Summary for publication
Ground-based sensing of CO2 and CH4 becomes increasingly important monitoring tool helping to reduce climate impact, increase safety or for efficiency reasons, e.g. at sites for oil and gas production or geological CO2 injection. Remote sensing offers time efficient and safe quantification of not only gas concentrations, but fluxes of spatially extended gas emissions that can have a complicated spatial degassing pattern – a major advantage over in-situ sensors. The global market for remote sensing products reached $8.4 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $13.8 billion by 2021, a compound annual growth by 9.3% (BCC, 2016). Currently, medium range laser-based gas remote sensing systems have costs of the order of £300k, excluding costs for logistics and housekeeping (e.g. container, truck), are not portable and have a complex user protocol and require extensive maintenance and are not commercially available.
The proof-of-concept project CarbSens hosted by the University of Manchester aimed to assess the commercial potential of a novel remote sensing kit for CO2 with unprecedented combination of measuring distance (up to 2 km) and portability (<20 kg). We were able to attract the interest LI-COR – a manufacturer of sensing technology trusted by many scientists around the world. Furthermore, we are currently in contact with two manufacturers of scientific instrumentation to take the instrument to market.
Market research and dissemination activity during the project led to the development of a commercially attractive drone portable derivative of the platform. It entails a significant reduction in technological complexity and price. The assembly of the final instrument is ongoing and a potential manufacturer has been attracted. Moreover, byproducts of the R&D effort during the project are currently being protected with the help of the IP department of the University of Manchester.
