Fugitive Emission Leak Localization Using Wind-Binned Sensor Grids
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current manual methods for monitoring fugitive emissions in industrial facilities are time-consuming, expensive, and inaccurate, failing to provide precise quantification of emissions due to their error-prone nature and infrequent monitoring of assets.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing geographically distributed gas sensors and weather stations to collect and process data, including data validation, wind direction binning, and geospatial triangulation to identify and quantify fugitive emissions by projecting cone-shaped areas from sensor readings, followed by grid cell analysis and matching with prior leak areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual monitoring methods are used to detect fugitive emissions, then the system is simple to implement, but the monitoring is time-consuming, expensive, and inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical monitoring with an automated electronic system comprising distributed gas sensors, weather stations, and a data processing server. The system automatically collects sensor data, validates it, merges it with wind direction data, and performs computational analysis to identify leak areas, eliminating the need for manual technician monitoring while significantly improving accuracy and reducing time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-monitoring through automated data collection from distributed sensors and weather stations. The data processing server automatically validates sensor data, merges it with meteorological data, segments it into wind direction bins, projects cone-shaped areas, and identifies potential leak areas without human intervention, enabling continuous autonomous operation.
2Reliability
If manual monitoring is performed infrequently to reduce costs, then operational expenses are lower, but the accuracy and reliability of emission quantification deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables continuous monitoring through distributed gas sensors and weather stations that continuously collect data. The data processing server continuously validates, merges, and analyzes the data in real-time, providing ongoing reliable detection of fugitive emissions without the need for periodic manual interventions, thereby maintaining high reliability while improving overall monitoring efficiency.
3Measurement precision
If multiple gas sensors and weather stations are deployed to improve detection accuracy, then measurement precision increases, but device complexity and computational burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the monitoring area into a grid of cells and divides sensor data into wind direction bins. Each sensor's data is processed independently through standardized steps (validation, merging, binning), and results are aggregated to identify potential leak areas. This modular segmentation makes the complex system manageable and scalable.
Solution Approach 2:
The data processing server acts as an intermediary that manages the complexity between the distributed sensors/weather stations and the user interface. It automatically performs data validation, merging with wind direction data, segmentation into bins, cone-shaped area projection, and leak area identification, shielding users from the underlying computational complexity while maintaining high measurement precision.
4Area of stationary object
If manual monitoring is performed by multiple technicians to cover all assets, then coverage is improved, but operational costs and time consumption increase substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses multiple gas sensors and weather stations that serve multiple functions: each sensor monitors its local area for gas concentration, weather stations provide wind direction data for multiple sensors, and the data processing server handles validation, merging, and analysis for all sensors. This multi-functional deployment achieves comprehensive area coverage while being more cost-effective than manual monitoring.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method and system for locating and quantifying fugitive emission leaks is disclosed that includes obtaining gas sensor data and wind direction data from a plurality of sensors and weather stations located proximate a given area of interest. The gas sensor data and the wind direction data is validated to remove erroneous values and to merge the gas sensor data with the wind direction data to provide time synchronized gas sensor data and wind direction data over a given time interval. The time synchronized gas sensor data and wind direction data is segmented for each gas sensor location into wind direction bins containing a concentration of the gas levels in each bin. The area of interest is divided into a grid of cells and the bins projected on the grid cells for each gas sensor location along with the level of gas contained in the bins. The grid cells are then grouped into one or more contiguous grid cells having gas levels above a predefined level and a boundary area is calculated containing the grid cells with a gas level above a threshold to identify a potential leak area. The potential leak area is matched with a prior calculated leak area to identify the source location of the emission leak.