Geomembrane producer GSE Environmental Inc. has partnered with a sensor specialist to help customers detect leaks in plastic liners for industrial ponds and similar applications.
GSE introduced the Liner Integrity Monitoring System at GeoAmericas 2016 in Miami. GSE developed the system with Texplor Group BV of Breda, the Netherlands.
The system is new to GSE clients in North and South America, according to Steve Eckhart, GSE vice president of Americas sales & global marketing.
Sensors in the system are welded site into geomembranes, such as high density polyethylene sheet, at the job site, Eckhart said in a phone interview. Each sensor monitors 1,000 square meters by measuring the electrical field above and below the geomembrane.
The system continuously collects, stores and analyzes real-time data taken across the liner so that operators can pinpoint a leak and repair it quickly.
Leaks can wreak environmental havoc in ponds and collection areas that provide containment of hazardous materials in mining, waste and chemical storage, and similar applications. GSE claims the monitoring system provides long-term protection against environmental risk and product loss.
Eckhart said Houston-based GSE recently installed similar monitoring systems in Europe and China. Texplor claims the modules can last 100 years based on studies by the Department for Plastic and Environmental Engineering at the Federal Research Institute in Vienna, Austria.