Application: UAV Oil&Gas
Characterizing Tracer Flux Ratio Methods for Methane Emission Quantification Using Small Unmanned Aerial System - Alaba et al. 2025
This study introduces a drone-based approach using small unmanned aerial systems equipped with precision gas sensors to measure methane (CH₄) alongside co-released tracers (ethane and nitrous oxide), testing arc-shaped flight paths and alternative ratio estimation methods to enhance tracer-based emission quantification accuracy under real-world constraints. Controlled releases demonstrated that arc flights achieved stronger plume capture and higher correlations between CH₄ and tracer concentrations compared to traditional paths, with the cumulative sum method yielding the lowest relative error (as low as 3.3%) under ideal mixing, while the arc pattern overall provided the most robust performance with minimal error and uncertainty across configurations. These results highlight a practical, scalable UAV method for reducing biases in downwind plume measurements of methane emissions, particularly suited to complex environments and facility-scale applications where ground-based techniques often fall short.
Airborne in situ quantification of methane emissions from oil and gas production in Romania - Maazallahi et al. 2025
Romania, a major oil and gas producer in the EU, has substantial methane mitigation potential to support EU climate goals, yet comprehensive emission quantification has been limited. During the 2019 ROMEO campaign, we conducted aircraft-based in situ measurements with two planes and derived top-down CH₄ emission estimates using mass balance flights and atmospheric model simulations. Results reveal large variability among production clusters, highlighting the role of super-emitters and possibly differing operational or maintenance practices. Annual emissions from southern Romania’s oil and gas infrastructure are estimated at 227 ± 86 kt CH₄ yr⁻¹, in good agreement with concurrent ground-based site-level measurements. Despite challenges from low-wind conditions, comparisons of measured and simulated plumes, as well as large-scale raster and mass balance flights, indicate that emission factors from sampled clusters are representative of broader regions. These airborne findings confirm significant under-reporting of Romanian O&G methane emissions to the UNFCCC in 2019 and substantial underestimation in the EDGAR v7.0 inventory for the study domain.
A New Technique for Airborne Measurements to Quantify Methane Emissions Over a Wide Range: Implementation and Validation - Dooley et al. 2024
Methane (CH₄), a potent greenhouse gas with 84 times the 20-year global warming potential of CO₂, originates from biogenic (e.g., wetlands, ruminants) and thermogenic (fossil fuel) sources. Thermogenic emissions, dominant in the oil and gas sector, are identifiable by co-emitted ethane (C₂H₆). We developed an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) — a vertical-takeoff hexarotor UAV equipped with a fast (1 Hz), sensitive (1–2 ppb s⁻¹) CH₄ & C₂H₆ sensor and ultrasonic anemometer — capable of vertical profiling to 120 m and plume sampling over 1 km scales. The system enables direct quantification of point and distributed sources (0.04–1500 kg h⁻¹), simultaneous CH₄/C₂H₆ and wind measurements for source classification (biogenic vs. thermogenic), and emission rate determination without atmospheric modeling or wind assumptions. Deployed across the Southwest United States, the UAS has validated performance and quantified sources at or below the detection limits of aircraft and satellite methods, providing complementary high-resolution data for regional surveys and local monitoring.