what are methane leaks

Around 50% of these emissions come from regions with activities in oil and gas, coal mining and other heavy industries. A number of firms are now exploring the use of drones to continually monitor and scan for emissions. “The discovery and quantification of gas leaks from space is a game-changer in the interaction of atmospheric sciences and climate change mitigation,” said Thomas Roeckmann, professor of atmospheric physics and chemistry at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and coordinator of a project, called MEMO2, to measure methane leaks at ground level. However, gas prices are extremely low right now, which is a major economic disincentive to patch leaks. His company patented an instrument that could map emissions to a much finer resolution than the publicly-funded satellites were capable of seeing. Cuomo Cancels Thanksgiving: What Happens When the…. Since methane dissipates in the atmosphere more quickly than carbon dioxide, reducing methane emissions brings climate benefits much more rapidly. “Every couple of weeks, they give us a list of hot spots they found, and then we go take a look” with finer resolution, Mr. Germain said. A risk because regulators, lawmakers and financiers are getting increasingly serious about limiting emissions: This month, the United Kingdom required large companies and banks to disclose their climate risks by 2025. Sure enough, methane emissions from oil and gas operations have consistently been found, in research over the past several years, to be far higher than the industry and the Environmental Protection Agency were estimating. Methane Leaks Getting Sniffed Out with New Software! In work funded by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), a team of three has devised machine learning codes that analyze the speed and direction of wind currents to trace methane leaks back to their sources. When Europe initiated its cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases by forcing emitters over a certain threshold to pay for their excess output, Mr. Germain said he realized there would be a financial incentive for companies to find and reduce their emissions. Methane, the powerful, invisible greenhouse gas, has been leaking from oil facilities since the first wells were drilled more than 150 years ago. Factoring in wind speed and direction, alongside topography, helps track the gas to a source. But growing attention on the problem is galvanizing new solutions. Satellites have been measuring methane in the atmosphere since the European Space Agency launched Envisat in 2002, though the goal of this and other satellites was to work out global emissions levels, not pinpoint specific leaks. Yet while it has doubled in atmospheric concentration over the past 70 years, precisely where all this additional methane is coming from has not been well understood. Currently available methods to detect methane leaks, such as infrared scanners, are cost-prohibitive at scale. Natural gas production has come under increased scrutiny because of the prevalence of leaks of methane — the colorless, odorless main component of natural gas — from the fuel’s supply chain… Since the Turkmenistan find, the Netherlands space institute and GHGSat have collaborated to find large emissions from coal mines in China and Australia, as well as from other oil-and-gas facilities in Central Asia. “We will likely be able to detect smaller and thus potentially many more leaks from space in the near future.”. Andrew Cuomo: Most Corrupt Governor In the Nation? First, a much less sensitive satellite identifies a general area where methane concentrations seem to be rising. Wet Natural Gas vs. Dry Natural Gas, What’s the Difference? Unlike some aspects of their operations, a number of large oil and gas firms aren’t vigorously contesting the public pressure they face to take action on methane emissions. Drop Facebook and Twitter and follow us on Parler: Your email address will not be published. This new discovery takes us leaps and bounds ahead toward solving the issue. New technology in the form of software promises to help identify sources of methane leaks and continue their reduction.]. Two weeks ago we told you about LANL’s breakthrough discovery about pressures used when fracking in the Marcellus (see DOE Marcellus Research Finds High Frack Pressure Keeps Gas Trapped). The researchers recently published the results of their work in the journal Atmospheric Environment: X. Given the fact that oil and gas operations are known to leak methane, and the increase in methane in the atmosphere has occurred concurrently with the boom in drilling, they seemed a natural place to look. Major leaks are typically fixed promptly. Three LANL researchers are using “machine learning codes” (artificial intelligence) to analyze speed and wind direction of methane leaks and trace them back to the point of origin. Above is satellite images of large methane leaks Satellites can now me used to monitor the world for large methane leaks and to identify the largest sources of methane emissions. “We’re seeing this, and what are you going to do about it?”. The team is calling their technology Autonomous, Low-cost, Fast Leak Detection System (ALFaLDS). China Does Renewables Head Fake: Builds Energy…, Fertilizer Made with Natural Gas Is Lifting Our World, Andrew Cuomo: Not Only Corrupt, But Incompetent, As…, DRBC Lawsuit Update: Still Waiting on the Federal Court, DOE Marcellus Research Finds High Frack Pressure Keeps Gas Trapped, published the results of their work in the journal. “Aircraft are very expensive” for methane monitoring, so “it’s not something that happens on a daily basis,” said Wes Jickling, the chief executive of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, a GHGSat customer and partnership of nine companies including BP and an Exxon Mobil subsidiary. “If they turn out to be industrial sources, we work to find the operators and let them know — and if they’re not already customers, hopefully turn them into customers,” he said. Your email address will not be published. In 2002, satellites from Japan and the European Space Agency began taking stock of global emissions, but the resolution was too low to identify point sources. Iris was just launched a few months ago, and the small emission it detected in October was a test leak, designed to demonstrate that the product actually worked. Methane leaks, sometimes called fugitive methane, have been and continue to be an issue the gas industry is trying to address. Methane emissions are rising rapidly, with new satellite data from technology company Kayrros revealing that large leaks have increased by 32% in the past year. There are about 100 high volume-emitting methane leaks at any one time around the world. Cuomo: The Grinch Who Stole Southern Tier Opportunity. A rocket carrying the methane-detecting Iris satellite launched in September from French Guiana. According to Kayrros, there are around 100 high-volume leaks happening around the world at any one time. “Technology is delivering a way of bringing independent checks on environmental performance, which is now clearly a source of financial risk,” said Charles Donovan, executive director of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School in London. Methane, the powerful, invisible greenhouse gas, has been leaking from oil facilities since the first wells were drilled more than 150 years ago. The concern is that the energy industry leaks too much methane from its operations – at well-sites, pipelines, valves, connectors, gathering facilities and terminals. This new discovery takes us leaps and bounds ahead toward solving the issue. That’s both a risk and an opportunity for energy companies. Methane is less prevalent in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but it is far more potent at trapping the sun’s heat, and it has increasingly become a target of concern for meeting the greenhouse-gas reduction goals of the Paris Agreement, the 2015 pact between the nations of the world to curb emissions to fight warming. Besides production of fossil fuels including coal, methane also comes from landfills and agriculture, including livestock and rice farms. The only real hardware involved is a small methane sensor developed by a California startup, Aeris Technologies, Inc. — although the scientists’ algorithms can be used to analyze the data coming off almost any gas and wind sensor, including, potentially, sensors attached to cars or drones.

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