Seeing the Unseen: Detecting Hydrogen Flames
August 28th, 2008
People who have worked in a facility that has a hydrogen fire risk might be familiar with the straw-broom technique for detecting the nearly invisible hazard. The scenario looks something like this . . .
A worker walks slowly near hydrogen lines and sweeps the air ahead using a dry straw broom. If the broom catches fire, the worker stops immediately and knows a hydrogen fire is present.
Many facilities use this method still today. Fortunately, flame detector manufacturers apply more sophisticated methods beyond the broom: optical flame detection. Because hydrogen fires produce only water vapor as a byproduct, flame detector manufacturers design detectors to look specifically in what is called the H2O water band of the infrared (IR) spectrum. This technique leads to an excellent hydrogen flame detection solution.
Although some IR sensors can give false alarms when sunlight or hot objects are present, detectors with special algorithms are available that filter out those common occurrences.
To learn how to detect hydrogen flames while avoiding false alarms, watch this video.
If you have questions, please contact us at rss@detronics.com.
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