Methane Propane Sensor for Gas Leakage Detection

The sensor is a common used device in fixed monitors or portable detectors for methane and propane content measurement or gas leakage alarm in residential, commercial, industrial and mining sectors. The safe use of combustible gases, frequently mentioned natural gas(mainly CH4), LPG(mainly propane and butane) and biogas, has essential influence on family safety and social stability. Gas fire and even explosion accidents are never far away from people’s life and industrial production. Installing gas sensor detector is already an important way to prevent potential tragedies.

There are several types of combustible gas sensors based on MOS-Semiconductor, catalytic, infrared detection and high-end TDLAS laser principles. There sensors have specific features and suitable for different use occasions.

Semiconductor Methane Propane Gas Sensor

The Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor(MOS) uses Sensitive material SnO2 which with lower conductivity in clean air. When the target flammable gas exist, the sensor’s conductivity gets higher along with the gas concentration rising. The change of conductivity to correspond output signal of gas concentration can be output through a simple circuit. The semiconductor methane sensor has high sensitivity Rs(in air)/Rs(in 5000ppmCH4)≥5 in a wide range (300-10000ppm CH4), also has anti-interference to alcohol and other gases. It has small size, economic cost and long life 10 years which is preferred in home use. It also has problem due to its sensitivity to more than one kind of gas, and not able to measure exact concentration for digital output.

Catalytic Methane Propane Gas Sensor

The catalytic sensor works on catalytic combustion principle using Wheatstone bridge circuit , and its two arms of electric bridge consists of a test element and a compensate element. The resistance of the test element rises once it meets the combustible gases and the output voltage changes in direct proportion to the gas concentration. The compensate element works as a reference, has the function of compensating temperature and humidity to solve corresponding influence on the detection accuracy. The catalytic sensor has improved selectivity and stability than MOS sensor, and is able to detect methane in the full range of 0-100%LEL(Lower Explosion Limit) and output linear data. It has smaller size than MOS sensor generally 5 years. Although there will be poison problems, its cost is quite economic than infrared technology and therefore has wide use in civil and commercial fields. The anti-explosion version is able to work in industrial and mining conditions.

Infrared Methane Gas Sensor

The infrared technology is high-end in the detection of gas, taking advantage of non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) principle with high selectivity, no oxygen dependence, high performance and long life of 10 years. The built-in temperature compensation improve detection accuracy. It’s able to detect combustible gas in the range of 0~100%VOL/LEL optional, with high sensitivity, high resolution, low power consumption average current < 100mA and long life of 5 years. The features make it a good choice for industrial, mining safety and process control.

TDLAS Laser Methane Gas Sensor

The sensor adopts laser spectral absorption detection technology, has stable and reliable performance and long service life above 5 years. The sensor has the characteristics of strong corrosion resistance, high precision reaching ±3%LEL , high resolution 0.2%LEL, fast response, low power consumption, stable output data without zero drift. And the product is free of calibration and maintenance, which is convenient for customers to integrate and engineering application. TDLAS technology is superior to infrared sensor in performance and used for high-end home kitchen, commercial and industrial gas safety. It solves the fault alarm of other type of sensors and is the most reliable choice for the use in petroleum, chemical, mining, natural gas pipeline, galcon, LPG stations, coal mine safety monitoring, underground pipe rack, marsh gas monitoring and other related safety and testing field.

Winsen has more than 30 years of experience in sensor industry, providing complete sensor solutions RHOS certified of combustible gas of methane, propane, butane, natural gas, LPG gas, biogas, marsh.. for civil, commercial and industrial applications.