Visualizing Invisible Risk: OGI Sensors and Drones for Chemical Plant Safety

In large chemical and petrochemical infrastructures, biogas plants, and waste treatment facilities, gas emissions (VOCs, methane) represent a triple threat: environmental, economic, and safety related.

Until recently, detecting these leaks required long, risky manual inspections, often yielding incomplete data. Today, integrating OGI (Optical Gas Imaging) sensors onto UAS (drone) platforms is redefining industry standards.

Drones equipped with OGI sensors can scan vast and complex areas in extremely short timeframes.

Methane, Benzene, Butane, Propane, Vinyl Chloride… over 20 gases invisible to the naked eye appear on the screen as “clouds of smoke.” This allows for instantaneous localization of the exact leak source, enabling real-time visual mapping.

Thanks to this solution, operators are no longer exposed to the risks of working in hard-to-reach or potentially toxic areas. Drone inspections are carried out safely, without the need to interrupt production processes, thereby ensuring operational continuity.

MAVTech, in collaboration with Sierra Olympia, a US company specialized in OGI sensing tech, will explore these topics in depth, with presentations and live operational demos at the “Drone Live Operations Days” event, taking place on 24–25 September 2026 at the Swiss Drone Competence Center in Lodrino (TI).

📩 Are you Interested in participating? Contact us at eventi@mavtech.eu.