Large scale gas leakage monitoring with tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy

Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) has been widely employed in atmospheric trace gases detecting and industrial control due to its high sensitivity, selectivity, and rapidity of response. An open path TDLAS system is developed for monitoring large scale methane leakage around the oil refinery. The tunable distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser emits at 1.65 um. In order to enhance the sensitivity, a system combining long open path and second harmonic detection technique is developed. The test results show that the time resolution is less than 0.1 second and the detection limit is lower than 3.6 ppmv. This system is adapted for monitoring a large scale methane concentration changing trend instead of measuring its absolute concentration.