December 14, 2016 — United Electric Controls, a producer of safety, alarm and shutdown technology, has announced the availability of beta versions of its Vanguard WirelessHART gas detector. The detector, which has a five-year battery life, is designed to maximize toxic or explosive gas detection points while eliminating the need for costly and fixed wiring. United Electric Controls is offering free beta trials to gain additional feedback on customer experience and product performance prior to the official product roll-out in early 2017.
United Electric developed the Vanguard detector in response to the market need for a way to add multiple gas measurement points. The cost of adding one new gas measurement point, including the cost and labor of obtaining ‘hot’ work permits, running conduits for wires, and burying them, can exceed $10,000 per device for land-based systems and as much as five times more for offshore applications. Wireless technology can reduce that cost up to 90-percent while also making the plant much safer.
Vanguard field-interchangeable gas sensor modules detect and record hydrogen sulfide (H2S)or methane (CH4)gas in parts per million (PPM) or percent of lower explosive limits (LELs) respectively, along with network and battery status. WirelessHART 7.2 technology carries signals to local 128 x 64 pixel digital displays or other IEC 62591 compatible connections — all of which integrate with existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or asset management (AMS) systems.
Potential Applications
The Vanguard beta program will provide companies running operations that generate (H2S)or (CH4) an opportunity to try it out in various settings, including the following applications:
- Wireless remote and local gas detection, such as tank farms, oil and gas production facilities, refineries, pipelines, abandoned wells and waste treatment plants.
- Temporary situations in which the cost of setting up a wired solution is completely unfeasible, such as a maintenance turnaround, natural disaster, security breach or plant expansion.
- Asset management initiatives, where trending of emissions over time through the deployment of multiple wireless sensors can initiate the necessary predictive and preventive maintenance, or pollution control monitoring.
