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

STTR 第二阶段：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: 1951241
• 负责人: Manish Gupta
• 金额: $ 74.88万
• 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: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-01 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1951241&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; II; Development; Validation

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project is to help find natural gas leaks to improve public safety and reduce natural gas rates. Natural gas leaks have led to fires and explosions that have injured hundreds of people, including some fatalities, and resulted in over $2 B in costs. By finding leaks before they become dangerous, improved detection systems can save lives and prevent costly damage. Current methods, which primarily rely on customer calls and annual walking surveys of utility assets, are labor-intensive and often miss small and developing leaks. The proposed project is to conduct advanced development of an automated leak detection system. Once leak locations are identified, a crew can be dispatched to pinpoint the leak location and perform repairs as necessary. At the conclusion of this work, two new tools will be completed to help find natural gas leakage, improving both utility efficiency and community safety. This STTR Phase I project proposes to develop a low-cost natural gas analyzer using a robust, near-infrared telecommunications-grade laser coupled with cavity-enhanced laser spectrometry to make highly accurate, rapid measurements of trace methane in a compact, portable form factor. By coupling this analyzer with a co-developed data analytics platform, gas leaks can be located and quantified from mobile platforms, allowing for rapid and accurate surveying of most utility distribution assets. In addition, the project will develop a sensitive, fast, handheld methane sensor to replace the state-of-practice flame-ionization detector, as it require consumables and is insufficiently sensitive. The project will engineer an integrated hardware-software system for leak detection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是帮助找到天然气泄漏，以改善公共安全并降低天然气率。 天然气泄漏导致大火和爆炸炸伤，其中数百人，包括一些死亡，并导致了超过2美元的成本。通过在危险之前发现泄漏，改进的检测系统可以挽救生命并防止昂贵的损害。 当前的方法主要依赖于客户呼叫和公用事业资产的年度步行调查，是劳动密集型的，通常会错过小而发展的泄漏。 拟议的项目是进行自动泄漏检测系统的高级开发。一旦确定了泄漏位置，就可以派遣机组人员来查明泄漏位置并根据需要进行维修。 在这项工作结束时，将完成两种新工具，以帮助发现天然气泄漏，从而提高公用事业效率和社区安全。该STTR I期项目提议使用坚固的，近红外的电信级激光与空腔增强激光光谱法相结合，以高度准确，快速测量紧凑，可移植的外形。 通过将该分析仪与共同开发的数据分析平台相结合，可以从移动平台找到并量化气体泄漏，从而可以快速准确地测量大多数公用事业分配资产。 此外，该项目将开发一个敏感，快速的手持甲烷传感器，以替代经验现代的火焰离子化检测器，因为它需要消耗品并且不足以敏感。该项目将设计一个集成的硬件软件系统，以供泄漏检测。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估的。