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Title: Ubiquitous Low-Cost Functionalized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Sensors for Distributed Methane Leak Detection

Journal Article · · IEEE Sensors Journal
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
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This paper presents a highly sensitive, energy efficient, and low-cost distributed methane (CH4) sensor system (DMSS) for continuous monitoring, detection, and localization of CH4 leaks in natural gas infrastructure, such as transmission and distribution pipelines, wells, and production pads. The CH4 sensing element, a key component of the DMSS, consists of a metal-oxide nanocrystal functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube mesh, which, in comparison with the existing literature, shows stronger relative resistance change while interacting with lower parts per million concentration of CH4. A Gaussian plume triangulation algorithm has been developed for the DMSS. Given a geometric model of the surrounding environment, the algorithm can precisely detect and localize a CH4 leak as well as estimate its mass emission rate. A UV-based surface recovery technique making the sensor recover ten times faster than the reported ones is presented for the DMSS. A control algorithm based on the UV-accelerated recovery is developed, which facilitates faster leak detection.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); University of Illinois, Chicago; Aclima, Inc.
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1393950
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1456962
Journal Information:
IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 24; ISSN 1530-437X
Publisher:
IEEECopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 14 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Cited By (3)

Fiber-optic photoacoustic sensor for remote monitoring of gas micro-leakage journal January 2019
Greenhouse Gas Sensors Fabricated with New Materials for Climatic Usage: A Review journal August 2018
Simulations of Graphene Nanoribbon Field Effect Transistor for the Detection of Propane and Butane Gases: A First Principles Study journal January 2020

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Related Subjects

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Carbon Nanotube
Chemoresistor
Methane