Traditional Gas Leakage Detection v/s Pipeline Leak Detection Drones: Which One is Better? 

What is Leak Detection? 

Leak detection refers to a critical part of emergency response. It provides early notification of the potential consequential event so that people can take the necessary steps and respond quickly before anything drastic happens. 

Natural gases and oils have a wide range of usage in both the commercial and residential industries. Thousands of miles of pipelines stretch out across the whole UK, using carrying oil and natural gases from wells to refineries to houses. With any pipeline, there is always a risk of leakages as they have a higher risk because of corrosion. Not only the gas or oil leakage is harmful to the environment, but it can also cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to remediate the pipeline and take years to clean up. That’s why it is important that the pipelines are often inspected to make sure there is no leakage and if there is, necessary steps will be taken. 

Sectors like manufacturing, heating, transportation, and the generation of electricity using natural gases and problems of gas leakages are more likely to happen there. Moreover, leak detection is of vital importance for fiscal and environmental concerns. Ideally, there are two ways of gas detection. Let’s now discuss both of them and see which one will be the best. 

Traditional Gas Leak Detection Methods

 Detecting gas leaks is surely a challenging and complex problem. In commercial sectors and industries, there are more chances of numerous failure points where there can an issue of gas leakage. It is quite hard to prevent the leakages from happening. Just not that, even the detection of the leakages is quite hard. After all, detection involves checking endless miles of pipelines. In this traditional method, a team of inspectors will an array of detectors and monitoring equipment to spot the leakage. There are three main types of detectors used to search for gas leaks. They are:

• Fixed detectors: They are mounted sensors along a pipeline or within a facility and are used at high-risk spots. 
• Automatic detectors: They are usually robotic and can roam around to detect leaks. They will roam on their own and reach out to hard-to-reach areas to check everything. 
• Portable detectors: They are carried by members of the inspection team and use a variety of sensors to detect possible gas leaks. 

Pipeline Leak Detection Drone

Though the traditional method of gas leak detection is beneficial in the industrial setup, it is not always the right way to detect gas leakage. After all, the traditional method often lacks efficiency and place people in harm’s way. Moreover, there is a better way for gas leakage detection. It is not other than drone inspectors. 

Drone inspectors will identify the area of deadly vegetation as identification of the leakage. Even though helicopters can be used for the same purpose, they are extremely expensive and noisy. On the other hand, drones offer less disruptive inspection of routes even through complex areas where the traditional method of leak detection cannot work or will have more complications. 

Also, leak detection drone systems are based on the latest innovation to address both the safety and efficiency issues that were present in the traditional methods. Moreover, UAV drones provide an excellent platform for leak detection in remote areas. So, using a drone-based gas leakage detection will be the most ideal system for leak detection. 

The Final Takeaway

Hopefully, you have now understood how a pipeline leak detection drone is better than using the old traditional gas detection methods. So, if you also want to avoid facing a dangerous situation and want to take some precautions beforehand, you should think about getting leak detection drones. Once you have them, you can get your pipeline network checked often to know if there is any leakage or potential leakage. So, without thinking much, you should consider getting a leak detection drone.