Unmanned Aerial vehicle with state a novel methane sensor

Abstract

Minuscule volumes of methane are emitted to the local air shed by energy facilities and melting permafrost, both a great concern to Alaskan stake holders. Long oil and gas pipes extend over hundreds to thousands of miles, they may seldom leak at early stage through minuscule holes. Therefore it is vital to detect these holes early on. In addition, the melting permafrost in the sub arctic and arctic is releasing trapped subterranean methane. Here we propose to use a UAV as mean of transport towards methane leaks, coupled with novel instrument to measure methane. In this work we will to introduce the Aeryon Scout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), with a new state of the art cavity ring spectrometer. The spectrometer is a one of a kind because of its small power consumption, dwarfish dimensions and weight, and sensitivity of parts per-billion. Just recently one of the major energy corporations gave approval to purchase this instrument. It is planed this summer to perform its first test flights. The instrument is expected to provide an upper hand in finding minuscule leaks in oil and gas pipes as well to assist in measurements of the methane flux due to melting permafrost.