Energy Resources Conservation Board puts new Air Monitoring Units on Alberta roads
Two response vehicles deployed to find gas leaks
The computer inside the AMU provides Duben, or the three other people trained to drive and operate the equipment, with a three-dimensional topographical map of the province, which can be viewed from a screen that swings toward the driver’s seat. “We use these tools to give us a better idea of where to go and what the numbers are. I’m a firm believer in using technology for its benefit, and its benefit for us is quicker response time,” Duben says. “We get a better picture, a bird’s eye view almost.” Because hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide, the toxic gases the watchdog trucks are sniffing out, are heavier than air, a map that shows peaks and valleys, where the gas can sink and hide, comes in handy when co-ordinating monitoring operations.
Duben says that the human nose can smell H2S at around two parts per billion (ppb). The truck picks it up at 1 ppb. The gas isn’t fatal until over 600 ppb. “Generally, we’ll start picking up gas at two to 120 ppb; that’s generally where we get most of our readings. It’s very rare that we get gas any higher than that. But we do get it. That’s why we go there just to make sure.”
After the air monitoring devices have picked up the scent and the unit has been moved into place, in order to narrow in on the leak, Duben trains a military-grade thermal imaging camera on the terrain. It looks like a regular hand-held video camera, but it’s much sturdier, and of course much more complex. The forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras show hydrocarbons in the atmosphere by highlighting miniscule changes in temperature. “You can see it coming out of the ground, or when people are filling up their gasoline tank. We can see it leaking out of wellheads. It’s a real nice tool for us.”
When Duben points the camera at the oil production site he is inspecting, it acts almost as an X-ray. He can see inside the storage silo where the water ends and the oil begins. Through the lens of the camera, leaks look like trails of smoke. The camera that Duben holds in his hand, which cost more than a $100,000 and sports a tele-photo lens that required government approval to purchase (not because of their price but because of the potential for mischief, Duben says) is one of three that the ERCB has. Because of the instrument’s power and subtlety, able to pick up one-twentieth of a degree change in temperature, it has made the job of responding to leaks a lot easier. That means Duben and his crew can cover more ground.
“What the technology is doing is allowing us to solve ongoing problems. The technology now is such that we can drive there, solve the issue, and everybody is safe and things are happening properly,” says Barter.
Duben’s team has the goal of running 250 inspections with the FLIR camera this year. Last year, they completed 100. The AMU performed 651 inspections last year and was called to two incidents.
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