Frequency Comb-Based Remote Methane Observation Network (Final Scientific/Technical Report)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); University of Colorado
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
ARPA-E investment in long-range, frequency comb-based methane detection has resulted in the first scalable, cost-effective continuous methane emissions system. At the onset of this ARPA-E MONITOR award, the dual-frequency comb spectrometer was a sprawling, expensive, laboratory-confined device which had only recently been demonstrated capable of measuring atmospheric trace gases over open-paths. Bringing the technology to the point of being able to monitor for and characterize methane emissions at oil and natural gas production facilities seemed an almost impossible task. Over the subsequent months and years, our team transitioned the Nobel-prize-winning frequency-comb-laser spectrometer technology to a field-deployed regional methane leak detection system. The spectrometer enables highly sensitive near-infrared absorption measurements of methane along kilometer-scale laser beam paths. The measurements are coupled with an atmospheric modeling and inversion framework to triangulate the location of emission sources and quantify the emission rates.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- Contributing Organization:
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST)-; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-
- DOE Contract Number:
- AR0000539
- OSTI ID:
- 1813301
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-CU--00539
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English