In a show of synergy between technology and environmental science, Google’s Street View program is now helping reveal leaks in urban natural gas pipelines to help reduce unintended emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
A set of specially equipped Google Street View cars lets researchers from the Colorado State University detect invisible methane leaks lurking in natural gas lines beneath streets.
The collaboration among the scientists, the Google program, and the group Environmental Defense Fund uses methane sensors attached to the roving cars. Preliminary results suggest that some urban locations may have more leaking pipelines than thought.
The Methane Problem
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is one of the world’s most powerful greenhouse gases, with more than 80 times the warming capability of carbon dioxide over two decades.
In the supply chain that comprises local utility systems, low-level leaks can persist for years.
"This is a huge challenge that almost nobody had been thinking about. Now we're finding out just how widespread these leaks are," said lead researcher and CSU assistant professor Joe von Fischer in a statement.
He added that it could get labor-intensive to measure the methane leaks from the distribution system. So they started the project to help the government and utility companies prioritize leak repairs, where they calculated that addressing the top 8 percent of leaks would slash methane emissions from pipelines by one-third.
Most leaks from natural gas pipelines are hardly a major hazard as long as they are outdoors, but they can occasionally lead to huge trouble. In 2016, a ruptured pipe at a Los Angeles storage facility led to one of the biggest leaks to date, releasing almost 100,000 tons of methane into the air before it was under control.
The Methane-Scouring Technology
Now scientists have eyed pairing methane-detecting equipment with Google vehicles. The drivers do not need special training, while the cars can roam the streets as usual while on this mission.
The instruments feature an infrared laser methane analyzer, which detects the amount of methane in air samples in real time. The laser can scan through infrared light colors to find how much methane is there, while algorithms accurately compute the methane leaks and the size of such plumes.
Preliminary tests were conducted around campus and at Christman air field, and they involved controlled methane releases in open and urban locations. The actual findings were based on trials in five cities, namely Burlington in Vermont, Indianapolis in Indiana, and Boston, Staten Island, and Syracuse in New York, where drivers needed to pass down each street at least twice.
Study Results
There were 11 discovered leaks in Burlington and five leaks in Indianapolis, while there were hundreds to thousands in the three other cities. Boston showed the highest methane escape, with around 1,300 tons every year in pipeline leaks.
The New York cities harbored leaks that released 25 times more methane per kilometer (0.6 miles) of road than the two other cities.
Most individual leaks tended to be small, but the method, according to the researchers, could be significantly underestimating the number of leaks. When they also compared their findings with utility firms’ leak maps, they spotted leaks that utilities missed, and vice versa.
Today there are four Street View cars roaming the streets with the methane analyzers. The researchers then download, analyze, and upload the leak data to a publicly accessed data that the EDF maintains.
The findings were discussed in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency scrapped a previous order that requires oil and gas operators to report on their equipment and level of methane emissions.
