Method and Device for Real-Time Monitoring and Predicting Hazardous Gas Leak Flow in Petrochemical Process

During upstream drilling/production operations or downstream refining processes, poisonous, highly flammable hazardous gases can be released into the environment. This paper presents initial experience in developing a real-time monitoring and surveillance algorithm and system consisting of desktop and smartphone applications with mobile and stationary sensors. The system monitors and reports spatiotemporal evolution of hazardous gases, such as H₂S, CH₄, and CO₂ clouds in upstream/downstream operation facilities in real time and provides necessary actions for a safe operation.

 

The method monitors the harmful gas leaks by on-site sensors and predicts the leaked gas distribution using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Through real-time data acquisition from on-site sensors, the system provides visualization of sensor readings and locations. The sensor readings are provided as input to the simulation along with other environmental conditions to simulate the leak on the facility layout. In the simulations, the turbulent flow model will be used for the multicomponent gas flow, while the species-diffusion equation is solved for the gas-dispersion calculation.

 

The system provides visualization of sensor readings and locations. It also includes the numerical simulation of the environment, predicting where the gas cloud will float in the next few minutes. All such visualizations are high resolution and are overlaid on the facility layout. Each worker can keep track of his environment and record how much he or she has been exposed to the hazardous gases. Because all the raw and computed data resides in the online data server, all pertaining information will be sent to the onshore headquarter office as well. The risk profiles and the alarms can be configured and designed by the health, safety, and environment (HSE) management workflows.

 

This system can be used by HSE management to determine the risk of moderate and nontolerable hazardous gas levels profiles. The remedial actions and the exit strategies can be guided by the numerical simulation and the sensor readings, which are provided by the system. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time hazardous gas leaks will be monitored at such a fine resolution in real time.