UAV gas monitoring system for the energy sector

The energy industry produces, transports and uses large volumes of gases, including methane and carbon
dioxide. It is important that such gases do not accidentally leak from production facilities, pipelines and stores,
but these cover large areas and it is very challenging to monitor them effectively with current technology. The
British Geological Survey and QuestUAV are meeting this challenge by developing a cost-effective small
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gas detection system that trained operators can take to sites for rapid
monitoring. These will fill the market gap between time-consuming surface monitoring and costly conventional
manned aircraft and will identify areas of leaks or fugitive emissions, that can then be investigated further and,
where necessary, rectified. Detecting methane will be the main focus of the work. We will modify the best
small methane detectors, and develop new ways to combine the flight data and gas analyses in order to
produce 2D and 3D maps of gas concentration. To demonstrate high confidence in the results, we will also
thoroughly test the accuracy of the measurements using more standard (though slower) methods.