A novel lidar system for CH4 and VOC's detection of fugitive emissions and environmental monitoring

Abstract

This study presents an overview of the recently results obtained by a novel concept of a lidar to remotely monitor methane and volatile organic compound including aerosols and fugitive gas emissions from pipelines, waste disposal areas and tankages. The system works based on Raman and uorescence scattering principles by emission of a 355 nm beam (3rd Nd:YAG harmonic) and detection of the wavelengths at 355 nm (elastic), 353 nm (oxygen + nitrogen rotational Raman) and 396 nm (methane vibrational Raman) and alternatively the system can be switched to a uorescence lidar based on a 32-channel PMT coupled to an spectrometer to be able to observe uorescence scattering caused by VOC's and aerosols. This paper shows a summary of the results obtained in the preliminary campaigns, which were carried out under di erent conditions to be adopted as benchmark for the system performance regarding detection limits, calibration capabilities, and time vs range resolution, in order to optimize the system performance.