Accenture has unveiled a wirelessly enabled gas detection system designed to increase worker safety in oil refineries, chemical plants, and other hazardous industrial environments.
The Accenture Life Safety Solution combines Wi-Fi and location-based technologies with portable gas detector devices. The product allows operators to remotely monitor incidents in locations that were previously unsuitable for wireless networks because their dense steel infrastructures make it difficult to transmit wireless signals, the company said. Now, the patent-pending Accenture system can alert central controllers to safety-related incidents in the plant, as well as the workers’ locations.
The first deployment of the Accenture solution is at a Marathon Oil Corp. refinery in Robinson, IL. In addition to new levels of safety achieved by alerting on-site individuals to potential emergencies and off-site colleagues of their location, it is an affordable solution, Marathon officials said. “The cost-effectiveness of this solution has the potential to transform on-site safety in our industry and should be relevant to many other sectors,” said Jerry Welch, senior vice president of Marathon’s refining organization, in a statement.
The Accenture Life Safety Solution, which includes custom design installation and deployment, uses Wi-Fi triangulation to locate workers, wireless lapel-based gas detector devices from Industrial Scientific, Cisco Systems’ Unified Wireless Network and Mobility Services Engine, and AeroScout’s Wi-Fi Tags, location engine, and user front-end technology.