ENSURING GAS SAFETY VIA MICROPROCESSOR BASED GAS DETECTING DEVICE

This article is devoted to the design and production of micro-processor based gas analyzing and detecting device of the new generation. Two methods were chosen for the gas detection process, one of which is the catalytic combustion method based on heat generated by combustible gas burning on an oxidation catalyst, and the second one is electrochemical principle-based measurements which use an electrochemical sensor to detect gas concentration by measuring current based on the electrochemical principle, which utilizes the electrochemical oxidation process of target gas on the working electrode inside the electrolytic cell, the current produced in the electrochemical reaction of the target gas is in direct proportion with its concentration while following Faraday law, then concentration of the gas could be get by measuring value of current.
The combination of these sensors provides low consumption, high precision, high sensitivity, wide linear range, good anti-interference ability, excellent repeatability and stability of the detector results.
Adding a microprocessor to the sensors which work by the above-mentioned methods, we assembled gas detecting and analyzing device “ELAR”, which is a microprocessor based and software-controlled device (hereinafter referred to as the "signalling device"), used in rooms to detect leaks of natural gas (CH4) and increased concentration of incompletely burnt carbon monoxide (Co). When triggered, the alarm emits a loud sound and light signal and also sends a command to close the solenoid valve, cut off the supply of combustible gas, to prevent an explosion from gas leakage, fire or human casualties.
As a result, it is expected to have gas analyzing and detecting device of a new generation which won’t react to other gases apart from CH4 and Co, will have a self-calibration function with special software, 0 adjustments, auto-calibration when in use, alarming when detectors are out of order, as well as will register data by time and incidents in non-volatile memory. They will have the ability to read incidents using a computer program.