Sniffer drones for fugitive emission detection, localization, and quantification

NSERC Discovery项目的目标是开发和测试新的分析方法，创建智能“嗅探器”无人机，用于检测，定位和量化逃逸甲烷排放。该项目的动机是寻求减少石油和天然气行业甲烷排放的新政策和法规，以及对新的、具有成本效益和可扩展的测量技术的相应需求，以支持缓解。这是气象学和地理信息学交叉的一个新的研究领域，其中从无人机获取空间和时间间隔的甲烷浓度测量值，并与其他机载测量值同步，以定位逃逸源并估计排放率。由此产生的地理时态数据与传统方法有着深刻的不同，需要新的方法将测量结果转化为可操作的信息。该项目旨在推进基于无人机的甲烷排放传感的整个生命周期，从调查前的规划和优化，到飞行中的测量和调查后的处理。模拟建模和使用控制（计量）释放天然气的现场测试相结合，将用于开发和成熟新的分析方法。拟议项目的潜在成果和影响包括：（i）新的工具和技术，以实现新兴的清洁技术，（ii）澄清基于无人机的排放测量的局限性和利基应用，（iii）通过在不断增长的环境分析领域进行应用的、问题驱动的研究，发展HQP，以及（iv）通过未来的缩放和实施无人机甲烷传感技术来减少逃逸性甲烷排放。虽然该项目的重点是石油和天然气行业的挥发性甲烷，但开发的分析方法将适用于其他行业和空气污染物。

The objective of this NSERC Discovery project is to develop and test new analytical methods that create intelligent ‘sniffer' drones for detecting, localizing, and quantifying fugitive methane emissions. This project is motivated by new policies and regulations seeking to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and the corresponding need for new, cost-effective and scalable measurement technologies to support mitigation. This is a new research area at the intersection of meteorology and geoinformatics, where spatially- and temporally-spaced methane concentration measurements are acquired from a drone and synchronized with other onboard measurements to locate fugitive sources and estimate emission rates. The resulting geotemporal data are profoundly different from conventional methods and require new approaches to convert measurements into actionable information. The project is designed to advance the full life cycle of drone-based methane emission sensing from pre-survey planning and optimization, to inflight measurements, and post-survey processing. A combination of simulation modeling and field testing using controlled (metered) releases of natural gas will be used to develop and mature new analytical methods. The potential outcomes and impacts of the proposed project include: (i) new tools and techniques to enable an emerging clean technology, (ii) clarification of the limitations and niche applications of drone-based emission measurement, (iii) HQP development through applied, problem-driven research in the growing field of environmental analytics, and (iv) reduction of fugitive methane emissions through future scaling and implementation of drone-based methane sensing technology. While the project focus is fugitive methane from the oil and gas sector, the analytics developed will be applicable to other industries and air pollutants.