Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Canada and the US have agreed to reduce oil and gas sector methane emissions 40-45% from 2012 estimates by 2025. Identifying the sources of these emissions can inform operators as to the most effective areas for infrastructure improvements in order to reduce product loss and improve environmental performance. Knowledge of the extent of these emissions can also facilitate conversations between operators, regulators, landowners, and other stakeholders. In this project, an incoming Masters student and PhD student will develop and field test a reliable, robust, and cost competitive sensor package for detecting and locating CH4 emissions. This will be done by combining the expertise in field application and complex data analysis found in Dr. Risk's FluxLab at St Francis Xavier University with the expertise in sensor hardware development and refinement of our industry partner, Eosense. The software techniques developed in the FluxLab for use with high-cost highly sensitive state of the art single gas analysers will be applied to low-cost, lower-sensitivity multi-gas sensor arrays to produce results of comparably high quality. The resulting product will be a highly marketable and cost-effective new technology, which will enable the establishment of dense monitoring networks under a range of conditions. Eosense will be well poised for the commercialization of the sensor array and associated software package, responding to a demonstrated need within the oil and gas industry.