Methane Detectors Challenge: Low-Cost Continuous Emissions Monitoring

Abstract

Natural gas leakage from unmanned facilities, such as compressor stations, gathering sites, and block valve locations, can pose significant economic and safety impacts. Additionally, methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas with 84 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide on a mass basis over a 20-year period (IPCC 2013). Due to the remote location of many of these facilities, fluid leaks can persist for extended periods of time. Continuous leak detection systems would facilitate rapid identification and repair of leaks. However, existing technologies, such as infrared cameras, are cost-prohibitive to be installed at a high number of sites and are instead used in periodic monitoring as part of leak detection and repair programs. Such periodic monitoring does not provide for quick detection of “fat tail” leaks that dominate the emissions from gathering and transportation systems (Mitchell et al. 2015, Subramanian et al. 2015). A unique and innovative arrangement of various stakeholders was utilized to initiate a technology development and testing program aimed at expedited deployment of low-cost technologies at high numbers of sites. The technologies targeted for this work were low enough in cost to economically justify the installation of such sensors at every gas gathering and transportation site. This work was driven by an environmental advocacy organization under a partnership with eight different oil and gas companies and technical oversight from various universities, non-profits, and government agencies to give a wide perspective on the needs of such technology. Four different technologies were developed and tested in realistic release environments. The technologies ranged from sensors modified from automobile-based technology to laser-based systems used for monitoring gases in coal mines. The systems were treated as “end-to-end” units whereby all components (e.g., sensor, data acquisition, enclosures, etc.) needed to perform according to the provided specifications. The testing involved controlled releases under numerous environmental conditions and with different gas compositions. The largest focus of the testing was on outdoor releases where the systems had to detect the transient nature of gas plumes. The primary objectives of the testing were to determine the readiness of the technologies for pilot testing in the field and identify continuous improvement opportunities. The project demonstrated that there are newly-developed technologies that could be deployed as low-cost continuous monitoring solutions for the gas industry.

Characterization of inexpensive metal oxide sensor performance for trace methane detection

“…Methane is a major greenhouse gas of increasing importance with a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic sources (Saunois et al, 2016). Commercially available instruments for measuring methane are expensive, limiting the spatiotemporal resolution of monitoring and leak detection (Siebenaler et al, 2016;Riddick et al, 2020a). High-resolution monitoring networks can aid in pollution mapping and source iden-tification -for example, in reducing leaks and fugitive emissions from fossil fuel production and distribution, one of the main anthropogenic sources of methane emissions (US EPA, 2017).…”

Continuous OTM 33A Analysis of Controlled Releases of Methane with Various Time Periods, Data Rates and Wind Filters

“…The Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) invested in the development of commercially viable solutions for accurate methane measurement [8,9]. Recent research has also focused on the development of more accurate, indirect measurement methods for continuous emissions monitoring [10][11][12][13]. Improvements in technologies and methods would allow for more accurate quantification of emissions, long-term, on a site level with reduced time, cost and labor.…”

Natural Gas Fugitive Leak Detection Using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Measurement System Description and Mass Balance Approach

“…(1) the amount of human intervention needed, (2) the physical quantity measured and (3) the technical nature of the methods. Common platforms for detecting gas leaks and assessing air quality include ground-based fixed monitoring sites [21], portable detectors, mobile laboratories equipped with high-time resolution instruments [14,22], manned aircraft equipped with airborne instruments [23][24][25] and satellites [10,[26][27][28]. However, some shortcomings of these traditional platforms cannot be overlooked.…”