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A small disaster zone remains of a Colorado home after it exploded in April. Authorities blame odorless gas from a severed pipeline for the blast that killed two people.
"Anytime you have a natural gas leak, it's out of its pipe in an urban area," Colorado State University Associate Professor Joe von Fischer said. "You can have an explosion risk if that gas were to accumulate inside a structure or inside of a closed environment."
Joe von Fischer’s mission is tracking methane leaks. He says the main constituent in natural gas isn't hard to find.
"There can be hundreds or thousands of natural gas leaks in some cities that have aging infrastructure," he said.
The Colorado State University researcher has developed an infrared laser methane analyzer which when mounted on a car can find leaks more quickly.
"We’re able to find more subtle patterns in methane coming from natural gas in the environment than are most utilities using standard techniques," said von Fischer.
Most utilities already do mobile leak detection. But it can be a time-consuming process. Cars have to drive slowly. Crews often have to get out of their vehicles and take readings manually.
"If you look at all the money we spend on looking for leaks, repairing leaks, replacing leaky pipe, it's a very expensive proposition," said National Grid Utility Vice President Sue Fleck.
Von Fischer’s technology, which he developed with the Environmental Defense Fund, using Google Street View mapping cars, detects leaks over a greater distance in vehicles that cover more ground.
"Because of the high sensitivity of these analyzers, you don’t need to spend as much time in a given area in order to get information about leak magnitude and locations," said von Fischer.
(CGTN)
