A Review of Leak Detection Systems for Natural Gas Pipelines and Facilities

Description

Pipelines facilities remain the most reliable and safest mode of transport of energy. Despite its numerous advantages, pipelines facilities have been enmeshed in various accidents and thefts, nonetheless this could be reduced if properly maintained and pipelines can last indefinitely without leaks. Pipeline failures may be caused intentionally or unintentionally which may result into irreversible damages such as financial losses, human casualties, ecological disaster and extreme environmental pollution. Gas Leakages require three vital aspects: Prevention, Detection and Mitigation. Many Gas Leak Detection methods are used for pipeline integrity management and for minimizing leakage. The performance of these methods depends on the approaches, operational conditions and pipeline networks. Also, there are some essential requirements and guidelines which must be met before we can consider any leak detection system suitable for production solutions, including sensitivity, reliability, accuracy and robustness. The attempt of this study is to carry out a critical review of these models, to ascertain the best model(s) applicable to natural gas leak detection.