. When the laser passes through a gas plume, the methane absorbs a portion of the light, which the RMLD then detects. This quantum leap in technology makes it possible to detect methane leaks along the sight line without always having to walk the full length of the service line.
When the infra-red laser beam is transmitted from the launch port some of the laser light is reflected by a normal background such as brick, concrete, grass, etc., to the detector. This reflected light is collected and converted to an electrical signal that carries the information needed to deduce the methane concentration. This signal is processed so that methane concentrations can be reported in parts per million meter or PPM-M. The laser has a maximum distance of up to 100 feet and is selective to methane only. It will not false alarm on other hydrocarbons.
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