In June 2016, GHGSat launched GHGSat-D, the first and only satellite in the world specifically designed to monitor emissions directly from industrial sites, with a spatial resolution of less than 50m. The system makes it possible for oil and gas companies to keep a frequent eye on their facilities scattered across vast areas for methane leaks at the lowest cost possible since all measurements are performed remotely with no need to access the sites. In September 2018, GHGSat received an investment from the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). GHGSat’s mission is to work closely with oil and gas operators to increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost of monitoring for methane leaks which threaten the standing of natural gas in the future energy landscape.
We present recent single pass measurements taken with our demonstration satellite in the Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) band, showing evidence of point source methane emission plumes at facilities such as underground coal mine vents and oil and gas facilities.
The lessons learned from GHGSat-D in the last three years making over 5,000 measurements at hundreds of facilities around the world have been incorporated into our second and third satellites scheduled for launch in Q1 and Q3 2020. As a result, GHGSat-C1 and C2 are expected to improve on the performance of their predecessor by an order of magnitude. We will present results from these second-generation satellites.
Finally, we introduce some of the innovative products and applications we are developing using analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to better serve our customers with actionable insight and optimize the operation of our system. The ability of the technology to work together with other sources of data (such as other satellites, drones, or ground measurements) in an effective tiered monitoring system will also be demonstrated.
