2019 International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Communication Engineering (ECCE),
7-9 February, 2019
GSM Based Low-cost Gas Leakage, Explosion and
Fire Alert System with Advanced Security
Pritam Ghosh
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC)
Chittagong, Bangladesh
ghoshpritam908@gmail.com
Abstract— Gas leakage and gas cylinder explosion is a
regular problem in today’s world, especially in developing
countries. If the gas leakage can’t be detected fast and no
action is taken, may lead to explosion and cause severe
damages to life and environment. The previous leakage
detection systems only use alarms for warning. There is
nothing about the protection. In this paper, a system is
proposed that can detect not only gas leakage, it can detect
explosion, and fire as well. And can take some protective steps.
It is equipped with gas sensor to detect the leaked gas and
flame sensor to detect the explosion and fire. It has exhaust fan
system to clear the leaked gas and solenoid valve to inlet the
water or carbon dioxide gas (CO2) if explosion and fire occurs.
The explosion security system response individually when there
is only a fire with no relation to gas leakage. If any incident
occurs, that information is sent to owner through wireless
media, a display shows the alert message and buzzer makes the
alarm. It is equipped with Global System for Mobile
communications (GSM) modem as wireless media to send
information to owner through Short Message Service (SMS).
This ensures preventive actions immediately even in the
absence of people on-site. A prototype of this system has been
developed and tested with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and
Fire as well. The experimental results show that the system can
detect the gas leakage, explosion and fire. It is also able to take
protective steps quickly. This life saving system is low-cost and
useful. It can protect people from burning alive.
Keywords—Arduino UNO, MQ-9, Low-cost, Explosion,
Security, GSM.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fuel demand is increasing day by day. Various kinds of
fuel are being used in industry, shop, home etc. Liquefied
Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a mostly used fuel in the world. It
contains in cylinder on highly concentrated state. The
cylinder blasts sometimes. A gas cylinder blasts due to many
reasons. Gas leakage is the main cause of blast occurrence
[1]. People can’t know that the gas is leaking. So they light
up the fire and it creates blast. To avoid the situation gas
leakage detection is needed. The fire detection and security
system is needed as well with the gas leakage detection
system. This kind of automatic security system can save
people from dangerous blast accident and sometimes prevent
the accident.
A. Background study and overview
Many research projects have been done on this platform.
Very beginning, the gas leakage detection system was
proposed with only on-site alarm. After that wireless media
is attached with the system to make alarm [2]. In 2011 Luay
978-1-5386-9111-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Palash Kanti Dhar
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC)
Chittagong, Bangladesh
palash.knt604@gmail.com
Fraiwan and his team proposed a gas leakage detection
system with radio frequency (RF) communication [3]. It uses
RF communication to alert about gas leakage. Ganesh D and
Anilet Bala A, proposed a system in 2015 with ZigBee
communication [4]. It has a wireless network between the
sensors. Arpitha T and her team worked with FPGA system
in 2016 [5]. That system uses FPGA system to control the
process. A GSM module is also used in that system. These
systems are not cheaper. In 2018 a low cost gas detection
system is proposed by Mr. Arijit Banik and his team [6]. It’s
designed with microcontroller. There are many research
projects in the sector of fire security. In 2007 Chen Yueping
with his team designed a fire alarm system based on CAN
bus. It was a multi sensor based system in which the
PIC16712 get the sensors data and communicate with CAN
bus through CAN bus communication [7]. Another multi
sensor fire detection system based on ARM was proposed by
Haibing Hu and his team in 2009. That system used nrf2401
for short-range communication, GPRS for long-range
communication and ARM9 for center console [8]. In 2010
Huide Liu and the team proposed a design of a fire alarm
system in which there was a sub-machine to retransmit the
signal of the sensors [9]. A GSM based fire security system
was designed by Chun-yuan Lian in 2011. In this system
smoke detector and temperature sensor was used to detect the
fire [10]. In 2013 Md Saifudaullah Bin Bahrudin and his
team designed a fire security system with Raspberry Pi and
Arduino UNO. There was a web cam in that system which
sends image of incident to the owner through Raspberry Pi.
Owner can take decision after watching the incident image
and command the system to call the fire service [11].
All these systems only alert the owner through various
ways. These have nothing about security option. These
systems can’t take any action if accident occurs. Explosion
alert is needed to alert the people when they are not at home.
Explosion alert system is normally used in ground and
underground structure like mine, industry to detect the blast
of toxic gas chamber, which is dangerous for the workers
[12]. The LPG cylinder sometimes explodes as well. So the
explosion detection is needed for home security. When a gas
leakage situation occurs there is a high chance of fire.
Conventional smoke sensor base fire security system is too
slow for cylinder blast occurrence. PIR and IR flame sensor
is quicker than that [13]. This IR flame sensor can detect
ultraviolet to infrared radiation [15]. All three securities are
essential with gas leakage alert system. The system should be
low-cost also. The system proposed in this paper fulfills the
three security conditions. In the stage of gas leakage, fire and
explosion, this system takes protective steps. The system
takes the protective steps quickly as well.
 II. METHODOLOGY

A. Functional Block and working procedure

The system consists of an Arduino UNO as the brain of
the system. It has a MQ-9 gas sensor to detect the gas. MQ-9
is an advance level gas sensor and can detect 100-10000 ppm
combustible gas [14]. It has a flame sensor to detect the
explosion of gas cylinder and fire. This sensor detects fire
and explosion which create radiation between ultraviolet to
infrared [15]. The security system consists of exhaust fan and
solenoid valve. The exhaust fan is for clearing the leaked gas
from the room and the solenoid valve is to inlet carbon (a)
dioxide (CO2) or water from the water tank of the home
when the explosion and fire incident occurs. The normal fire-
fighting system works little slower because it uses the smoke
sensor to detect the fire which works with after burn smoke.
But every time is crucial for blast affected people. To detect
the fire fast the flame sensor is more workable. There is a
buzzer to create alarm and a LCD screen to show the
situation. The GSM modem sends SMS to owner when
accident occurs.
(b)
Fig. 2. Flowchart of Control Unit: (a) Gas leakage and Fire; (b) Explosion.

C. Circuit Diagram
The following Fig. 3 shows the schematic diagram of the
system. In the diagram there is an Arduino UNO, MQ-9 gas
sensor, flame sensor, GSM modem, LCD screen, exhaust
fan, solenoid valve, buzzer and relays. Pin 8 to pin 13 of the
Arduino are connected to the LCD. Pin 3 and 7 is connected
to gas sensor and flame sensor output. Pin 4, 5, 6 are
connected to exhaust fan, buzzer and solenoid valve. The
TXD pin and RXD pin is connected to GSM modem. The
Fig. 1. Functional Block Diagram. virtual terminal is used for watching the GSM working
procedure.
Fig. 1 shows the overall working process of this system.
The Gas sensor and the Flame sensor remain stand by in the
normal situation. There is no signal to the brain(Arduino) of
the system. When the gas sensor gets the leaked gas it creates
a voltage signal send it to the Arduino. Arduino then
switched on the buzzer and exhaust fan. The exhaust fan tries
to clear the gas from the room. The LCD shows the gas
leakage message and the GSM send message to the owner.
When there is an explosion or fire incident occurred, the
Flame sensor detects it with assist of gas sensor. Both
sensors generate voltage signal and send it to the Arduino.
The Arduino then switched on the buzzer and solenoid valve.
The solenoid valve inlet the water in the room to control the
fire. The LCD shows the fire and explosion alert message Fig. 3. Schematic Circuit Diagram of the system.
and the GSM send message to the owner.
III. SIMULATION RESULT
B. Algorithm Development
The design of this system shows positive result in
The following Fig. 2 shows the algorithm of this system. simulation. According to working procedure, this simulation
The algorithm is developed in two portions. One portion is is divided into four sections.
for gas leakage and fire. This portion of algorithm has two
loops. Left loop is for gas leakage detection and right loop is
A. Normal Condition
for fire detection. The other is for explosion. In this portion
of algorithm there is only one loop but both sensor output In this condition the sensors are in the standby mode.
have to be high at a time to take protective steps. The gas There is no output from the sensor and the system doesn’t
leakage protection and fire protection system work with take any action. That means no accident is occurred. The
individual sensor. In explosion both sensors are needed. Both LCD screen shows the text, “NORMAL CONDITION”.
sensors output high means an explosion occurred. Fig.4 shows this condition.

Fig. 4. System at Normal Condition in simulation.
B. Gas Leakage Condition
The Fig. 5 shows the gas leakage situation. When the gas
leakage situation occurred, the gas sensor detects the gas and
generates an output. In the simulation there is a logic state is
used on the test pin of the sensor to create that situation.
Fig. 5. System at Gas Leakage Condition in simulation.
Arduino then switched on the buzzer and exhaust fan. The
LCD shows the gas leakage message and the GSM send
message to the owner. SMS sending by GSM is shown in the
virtual terminal. The LCD screen shows the text, “GAS
LEAKAGE”.
C. Explosion Condition
If there is gas in the air and somehow the fire is
lightened, that creates an explosion. That means in this
situation the two sensors should make high output at a time.
In the simulation that situation is created by making the test
pins of the sensors high. Arduino then switched on the
buzzer and solenoid valve. The LCD shows the alert message
Fig. 6. System at Explosion Condition in simulation.
and the GSM send message to the owner. SMS sending by
GSM is shown in the virtual terminal. The LCD screen
shows the text, “EXPLOSION”. Explosion is a quicker
situation and in every case it creates fire. So solenoid valve is
open at this situation. The Fig.6 shows the situation.
D. Fire Condition
If there is fire, the flame sensor detects it and makes high
output. Arduino gets the high output then switched on the
buzzer and solenoid valve. The LCD shows the fire alert
message and the GSM send message to the owner. SMS
sending by GSM is shown in the virtual terminal. The LCD
screen shows the text, “FIRE”. The following Fig.7 shows
the situation.
Fig. 7. System at Fire Condition in simulation.
IV. HARDWARE RESULT
It’s previously declared that a prototype has been made
and tested. It is seen that it works as like as simulation. In the
following section it is described with real time images. As it
works like simulation, so the point in this section is same as
simulation result. The full hardware result is divided into
four sections. The overview of this system is given in Fig.8.
Fig. 8. Overview of the system.
A. Normal Condition
This condition is as like as in simulation. In simulation
the both sensors logic points are at zero. At this state the
system remains standby, because no gas and fire is placed in
front of the gas sensor and flame sensor. So, there is no
output from the two sensors. So the LCD shows, “NORMAL
CONDITION”. The buzzer and GSM modem remains
standby as well. Following Fig. 9 shows the result.

Fig. 9. System at Normal Condition.
B. Gas Leakage Condition
When gas is thrown to the gas sensor, it makes a high
output to the Arduino. The Arduino then switched on the
buzzer and exhaust fan. The LCD shows the gas leakage
message and the GSM send message to the owner. The LCD
screen shows the text, “GAS LEAKAGE”. The whole
process is shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10. System at Gas Leakage Condition.
C. Explosion Condition
It’s really dangerous to create explosion in real. But if
flame and gas is placed in front of the flame sensor and gas
sensor, they make high output at a time. Arduino then
switched on the buzzer and solenoid valve. By opening the
solenoid valve, the water inlets and helps to put out the fire.
The LCD shows the alert message and the GSM send
message to the owner. LCD shows it as, “EXPLOSION”.
Following Fig. 11 shows the details.
Fig. 11. System at Explosion Condition.
D. Fire Condition
When a fire is placed in front of the flame sensor, it gives
high output to the arduino. The Arduino then switched on the
buzzer and solenoid valve. The water gets through the
solenoid valve. This water system can be replaced by the
carbon dioxide gas. For that system the solenoid valve
should be strong so that it can take the carbon dioxide gas
pressure. The gas solenoid valve can be used. At this time the
LCD shows the fire alert message and the GSM send
message to the owner. The LCD screen shows the text,
“FIRE”. The following Fig.12 shows the situation.
Fig. 12. System at Fire Condition.
V. CONCLUSION
Use of LPG is increasing day by day. Safety of the
people using LPG is a major factor. Many people were burnt
alive due to the cylinder blast. Many are died. So making of
security system is a public demand. The main aim of this
paper is to design a system that can give security to people
at a low cost. And people can feel safe to use LPG cylinder.
Many researches were done on this area, but a system was
needed that which can give advanced security in a low cost.
The system proposed in this paper can meet the demand.
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