{"id":6758,"date":"2023-10-23T14:32:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2023-10-23T16:09:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T16:09:36","slug":"drones-can-detect-methane-emissions-in-the-fight-against-global-warming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/drones-can-detect-methane-emissions-in-the-fight-against-global-warming\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones Can Detect Methane Emissions in the Fight Against Global Warming"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nScientists have discussed the possibility of deploying drones to detect methane gas emissions \u2013 a major source of global warming \u2013 for well over two years.\u00a0 A seminal study published by the American Chemical Society in 2021 found that sensor-equipped aerial drones would likely be a \u201cvaluable complement\u201d to ground-based detection systems.\u00a0 Since 2019, a growing number of U.S. states and localities have acquired drones for site-specific methane gas detection, usually at local landfills.\u00a0 Currently, drone-based systems are operational in 28 states and at more than 150 landfills. To date, some16,500 methane leak sources have been identified and at least partially remediated.<\/p>\n

The demonstrated success of these efforts has finally prompted federal action.\u00a0 Last January, the EPA approved the use of the first drone funded by a federal agency to monitor emissions at municipal waste sites.\u00a0 The company chosen for the work, Ann Arbor, MI-based Sniffer Robotics, deploys an unmanned aircraft \u2013 dubbed SnifferDRONE \u2013 that collects air samples directly at the ground surface and correlates its measurements of methane emissions to latitude and longitude coordinates recorded during flight.\u00a0 This \u201chyper-local\u201d solution, as the company calls it, allows authorities to zero in on the source of the leak and to target remediation efforts with precision, reducing wasteful field resources.\u00a0 The drone can cover multiple potential leak sites in a fraction of the time it would take ground surveyors.<\/p>\n

Another key advantage is improved workplace safety.\u00a0 In an average landfill, a ground surveyor may end up walking about 15 miles and become exposed to a wide array of hazards, from extreme temperatures to steep and uneven terrain and dense vegetation. Surveyors may also encounter dangerous animals, including snakes, rats, wild dogs and even alligators as well as ticks and scorpions. There\u2019s also the ever-present threat of exposure to landfill gasses and other toxic waste that can leave them permanently injured.<\/p>\n

Governments aren\u2019t the only entities concerned about methane emissions. Another company, DroneDeploy, is assisting oil and gas concerns to perform their own methane gas emission surveys to comply with new and stricter guidelines from the APA.\u00a0 Companies in this sector face both \u201cintentional\u201d emissions, which are unavoidable, and about 25% of the total, as well as \u201cfugitive\u201d emissions, the remaining 75%, which can be controlled.\u00a0 As with landfill inspections, walking these facilities is labor-intensive, costly and potentially dangerous, while drones equipped with thermal cameras can use heat sensors and advanced data analytics to detect and verify a leak and then send out a field team to close it without having to walk the entire site.\u00a0 Drones can also map an entire facility repeatedly and store and process the visual data and GPS coordinates to detect and model leak patterns over time at the touch of a finger.\u00a0 With drones it is possible to anticipate problems in the facility \u2013 and not just methane leaks but also stress fractures, corrosion, and other issues \u2013 long before they become more serious problems.<\/p>\n

Drones are allowing public and private entities the tools to reduce the largest source of carbon pollution in the world \u2013 an estimated 30% of all toxic emissions (far higher than carbon dioxide). But if methane emissions are getting easier to detect, controlling them is still a huge challenge.\u00a0 Even energy companies that have begun developing systems to reduce their methane emissions aren\u2019t able to measure their full magnitude, in part because they are measuring leaks for only a fraction of their operations.\u00a0 Most experts say the actual degree of emissions is twice to three times the emissions estimates the companies currently produce.<\/p>\n

The solution?\u00a0 Expand the aerial surveys and make them mandatory.\u00a0 Satellites and manned aircraft are also playing a key role in methane detection but drones offer a more precise site-specific means of performing the same work at a lower cost and with a smaller footprint.\u00a0 The EPA\u2019s pilot drone program with Sniffer Robotics will help spread awareness and could lead to tough new standards \u2013 but it\u2019s only a start.\u00a0 Time is running out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discussed the possibility of deploying drones to detect methane gas emissions \u2013 a major source of global warming \u2013 for well over two years.\u00a0 A seminal study published by the American Chemical Society in 2021 found that sensor-equipped aerial drones would likely be a \u201cvaluable complement\u201d to ground-based detection systems.\u00a0 Since 2019, a… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}