Analysis of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Sensing With Different Model of Sensor

Abstract

There are a few reported cases in our country regarding Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) leakage explosions and most of them are catastrophic that involve a fatality. The LPG gas sensor is a very appropriate effort in dealing with the early detection of LPG leaks to minimize their occurrence. However, there are limited studies and research involving different models of readily available LPG gas sensors on the market other than the MQ-6 gas sensors. Therefore, this research aims to conduct a performance analysis of the other 2 models of LPG sensor which are DMQ-9 & MiCS5524 along with the MQ-6 gas sensor itself. Four experiments were conducted and focused on important parameters of gas sensors which are sensitivity, selectivity, sensor response towards the variation of space, and distance. Arduino microcontroller and software were the brains of this study. Fifty millilitres & 100 ml of LPG were used to test the sensitivity of each sensor in ‘Experiment 1’, while 2 conditions which with and without the presence of smoke were used to test the selectivity of each sensor in ‘Experiment 2’. ‘Experiment 3’ varied the size of the container which consist of 2.5 L, 9 L and 22 L to show the sensor response towards the different volumes of space while ‘Experiment 4’ varied the distance of the sensor from the LPG source along with resistance adjustment to show sensor response towards distance and how resistance adjustment affects the sensor sensitivity. The result obtained indicated that the MiCS5524 gas sensor seems to have the best overall performance compared to DMQ-9 and MQ-6 gas sensors. This study is expected to contribute to the knowledge of the consumer to choose which sensor is the best to use depending on the situation to prevent an LPG explosion.