This is a short overview on what is Optical Gas Imaging.
Before we dive into the technical explanation, we need to understand why do we need to detect gas? There are a few reasons.
First one is health and safety -by detecting a leak early, we can prevent explosions and toxins.
Second is environmental responses. Green house gasses reduction and regulation compliance.
Lastly is Operational efficiency – Product loss prevention and cost reduction.
Some of the advantages of using OGI compared to alternative methods is that its very simple, You either see the gas or you don’t. Its very quick, you can scan a very wide are quickly. Its safe, you can stand from a distance, and its very user friendly and easy to operate.
What is OGI? Optical Gas imaging is thermal cameras, also known as infrared cameras which can visualize gas leaks.
In the electromagnetic spectrum, infrared is divided into 3 regions. Short-wave, Mid-wave and long-wave. There are 2 types of OGI technologies, Cooled & Uncooled.
A cooled OGI camera is very sensitive compared to an uncooled camera. In the mid-wave spectrum there is a very strong absorption response to compounds such as Methane, Hexane, Butane and over 400 VOC’s. This enables us to see these compounds using a cooled, very sensitive OGI camera.
In the longwave infrared spectrum, where we use the Uncooled OGI technology there is a weaker absorption response for VOCs, so its more difficult to detect these VOC compounds except methane in much larger concentrations.
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