Department of Biology, Colorado State University , 200 West Lake Street, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States.
Department of Statistics, Colorado State University , Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2017 Apr 4;51(7):4091-4099. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06095. Epub 2017 Mar 22.
Information about the location and magnitudes of natural gas (NG) leaks from urban distribution pipelines is important for minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and optimizing investment in pipeline management. To enable rapid collection of such data, we developed a relatively simple method using high-precision methane analyzers in Google Street View cars. Our data indicate that this automated leak survey system can document patterns in leak location and magnitude within and among cities, even without wind data. We found that urban areas with prevalent corrosion-prone distribution lines (Boston, MA, Staten Island, NY, and Syracuse, NY), leaked approximately 25-fold more methane than cities with more modern pipeline materials (Burlington, VT, and Indianapolis, IN). Although this mobile monitoring method produces conservative estimates of leak rates and leak counts, it can still help prioritize both leak repairs and replacement of leak-prone sections of distribution lines, thus minimizing methane emissions over short and long terms.
有关城市配气管道中天然气（NG）泄漏位置和程度的信息对于将温室气体排放量最小化和优化管道管理投资非常重要。为了能够快速收集此类数据，我们开发了一种相对简单的方法，即在谷歌街景车上使用高精度甲烷分析仪。我们的数据表明，即使没有风速数据，这种自动化的泄漏调查系统也可以记录城市内部和城市之间泄漏位置和程度的模式。我们发现，具有普遍存在的腐蚀性管道（马萨诸塞州波士顿、纽约斯塔滕岛和纽约锡拉丘兹）的城市泄漏的甲烷量比具有更现代管道材料的城市（佛蒙特州伯灵顿和印第安纳波利斯）多约 25 倍。尽管这种移动监测方法对泄漏率和泄漏次数的估计比较保守，但它仍然有助于优先考虑泄漏修复和易漏配气管道段的更换，从而在短期和长期内将甲烷排放量最小化。
