Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an ongoing challenge for all industries, and a particular focus for Australia’s future energy exports. Decarbonisation of the energy industry requires effort across the whole value chain, including production and processing, in addition to capturing combustion emissions. Throughout the LNG ecosystem, so-called fugitive emissions can result from incomplete combustion, venting and methane slip. The ability to measure the magnitude and location of these fugitive emissions is crucial to efficiently allocating resources for mitigation.
Previous projects through the FEnEx CRC have tested the methane detection capability of individual apparatus including a FLIR GFx620 camera (Teledyne FLIR), GMP02 QOGI Camera (Konica Minolta), GFM 2.0 High Volume Sampler (Add Globe) and Semtech Hi Flow 2 Sampler (Sensors Inc). These tests were initially conducted at the laboratory scale, for methane release rates up to 10 slpm (0.4 kg/hr). More recently, an enhanced testing capability at a pilot scale outdoors facility has been developed.
This facility is presently located at UWA’s Shenton Park campus and designed to handle release rates up to 2000 slpm (80 kg/hr) and test the ability of detection technologies to accurately characterise these leaks. This project seeks to build on this previous work, by testing additional technologies for fugitive emissions continuous monitoring and leak detection and repair (LDAR). The methodology previously used will be applied to these new candidate technologies to understand how well they conform to their stated specifications.
Partners: The University of Western Australia, Woodside Energy Ltd
Project Researcher: Dr Bruce Norris
Duration: 1 year