SK Energy Develops Technology to Completely Prevent 'Confined Space Gas Accidents'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] SK Energy has completed the development of a cutting-edge system that can prevent safety accidents occurring in confined spaces such as oil refining and petrochemical plants and underground construction sites.

On the 15th, SK Energy announced that it has completed the development and patent registration of the 'Confined Space Gas Detection System,' which can significantly enhance the safety level of workers inside confined spaces. Through system upgrades such as miniaturization and weight reduction, it will be fully applied to the Ulsan CLX starting this September. By using this system, workers operating in confined spaces can be safely protected from harmful gases remaining in the area.

Oil refining and petrochemical plants have many enclosed facilities such as tanks, towers, and drums. Due to the nature of the processes, gas generation is inevitable. It is estimated that about 10,000 such facilities are installed at SK Energy’s Ulsan CLX alone, and over 500,000 nationwide. Especially during regular maintenance or construction in petrochemical plants, workers can be directly exposed, making securing worker safety the top priority.

Until now, for work in confined spaces, workers had to enter the facilities and directly measure the presence of residual gases. This posed a high risk of suffocation accidents and required measuring the remaining gases every time before starting work, after breaks, after lunch, and during extended work hours, which consumed a lot of work time.

The system developed by SK Energy installs sensors based on the Internet of Things (IoT) in confined workplaces to enable unmanned real-time measurement of residual harmful gases. If gas remains inside the confined space, an alarm immediately sounds, allowing workers to evacuate and enabling rapid accident response to prevent disasters in advance. The introduction of this system greatly improves worker safety and significantly reduces work time, thereby enhancing work efficiency.

An SK Energy official said, "We started developing the system in 2017 and confirmed its applicability on-site through years of testing," adding, "If this is expanded and introduced nationwide, including all processes at Ulsan CLX, it is expected to create a turning point in fundamentally blocking suffocation disasters." SK Energy plans to first apply about 100 unmanned gas detection systems starting this September at sites with high harmful gas emissions and expand installation to all confined space work sites by 2021.

Cho Kyung-mok, President of SK Energy, said, "Safety is the top priority that cannot be compromised under any circumstances in large-scale industrial sites," adding, "By establishing a perfect social safety net at industrial sites with double and triple safety devices combined with advanced technology and spreading this, we will ultimately create a safe Republic of Korea and contribute to national industrial development."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.