Citation:

Humayun, T., R. Divan, L. Stan, D. Rosenmann, D. Gosztola, L. Gundel, P. Solomon, AND I. Paprotny. Functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube based sensors for distributed methane leak detection. In Proceedings, IEEE Sensors 2015, Busan, SOUTH KOREA, November 01 - 04, 2015. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Incorporated (IEEE), Piscataway, NJ, 1 - 4, (2015).

Impact/Purpose:

The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.

Description:

This paper presents a highly sensitive, energy efficient and low-cost distributed methane (CH4) sensor system (DMSS) for continuous monitoring, detection and localization of CH4 leaks in natural gas infrastructure such as transmission and distribution pipelines, wells, and production pads. The CH4 sensing element, a key component of the DMSS, consists of a metal oxide functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) mesh which, in comparison to existing literature, shows stronger relative resistance change while interacting with lower ppm concentration of CH4. For the DMSS a Gaussian plume triangulation algorithm has been developed, which, given a geometric model of the surrounding environment, can precisely detect and localize a CH4 leak as well as estimate its mass flow rate.

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