Coal seam gas (CSG) is an abundant energy source that’s been portrayed as having a lower Greenhouse Gas footprint than coal, but there have been concerns that fugitive emissions may be larger than estimated. Fugitive emissions associated with CSG development are engineered release points (valves and vents etc.) and unintentional equipment leaks. Various gas detection technologies are utilised across the industry that are effective at detecting large emissions sources in close proximity, but they are difficult to scale up to the large size needed for the CSG industry. We’ll present a summary of a trial utilising a new mobile methane detection and emission quantification system: the Picarro EQ (Emissions Quantification). After driving this instrument around CSG infrastructure, Picarro’s cloud-based analytics generate a map of methane measurements and emissions with wind indicators pointing to likely sources. Since all measurements are on a secure cloud-based service, any authorised operator can log into it to run reports and analytics. This system has been used to make measurements in the Barnett Shale, United States. We present results and demonstrate its usage within an operational CSG area to quantify and identify emissions from CSG infrastructure.
Field Performance of New Methane Detection Technologies: Results from the Alberta Methane Field Challenge
