CNG leakage detection and sensor diagnostic in Bus with CAN interface.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. Compressed natural gas (CNG) contains 70-90 %methane, the second most significant greenhouse gas contributing to climate change, after carbon dioxide. The effects caused due to gas leakages that results in fire and bursting of cylinder can be prevented by continuous monitoring of gas leakage in the Gas transmission pipeline of the commercial vehicles. In order to detect and resolve methane leaks, reliable and cost-effective sensors need to be researched and developed. This paper discusses about the usage of sensor with digital output replacing the previous Gas leakage detection sensor module which gives analog output. The previously used Gas leakage detection module implements a design of a gas leakage detector system with, LED and audio indication that notifies the leakage in gas to the users. It is a sensor based device that easily detects a CNG leakage, with an analog sensor as its gas leakage detection sensor. But the implementation of Digital sensor instead of analog sensor will be more advantageous in many aspects such as quick data rates, noise immunity, cost efficient and user friendly. So, the implementation of the proposed paper which uses a ZC41 (Digital sensor) will display the detected gas leakage in the instrument cluster of the vehicle, since it has a CAN interfaced output. The discussed material includes the implementation, working, design parameters and recent developments of these sensors. A comparison between different methods, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the previously used modules and the proposed system is also presented to help address future research needs.