Gas analysis for humanity

Detecting gas leaks to reduce climate impact

Gas analysis instruments have long been used in residential and industrial applications to detect dangerous gas leaks. While gas leaks are a real physical danger, undetected gas and methane leaks are also significant contributors to climate change. Optical technologies can now expand gas leak detection to more complex environments, including landfills managed by commercial entities, municipalities, and government.

Methane leaks are the 2nd largest contributor to climate changeⁱ

Optical technologies are 3 times more sensitive in 1/2 the time of traditional reactor technologies

Nitrous oxide's warming impact is 265x greater per pound than CO₂ⁱⁱ

Application overview: Gas analysis

The EPA is increasing grant funding to support OEMs in developing new instruments to address the challenge of gas and methane leaks. These instruments manifest in a variety of form factors, techniques, and deployment vehicles, from handheld sniffers to lidar on helicopters to drone-based sensors and satellite imagery.

These instruments call for modular, integrated solutions to speed product development and improve reliability and system sensitivity. This increased sensitivity can help to find leaks faster and easier, in a traditionally challenging application. Solar heat, wind, and temperature variables, as wind moves a plume of gas, make methane particularly challenging to localize and address.

These leaks are not only bad for the environment but also bad for business. A leak is not only a safety issue but also lost product. Data from more sensitive gas analysis can enable preventative maintenance and better business decisions.

Photonics in gas detection

Reactive technologies, or electrochemical sensors, have traditionally been used for gas detection, and are cost-effective and relatively compact, but are not up to the challenge of complex environments. Gas floats, and can float away from a static sensor, failing to set off an alarm. Optical technologies cover a larger area with higher sensitivity. Gas detection through optical absorption is generally approached by using infrared (IR) or ultraviolet (UV) light; IR is usually deployed for methane. Gas absorption of light is well documented, and this approach can enable imaging capabilities in gas detection.

Optical technology offers higher performance and has the potential to break through as the dominant technology in methane leak detection, allowing us to address a large contributor to greenhouse gases.

Hamamatsu provides a range of light sources and detectors for optical gas measurement, to suit a variety of form factors and applications: