Speaker
Description
At the LHC experiments, a variety of gas mixtures are used to operate different gaseous detectors. Some of these gases (C2H2F4, C4F10, CF4, SF6) are powerful Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) with a high Global Warming Potential (GWP). This raises the need for optimizing the GHG consumption, for which the gas team (EP-DT-FS) identified three key strategies. First, gas consumption is reduced through gas recirculation and the operation of the gas systems is optimized. This involves continuous tuning of the Gas Control Systems to ensure proper detector performance and decrease fresh gas consumption. The second strategy consists of recovering the gas that cannot be recirculated and would otherwise be lost. Gas recuperation plants were developed to allow specific gases to be recovered from the gas mixture for future reuse. A third strategy involves the study of detectors operated with low-GWP, alternative gases. Gases in the family of hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) are being investigated as possible long-term alternative solutions to C2H2F4 in Resistive Plate Chamber detectors, while a short-to-medium term solution was identified in the addition of CO2 to the C2H2F4-based gas mixture without compromising on detector performance. In conclusion, there are several successful strategies to use gaseous detectors efficiently and sustainably for the next generation of particle detectors.