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Pipeline Operations, Monitoring, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation
Published in Henry Liu, Pipeline Engineering, 2017
The same Labrador retrievers used by law enforcement agencies to sniff out illegal drugs and explosives can be trained to detect natural gas leaks, provided that a special odorant is mixed with the gas. The dogs have proven to be very reliable, with a success rate of detecting leaks in excess of 90%. They can detect the scent at concentrations as low as 10~18 molar (1 part per billion billion). The dogs are reliable, and demand no reward other than room and board. They have proven to be successful not only under ordinary conditions, but also in extremely cold weather when the pipeline was 12 ft underground with an additional 3 ft of snow above. The dogs are more reliable and cost less than many sophisticated high-tech methods, but because they need training and care, their use in North America has been curtailed or discontinued in recent years.
Waste and Sewage System Noxious and Toxic Gases
Published in Kathleen Hess-Kosa, Indoor Air Quality, 2018
When methane alone is encountered (without the presence of hydrogen sulfide) and there is an associated odor, the source may be natural gas. The odor may be a mercaptan, not hydrogen sulfide. If there is a natural gas line in or around the occupancy, a natural gas leak should be suspected and the occupants vacated until the natural gas supplier can be contacted. A natural gas leak is a dangerous explosive situation and should be acted on immediately.
Safety evaluation of using ammonia as marine fuel by analysing gas dispersion in a ship engine room using CFD
Published in Journal of International Maritime Safety, Environmental Affairs, and Shipping, 2022
Most of the studies referred to were related to large area dispersion and involved large quantity of leaks. It was necessary to understand how ammonia gas dispersion would behave in an enclosed space with forced ventilation. A gas dispersion model pertaining to natural gas leak in an engine room is studied for understanding gas behaviour in an enclosed space (JianLi, Rui, and Konovessis 2016). The study showed as to how gas dispersion depends on leakage rate, position and direction of release, temperature gradient, ventilation and the machinery equipment located in the engine room. Another study (Pomonis 2021) brought out the behaviour of ammonia gas dispersion in a ships engine room. The report brings out toxicity analysis of ammonia gas and overall fire behaviour if the gas leak lead to a fire incident. The report also compares the fire caused by ammonia fuel to that caused by diesel and LNG. However, the simulation carried out is based on the FDS model which is good for studying fire propagation but not very effective for studying gas dispersion and factors like leakage quantity, temperature gradient, and ventilation have not been coupled with the ammonia gas dispersion.
Multi-hazard risk mapping for coupling of natural and technological hazards
Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 2021
Baoyin Liu, Xueyuan Han, Lianjie Qin, Wei Xu, Jie Fan
In terms of technological hazards, there are three major hazard sources in the study area, i.e. two compressed natural gas supply stations (the maximum gas storage capacity of each station is 30,000 m3), and a liquid ammonia tank station (the maximum storage of liquid ammonia is 14 ton). In the case of a compressed natural gas leak, the compressed natural gas would quickly evaporate to form a vapour cloud. An explosion would occur if the vapour cloud is ignited by an open flame. Here, it is assumed that the largest reserves of natural gas would be completely released, i.e. leakage of 30,000 m3 natural gas in each compressed natural gas supply station. A vapour cloud explosion model is applied to estimate the damaging effect and damage radius of the explosion (Eq. (3) and (4)) (Lenoir and Davenport 1993; Zhang et al. 2019), and the intensity of explosion is classified according to the damaging effect in Table 4. where, WTNT represents the TNT equivalent of the vapour cloud (kg); A represents the efficiency factor of the vapour cloud explosion, which is 0.04; Wf is the quality of combustible gas in the vapour cloud (kg); Qf is the combustion heat of the combustible gas (kJ/kg), which is 37,000 kJ/kg; and QTNT is the explosion heat of the TNT (kJ/kg), which is 4500 kJ/kg in this study. where, R is the damage radius of explosion(m); and ΔP is the overpressure (kPa).
Aerially guided leak detection and repair: A pilot field study for evaluating the potential of methane emission detection and cost-effectiveness
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2019
Stefan Schwietzke, Matthew Harrison, Terri Lauderdale, Ken Branson, Stephen Conley, Fiji C. George, Doug Jordan, Gilbert R. Jersey, Changyong Zhang, Heide L. Mairs, Gabrielle Pétron, Russell C. Schnell
Natural gas “leak detection and repair” (LDAR) programs—either through regulation (EPA 2016b) or voluntarily (George 2018)—aim at identifying and reducing CH4 and other fugitive hydrocarbon emissions from equipment leaks at oil and gas (O&G) facilities. These LDAR programs are primarily ground based, i.e., the operator conducts LDAR activities at a subset of facilities at a set frequency (ranging from monthly to annually) employing specific instruments such as optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras.