Researchers have developed an infrared imaging system that could one day offer low-cost, real-time detection of methane gas leaks in pipelines and at oil and gas facilities. Leaks of methane, the primary component of natural gas, can be costly and dangerous while also contributing to climate change as a greenhouse gas.
Researchers have developed an infrared imaging system that could one day offer low-cost, real-time detection of methane gas leaks in pipelines and at oil and gas facilities. Leaks of methane, the primary component of natural gas, can be costly and dangerous while also contributing to climate change as a greenhouse gas.
“Despite methane gas being invisible to the eye, we have developed a method of color-coding this gas information and overlaying it onto a conventional camera image,” said Graham M. Gibson from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, who led the technical work. “This allows the user operating the camera to look around, identify things and see an overlay of where the gas is present.”
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Image: The top row shows movie frames from a low-resolution (16x16) computational image of a gas leak, overlaid onto a high-resolution color image from a CMOS camera. Only the methane gas is detected (red), when 0.2 liters per minute of methane are delivered via the green tube and 2 liters per minute of nitrogen are delivered from the red tube. The bottom row shows movie frames where a methane gas sample cell is moved by hand across the field-of-view.
Image Credit: Graham M. Gibson, University of Glasgow
