AIRBORNE, OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING OF METHANE AND ETHANE FOR NATURAL GAS PIPELINE LEAK DETECTION

Ophir Corporation was awarded a contract by the U. S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory under the Project Title ''Airborne, Optical Remote Sensing of Methane and Ethane for Natural Gas Pipeline Leak Detection'' on October 14, 2002. This second six-month technical report summarizes the progress made towards defining, designing, and developing the hardware and software segments of the airborne, optical remote methane and ethane sensor. The most challenging task to date has been to identify a vendor capable of designing and developing a light source with the appropriate output wavelength and power. This report will document the work that has been done to identify design requirements, and potential vendors for the light source. Significant progress has also been made in characterizing the amount of light return available from a remote target at various distances from the light source. A great deal of time has been spent conducting laboratory and long-optical path target reflectance measurements. This is important since it helps to establish the overall optical output requirements for the sensor. It also reduces the relative uncertainty and risk associated with developing a custom light source. The data gathered from the optical path testing has been translated to the airborne transceiver design in such areas as: fiber coupling, optical detector selection, gas filters, and software analysis. Ophir will next, summarize the design progress of the transceiver hardware and software development. Finally, Ophir will discuss remaining project issues that may impact the success of the project