STTR Phase I: Development and Validation of Low-Cost Natural Gas Leak Detection Sensors and Analytics for Drone-Based and Handheld Deployments

STTR 第一阶段：用于无人机和手持式部署的低成本天然气泄漏检测传感器和分析的开发和验证

• 批准号: 1745840
• 负责人: Manish Gupta
• 金额: $ 22.43万
• 依托单位: Nikira Labs Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1745840&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Development; Validation; Low

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the rapid, cost-effective detection of natural gas leakage to improve public safety, mitigate global climate change, and decrease product loss. Natural gas is the largest provider of power in the United States. However, more than 80 Tg of leakage occurs at well pads and pipelines during production alone. Such leakage poses a public health risk, with 1300 significant incidents reported from 1997 ? 2016, resulting in 50 fatalities, 180 injuries, and $2B in costs. Additionally, methane is a greenhouse gas with a warming potential that is 84 times higher than CO2. In 2015, natural gas leakage accounted for 198 million tons of CO2 equivalents, corresponding to a carbon tax value of more than $2B. Finally, energy companies want to reduce leakage to avoid product loss, with 80 Tg of methane having a value of $12B. This project will directly impact the aforementioned areas by improving the efficiencies and costs associated with natural gas leak detection. With over 2.2 million miles of local utility gas distribution pipelines 1.2 million well pads in the U.S. alone, the commercial prospects for an improved natural gas leak detection system are very promising with expected revenues exceeding $70M.This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will involve the development of a comprehensive natural gas leakage detection solution that integrates compact, low-cost sensors with state-of-the-art analytics. The solution, which can be used in drone-based and handheld monitoring, will enable energy providers to detect natural gas leakage from well pads and pipelines. In Phase I, technical feasibility will be demonstrated by the development of a lightweight gas sensor based on incoherent, cavity-enhanced spectrometry and a natural gas camera based on filtered infrared imaging. These sensors will be integrated with global positioning system, wind speed/direction, and data analytics platform. The Phase I solution will be laboratory tested to characterize its analytical performance, before undergoing field testing on controlled natural gas leaks. In Phase II, the sensor hardware, electronics, and firmware will be refined to meet the stringent size, weight, power, and environmental constraints of drone-based and handheld deployment. Likewise, the analytics platform will be refined to incorporate the STTR sensors, interpret the infrared camera data, and provide comprehensive leak detection reports. The Phase II prototypes will be field tested under real-world conditions with a variety of potential customers for both well pad monitoring and pipeline distribution system monitoring.

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是快速、经济高效地检测天然气泄漏，以改善公共安全、缓解全球气候变化并减少产品损失。 天然气是美国最大的电力供应商。 然而，仅在生产过程中，井场和管道处就发生了超过 80 Tg 的泄漏。 这种泄漏造成了公共健康风险，自 1997 年以来已报告了 1300 起重大事件？ 2016 年，造成 50 人死亡、180 人受伤，造成 20 亿美元的损失。此外，甲烷是一种温室气体，其升温潜力比二氧化碳高 84 倍。 2015年，天然气泄漏造成1.98亿吨二氧化碳当量，对应的碳税价值超过2B美元。 最后，能源公司希望减少泄漏以避免产品损失，80 Tg 的甲烷价值为 $12B。 该项目将通过提高与天然气泄漏检测相关的效率和成本来直接影响上述领域。 仅在美国就有超过 220 万英里的当地公用燃气分配管道和 120 万个井场，改进的天然气泄漏检测系统的商业前景非常光明，预计收入超过 7000 万美元。这个小企业技术转让 (STTR) 阶段我的项目将涉及开发全面的天然气泄漏检测解决方案，该解决方案将紧凑、低成本的传感器与最先进的分析功能集成在一起。 该解决方案可用于基于无人机和手持式监控，将使能源提供商能够检测井场和管道的天然气泄漏。 在第一阶段，将通过开发基于非相干腔增强光谱测量的轻型气体传感器和基于过滤红外成像的天然气相机来证明技术可行性。这些传感器将与全球定位系统、风速/风向和数据分析平台集成。 第一阶段的解决方案将经过实验室测试，以表征其分析性能，然后再对受控天然气泄漏进行现场测试。 在第二阶段，传感器硬件、电子设备和固件将得到改进，以满足无人机和手持部署的严格尺寸、重量、功率和环境限制。 同样，分析平台也将得到改进，以纳入 STTR 传感器、解释红外摄像机数据并提供全面的泄漏检测报告。 第二阶段原型将在现实条件下与各种潜在客户进行现场测试，用于井场监测和管道分配系统监测。