Japanese engineering and software company Yokogawa and Norwegian wireless optical gas-detector developer GasSecure in July announced the delivery of the world’s first SIL2-certified wireless gas detection system for use at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, in Northern Europe.

The system uses GasSecure’s wireless gas detectors to measure hydrocarbon gas concentrations. Using the ISA100 wireless communications protocol, the detectors establish a link with a Yokogawa access point and send data to a host system through a Yokogawa field wireless management station.

GasSecure and Yokogawa concluded an agreement in 2014, under which the two companies agreed to jointly develop the wireless gas detection system. The priority of this partnership was to achieve higher levels of safety, says the corporate communications department at Yokogawa.

The company adds that designing a wireless gas detector will also reduce the power consumption of the detector.

GasSecure explains that infrared gas detectors typically consume 5 W of power. However, GasSecure managed to reduce the power consumption of the wireless detector, known as the GS01, to 5 mW, allowing for the unit to be battery powered, with battery interchange periods of up to two years. The GS01, therefore, does not require any cabling.

In addition to having a low-power infrared sensor and being highly energy efficient, the detector also has achieved a very fast response time of five seconds.

The GS01 is also integrated with Yokogawa’s wireless infrastructure that not only provides reliable switchover and high-speed updating but is also highly scalable.

Therefore, GasSecure’s GS01’s capabilities, combined with the dual redundant communications by Yokogawa’s field wireless products, make them essential components for the construction of a fast and highly reliable monitoring solution.

While various wireless gas detection systems have been available on the market for some time, they generally relied on a central power supply or short-term battery-powered devices with the wireless signal transmitting through a diverse range of proprietary systems and software, explains Yokogawa.

The company suggests that none of these devices could truly be deemed wireless and that their communications features were not standardised.

Yokogawa argues that, instead, an accepted industry standard for communications and a competent device for process safety applications are required for the full market adoption of a truly wireless gas detector.

The standardisation of Yokogawa’s and GasSecure’s equipment allows for a reliable and stable framework through which industrial devices and communication protocols can be created. This has enabled the two companies to design and build devices that will recognise each other and work together seamlessly, notes Yokogawa.

In addition, the ISA100 wireless standard has a unique data-tunnelling capability, which securely transmits existing legacy protocols over the ISA100 network.

Yokogawa reveals to Engineering News that Yokogawa and GasSecure have received a high level of interest from oil and gas companies for the GS01 wireless gas-detection system, including those involved in exploration and production, as well as chemicals and petrochemicals.

While there has been interest from South African companies, and an early trial has been performed at a South Africa facility, the GasSecure GS01 has not yet been installed at facilities in the country.

All GasSecure’s wireless gas detectors comply with ISA’s open industrial wireless standard and can detect leaks of explosive hydrocarbon gases.

These gas detectors are typically installed on offshore oil and gas drilling platforms, and at tank farms and industrial plants, among other applications. GasSecure has supplied a number of these products to leading oil and gas companies worldwide.

Yokogawa notes that, when continuously monitoring safety- critical alarms, a high level of reliability, quick-response capability and high-quality maintainability must be guaranteed.