Multi-gas monitoring system installed across university process laboratory

Around 100 researchers work within the technical hall of Ghent University's (UGent) Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT), a facility given over to processes including hydrocarbon steam cracking and the fast pyrolysis of biomass and plastics. Safety in a hall running this range of experimental setups depends on knowing, always, what is in the air. UGent turned to DALEMANS to fit a gas detection system capable of covering the hall's varied applications, as the LCT continues to build new setups for current and future industrial use.

Detector selection was matched to what each lab within the hall was testing. "Different tests are conducted in each laboratory," says François Spadazzi, sales engineer at Dalemans. "In each one, we installed various gas detectors, HC, CO₂, H₂S, NO₂, SO₂, CO, and oxygen, depending on the applications of each machine." Explosive gas detectors were fitted at multiple points around the hall, and seven control panels were positioned inside the building — a departure from the traditional set up. "Generally, control panels are located outside the monitored area. This allows operators to safely check gas concentrations when an alarm is triggered."

Central to the system is a 19-inch cabinet, housed in a technical room outside the protected zone, containing two synoptic displays that map the hall's layout, its individual zones, and every detector alongside its alarm status. The arrangement means an alarm no longer requires anyone to enter the hall itself: gas concentrations can be read remotely, and any detector showing an alarm or fault condition can be reset from the same displays.

Spadazzi describes the installation as one shaped by UGent's own requirements rather than a fixed template. "We proposed several solutions to UGent's project managers," he adds. "We were highly flexible. We didn't impose our solutions—we respected their specifications. Everything was custom designed to meet their needs: synoptics layouts, tower light operation, and remote detector calibration." DALEMANS completed all necessary commissioning checks once the installation work was finished.