FLIR, Eye-C-GAS, and Niatros each have models of Optical Gas Imaging. The GFIR 320 FLIR cameras and the Eye-C-GAS are common OGI hand-helds with wide use with a well established training and interpretation certification process.
FLIR studies this stuff and provides roc-steady OGI solutions. And when you read the detail of the several fugitive methane regulational documents they describe, they are excited to alert you to a documented reliance on OGI to expedite the millions of inspections required in the re-capture of fugitves.
Indeed here in Colorado, OGI was first included and is now fully established in recent decrees - we even know the cost per day per pad/inspection missing. OGI is also fully expressed in how BLM wants its clients to conduct their inspections on our National O&G lease and trusteeships. They do this to play well with EPA GasStar and DoT safety initiatives culminating in the 2014 Climate Action Plan.
OGI once the newest and coming best practice is now the standard? If I were FLIR I would be excited. But there is room for inclusion of yet another alternate work process. Well, yes, is the simple answer.
Given the specified camera, OGI, runs around $80k to more, there is a big stack of pending, and by design, disruptive 'alternate process" instrumentation just emerging to assure FUD in your decision process on a half-dozen 320s - a cool $500k commitment?
https://www.edf.org/energy/natural-gas-policy/methane-detectors-challenge
Over the last several years as the progression of these rules have come forward, the DoE and EDF have mutually incentivized a dozen or more innovations for methane detection and indirectly fugitve control. If any one of the three most promising instruments come to market in the next several quarters as planned, the OGI process will have direct competition. These replacements will initiate a shift to providing 7/24 monitoring and alarm at a fraction of the cost of a single "multi-purpose" and "hand-held" OGI camera. Getting these fielded and in test should be happening as I write this?
Methane Observation Networks with Innovative Technology to Obtain Reductions (MONITOR) – $30 Million
ARPA-E’s MONITOR program focuses on reducing methane emissions associated with energy production to build a more sustainable energy future. The program plans to provide $30 million to support 11 project teams in developing low-cost, highly sensitive systems that detect and measure methane associated with the production and transportation of oil and natural gas.
Example of a selected MONITOR project:
Bridger Photonics, Inc. | Bozeman, Mont. | Mobile LiDAR Sensors for Methane Leak DetectionBridger Photonics will develop a light-detection and ranging (LiDAR) system capable of rapid and precise methane measurements resulting in 3D topographic information about potential leak locations. A novel near-infrared fiber laser will enable long range detection with high sensitivity and can be deployed on a range of mobile platforms to survey multiple sites per day. This mobile LiDAR system will dramatically reduce the cost to identify, quantify and locate methane leaks compared to currently available technologies.
OGI is only going to get better. In two cases of the new instruments noted above their essense remains the OGI IR sensor. Niatros is emerging as the leading OEM source for these OGI cores that provide the OGI signal processed by new innovative signal processings that makes approximations of volume of observed plumes. It may not sound like much but estimation of emission volume is emerging as a big deal. Most of the detail to reduce emissions is in terms of weight and measures. Niatros OGI cores are enabling new advancements in the science of methane flux or volume estimates to improve the OGI process.
