SK Energy, an affiliate of SK Innovation, said Monday it has developed a gas detection system that will no longer require workers to manually check for remaining gas inside concealed facilities to enhance safety.

“Petrochemical facilities have a lot of concealed facilities such as tanks, towers and oil drums where gas leaks occur. When workers conduct maintenance, they have to get inside and check if there is any remaining gas. With the sensors, they can now detect it automatically and alarms are activated, preventing direct gas exposure,” a company official said.

The system can also shorten the time taken to check for presence of gas and operate in such facilities, the firm added.

SK Energy will be further upgrading the system to make the sensors smaller and lighter, before applying them at its Ulsan Complex site from September.

About 100 systems will first be deployed at sites where there tend to be most leaks of toxic gas, before applying them to all 10,000 enclosed facilities by next year.

“Safety is a nonnegotiable priority at massive industrial sites. We will establish double and triple safety nets, combined with state-of-the-art technology to make South Korea safe and contribute to development of the country’s industry,” SK Energy CEO Cho Kyung-mok said.

According to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, 93 out of 177 workers who suffered asphyxiation inside concealed spaces died from 2013 to 2017. The fatality rate of 52.5 percent is much higher than the average fatality rate of 1.2 percent witnessed in other types of industrial accidents.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)