Leakage Detection Using Low-Cost, Wireless Sensor Networks

The identification and localization of leakages in the natural gas industry is an environmental, economic, and technological challenge. In particular, finding a universally applicable solution for continuous monitoring over various spatial scales with adequate resolution at an acceptable operational cost is of considerable interest. This contribution presents a wireless sensor network scheme built around a low-cost, low-power, selective, and miniaturized, photoacoustic methane detector embedded in a wireless multi-sensor node to localize and quantify methane leaks.