Infrared absorption chemical species tomography for monitoring fugitive emissions

加拿大巨大的化石燃料储备支撑着我们国家的经济繁荣。不幸的是，与上游石油和天然气行业相关的逃逸排放也占加拿大温室气体清单的很大一部分，并对石油和天然气工人以及广大加拿大人构成许多健康和安全风险。目前，工业依靠点源浓度测量来检测和定位逃逸排放，并依靠半经验算法来估计排放通量，但由于逃逸排放的高度局部性和间歇性，这些技术众所周知不可靠。因此，迫切需要一种新的工具，能够查明逃逸的排放源，并提供准确的排放通量估计，以便评估监管遵守情况并指导缓解战略。 视线衰减化学物种层析成像(LOSA-CST)是满足这一需求的一种很有前途的候选方法。在这种方法中，通过对整个流场进行多次红外光吸收测量，层析重建目标物质的浓度分布。虽然这项技术已经在实验室规模上得到完善，并在内燃机中应用，但最近光子学和电子学的进步，加上改进的层析成像算法，为在更大范围内测量逃逸排放的LOSA-CST仪器奠定了基础。 拟议研究的目标是开发一台LOSA-CST原型仪器，并对帝国石油萨尼亚设施的地面来源的逃逸排放进行概念验证测量。这项研究将为帝国石油公司和整个加拿大上游石油和天然气行业提供一个强大的新工具，用于诊断和纠正逃逸的排放源。它还将为联邦和省级政府提供准确的数据，以评估加拿大石油和天然气行业遵守具有国家约束力的新法规的情况，并指导加拿大关于化石燃料资源开发和温室气体排放的政策。

Canada's enormous fossil fuel reserves underpin our national economic prosperity. Unfortunately, fugitive emissions associated with the upstream oil and gas industry also account a significant portion of Canada's greenhouse gas inventory, and pose numerous health and safety risks to oil and gas workers, and Canadians at large. Currently, industry relies on point source concentration measurements to detect and localize fugitive emissions, and semi-empirical algorithms to estimate emission fluxes, but these techniques are notoriously unreliable due to the highly localized and intermittent nature of fugitive emissions. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for a new tool that can pinpoint fugitive emission sources, and provide accurate emission flux estimates in order to assess regulatory compliance and guide mitigation strategies. Line-of-sight-attenuation chemical species tomography (LOSA-CST) is a promising candidate to fulfill this need. In this approach the target species concentration distribution is tomographically-reconstructed from multiple infrared light absorption measurements made across the flow field. While this technique has been perfected at the lab scale and implemented within internal combustion engines, recent advancements in photonics and electronics, coupled with improved tomography algorithms, set the stage for a LOSA-CST instrument for measuring fugitive emissions at a larger scale. The goal of the proposed research is to develop a prototype LOSA-CST instrument and carry out proof-of-concept measurements of fugitive emissions from ground sources at Imperial Oil's Sarnia facilities. This research will give Imperial Oil, and Canada's upstream oil and gas industry in general, a powerful new tool for diagnosing and correcting fugitive emissions sources. It will also equip federal and provincial governments with accurate data for assessing compliance of Canada's oil and gas industry to new nationally-binding regulations, and guide Canadian policy on fossil fuel resource development and greenhouse gas emissions.