Pump alleys

Gas detection is provided in the petroleum industry to warn of and possibly prevent the formation of a combustible gas or vapor mixture that could cause an explosive overpressure blast of damaging proportions. There are two types of gas detectors used in the oil and gas industry. The most common and widely used is the catalytic detector. More recently, infared (IR) beam detectors have been employed for special "line of sight" applications, such as perimeter, boundary or offsite monitoring, pump alleys, etc. 

Where overall large area coverage is necessary or desired, such as the monitoring of facility borders, pump alleys, entire onshore units or offshore modules, "line of sight" IR beam detectors are used, otherwise "point source", catalytic detectors are provided. The point source locations should be at least on either side of the leak point, which at least one of the detectors downstream ventilation pattern. 

IR beams are typically provided as a special gas detection applications. They offer a direct view and surveillance over a large area rather than a point source origination of gas. The most frequent use of these is verifying whether a gas release would be carried offsite from the facility. Other possible applications would be overall monitoring in area of several possible leak sources but within a line of sight arrangement such as a pump alley or an offshore module. 

Pump Alleys - Where a number of pumps are used, they are usually arranged in parallel to each other facilitating the use of an IR beam over the line of pumps. 

IR Beam High High None High Reliability Wide Area Coverage Less Dependent on Specific Location Placement Requires clear view Boundaries Pump Alleys Perimeters Room Monitoring... 

Secondly are infrared (IR) beam detectors that are employed for a special line of sight applications such as perimeter, boundary and offsite monitoring or process pump alleys. Thirdly and most recent is the ultrasonic area detector that relies on the sound of a leak to detect its presence. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) tests gas detectors imder UL 2075, Standard for Gas and Vapor Detectors and Sensors. 

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