A gas detector is a device that detects and measures the presence of gas in an environment. It is a safety precaution for those working or living in an area where some appliances or machines emit hazardous gas. Once the gas detector goes off or gives the signal, it will allow the people around it to leave or stop the leak. In this article, we will discuss how do gas detectors work with each type of gas detector.
How Do Gas Detectors Work? – The Types of Gas Detectors
To know how do gas detectors work, you need to know the types of gas detectors.
Electrochemical Gas Detectors
The first type of gas detector is the electrochemical gas detector, which works by allowing gases to shrink through a membrane filled with pores and then shrink into an electrode where it can be oxidized or reduced.
The oxidized electrode is one part of the gas that gets measured, and this determines the concentration of the gas present in the environment. This type of gas detector is used for different environments, such as gas turbines, underground storage facilities, and refineries.
Holographic Gas Detectors
The next type of gas detector is a holographic gas detector that works through light reflection to sense the changes in a polymer film matrix that contains a hologram. How do gas detectors like this work? Once the hologram changes its lights, it means that the composition has already changed, which means that gas is present in the environment. This detector needs illumination when used.
Infrared Imaging Gas Detectors
The third type of gas detector has passive and active systems. Active Infrared Imaging Systems scan a laser across a field of view looking for scattered light at the absorption line wavelength if a specific gas. A Passive Infrared Imaging System measures spectral changes for each pixel in an image, looking for signatures indicating a specific gas presence.
Photoionization Gas Detectors
The next type of gas detector work through the use of photoionization. How do gas detectors like this work? It uses a UV lamp that is high in photon energy to ionize a gas sample. If the compound has lower ionization energy than the lamp, an electron will be released, and the resulting current will be equal to the compound concentration. This type of has detectors is used for testing the environment and monitoring it for hazardous gases.
Infrared Point Gas Detectors
Infrared Point detectors are gas detectors that use radiation passing through a specific volume of gas. Energy from the sensor beam is absorbed in specific wavelengths, depending on the properties of the gas.
This type of gas detector can be used for remote sensing because it does not require high proximity to the gas to detect it, which also makes it one of the safest types of gas detectors in the list. After all, you won’t have to be exposed to the gas for you to detect it.
Oxygen Concentration
The next type of gas detector is used for the safety of the workforce and the employees. They are used to make sense if the oxygen supply is deficient in a particular environment. A fast decrease in oxygen in the environment means the presence of other types of gases in the background, making the climate dangerous for the people in it.
Ammonia
This last type of gas detector can sense one of the most dangerous gasses on earth: ammonia. It is commonly used for industrial safety to ensure that the concentration of ammonia in the air does not exceed .01%.
Conclusion
In this article, I introduced the types of gas detectors while discussing how do gas detectors work. Gas detectors are essential because we often encounter hazardous gas at home and sometimes at work. It can be from your gas range or butane, from your refrigerator, or your workplace.
Gas detectors function depending on the type of gas it measures and how it detects or measures gas concentration. When buying one, you need to carefully read the information on your detector and the gas you may encounter before using the sensor—gauge which one you need by now. Find out more about Gas Detectors.