Low cost sensors for MEthane MOnitoring NEtworks (MEMONE)

科学家已经测量到进入大气的甲烷量大幅增加，甲烷是一种强大的全球变暖气体。根据政府间气候变化专门委员会（Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change）的数据，甲烷在进入大气后的头20年里，其变暖能力是二氧化碳的80多倍。我们的甲烷监测系统将支持该行业减少油气作业中的甲烷排放。这是为实现全球气候目标可以采取的最具成本效益和影响力的行动之一。改进测量和报告可以反过来导致更有效的监管干预。天然气泄漏在本质上是非常偶然的，不频繁的监测很容易错过泄漏。许多现有的监测系统由于其成本和对训练有素的用户的要求而用于抽查，因此会错过零星的泄漏。我们正在开发的用于甲烷检测的设备将进行优化，以提供大面积的连续监测，使其成为评估和监测天然气逸散排放速率和位置的理想选择。我们的设备将由一个完全自主的传感器观测网络组成，提供低延迟的连续监测。通过持续监测排放，我们不仅能够检测到不常见和零星的事件，我们还可以获得有关背景波动的信息，并建立算法来消除误报。现有的气体传感技术要么价格昂贵，要么灵敏度低，寿命短，要么对其他气体甚至水蒸气没有足够的辨别能力。我们的光学技术是基于光学系统的基本重新设计，使低功耗的长期现场使用成为可能。我们正在开发一个原型来证明原理，以获得业界的认可。我们正在优化半导体光源，采样量和检测器，以最大限度地延长电池寿命和性能，以满足“最佳可用技术而不需要过多成本”（BATNEEC）的要求。这确保了我们的系统符合英国环境保护法规的要求。

Scientists have measured big increases in the amount of methane, a powerful global warming gas, entering the atmosphere. Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Our Methane Monitoring System will support the industry in reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations. This is among the most cost-effective and impactful actions that can be taken to achieve global climate goals. Improved measurement and reporting can in turn lead to more efficient regulatory interventions.Natural gas leaks can be highly episodic in nature and infrequent monitoring can easily miss leaks. Many existing monitoring systems would miss sporadic leaks since they are used for spot checks due to their cost and requirement for trained users. The devices we are developing for methane detection will be optimised to provide continuous monitoring over a large area, making them ideal for assessing and monitoring the rate and location of fugitive emissions of natural gas.Our devices will consist of a fully autonomous observational network of sensors, providing low latency continuous monitoring. By continually monitoring the emissions we are not only able to detect infrequent and sporadic events, we can gain information on background fluctuations and establish algorithms to eliminate false positives.Existing gas sensing technologies are either prohibitively expensive or have low sensitivity, short lifetime, or do not give sufficient discrimination against other gasses or even water vapour. Our optical technology is based on a fundamental re-design of the optical system, where low power consumption for year long field use becomes possible. We are developing a prototype to demonstrate proof of principle in order to gain acceptance in the industry. We are optimising the semiconductor light source, sampling volume and detector, to maximise battery life and performance designed to meets the requirements of 'Best available techniques not entailing excessive cost' (BATNEEC). This ensures our systems meet requirements under UK environment protection legislation.