Small-Scale DIAL for Methane Detection

Overview

Main Objective

The main objective is an instrument designed for an unmanned aerial vehicle that rapidly and cost effectively detects fugitive methane at concentrations on the order of parts per million. Rapidly means actionable data over a large area within minutes. Cost effectively means data at burdened costs of $100 per site/mile or less.

Public Abstract

The 2014 government and industry pipeline research forum identified five technical challenges facing the industry today. The second topic area of the report was the detection of fugitive methane and the associated leak sites. Five subtopics were provided including establishing verification frameworks, conducting field studies, quantifying emissions, developing a decision support system, and improving residential methane detectors. This research project plans to address fugitive methane detection and all five of the subtopics. The main objective is an instrument designed for an unmanned aerial vehicle that rapidly and cost effectively detects fugitive methane at concentrations on the order of parts per million. Rapidly means actionable data over a large area within minutes. Cost effectively means data at targeted costs of $100 per site/mile or less. To accomplish these objectives, the University of Colorado is partnering with Ball Aerospace & Technologies to develop a small-scale, unmanned aerial vehicle portable methane detection instrument. Ball Aerospace is currently developing a larger scale version of a similar instrument under PHMSA contract DTPH56-13-T-000004. Through this partnership, the students will gain valuable hands-on experience, develop a greater understanding of the challenges facing PHMSA, and lay the groundwork for the commercialization of the technology. In addition to the engineers at Ball, a team of industry professionals has been assembled in order to help provide guidance and to mentor in technical areas. Through this team-centric approach, the students will design, build, and field test the instrument within two years.

Summary and Conclusions

The project compares 1.65 µm and 3.3 µm UAV-based DIAL systems. Preliminary results suggest that the 3.3 µm system can be designed to measure this type of leak with a precision of ~2.5% from a single cross-track scan transect, while the 1.65 µm system only has a precision of ~15%. Everything else being equal, the 3.3 µm system does perform better in that regard. However, many pipeline operators may not be concerned with such high precision and would be satisfied with a lower value. So, if it turns out that a 3.3 µm DIAL system is too expensive or even impossible to practically downsize to a UAV, a 1.65 µm system might be sufficient.

Relevant Files & Links