IoT-Enhanced Integrated LPG Level and Leakage Detection System

Ayodeji G. Ashidi; Okikiade A. Layioye; Busola S. Badaru; Adewumi T. Obagade; Oluwatobi I. Balogun

doi:10.37591/rtsrt.v10i2.7663

Abstract

Increased statistics of fire outbreak occurrences and gas leakage incidents in both industrial and domestic applications has called for better safety measures in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) management. Research efforts are therefore geared towards developing solutions which could greatly curb the menace of fire outbreaks and leakages of highly flammable gases. The presented work focuses on the design and fabrication of an IoT-enhanced system dedicated to the monitoring and detection of LPG level and leakage, and suitable for hazard prevention. The developed device consists of several units: the gas sensing unit, microcontroller unit, measuring unit, real-time clock, display unit, and power supply unit. The gas sensing unit is an electrochemical sensor whose resistance changes whenever the LPG is being detected, with precision for gas concentration measurement in parts per million (ppm). The quantity of gas in kilograms (kg) is measured by a load cell which is a transducer. It converts a mechanical force to an electrical output which is fed through an amplifier (HX711) to the microcontroller. The microcontroller was programmed with C++ language in Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to read and process the electrical signal into readable form. For the calibration of the developed device, two methods were employed namely: an experimental calibration setup and field calibration at a gas station. With the experimental setup, the outputs of the sensing unit were compared with standard laboratory masses of 0.5 kg, 1 kg, 2 kg, and 5 kg. Calibration of the developed device and a standard device at gas station showed a clear relation.

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