Predictive Pollution Monitoring System

Despite the high public profile and controversy surrounding fracking there is very little serious information or research about its implications in the UK and Europe. This is particularly true in terms of how to mitigate the risks involved in order to achieve a safe and productive operation where potential pollution and other problems have been effectively engineered out. This project aims to address these issues by investigating the feasibility of a comprehensive fugitive emissions monitoring system that is capable of detecting developing situations before they become major incidents. This will be achieved by developing a sound mathematical model of a typical fracking well pad in terms of its environmental behaviour and potential risk profile. From this risk “map”, and its associated possible distribution characteristics, a monitoring schema will be designed that can then be demonstrated to detect any potential threat within the well pad area, without having to predict a particular failure mode. The project represents a close cooperation between the ReFINE research consortium and Trolex to produce the basis for environmentally controlled fracking.