Smart infrared: digitalising industry

As energy consumption grows annually by more than 2%, society seeks responses to improve well-being, with the environmental aspect playing an increasingly significant role. The solution to this balance of addressing growing energy demand and demonstrating societal responsibility lies in emerging technologies, which enable clean energy sources, sustainable mobility solutions, and improved operational efficiency in the oil and gas sector, whose contribution to the energy ecosystem is absolutely essential. Enhancing operational efficiency means, among other things, maintaining productivity without emitting pollutants that contribute to poor air quality and global warming, therefore implying environmental regulation compliance while simultaneously reducing operational costs and increasing safety.

The sensorisation of assets enables operations to be optimised with minimal human intervention, or even fully autonomously. Operators can trust these sensors to anticipate component failures and take preventive corrective actions, as well as to detect early signs of gas leaks, fire outbreaks, or vandalism.

One of the most essential sensing technologies providing the highest level of multi-response capability is intelligent infrared (IR) imaging. Until recently, IR imaging has added significant value to industrial operations by enabling the remote detection of hot spots, gas leaks, and more, but under human supervision. However, advancements in microprocessor computational power and the breakthrough of artificial intelligence (AI) have now made it possible to automate real-time detection in IR cameras.

Smart IR imaging systems, as seen in Figure 1, are already transforming industrial operations with a particular added value in oil and gas operations through methane emissions monitoring at both onshore well sites and offshore platforms around the world. With the integration of AI-powered leak detection and quantification (LDAQ) algorithms to optical gas imaging (OGI) cameras, smart, IR continuous monitoring systems are helping operators meet critical methane emissions reporting under the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0 framework and regulation from the European Union and the United States while boosting health, safety and environment (HSE) standards. This game-changing solution for continuous monitoring in upstream oil and gas is already playing a pivotal role in real-world projects, such as measuring flare combustion efficiency and gas leak monitoring at wells in the Permian Basin and autonomous methane emissions monitoring on sustainable platforms in the North Sea and platforms off the coast of Nigeria. This article will explore how smart IR monitoring systems are redefining methane emissions detection and quantification, the role the technology plays in compliance with international regulatory requirements for methane, and how it supports ongoing global efforts toward safer, more sustainable, and more efficient oil and gas production.

Rising to the challenge of OGMP 2.0 methane emissions reporting and international regulation

Recognising the implied urgency due to increasingly worrying climate reports, regulatory bodies and climate initiatives around the world have increased the pressure on the oil and gas industry to monitor and mitigate methane emissions. This is where advanced technologies like smart continuous infrared monitoring systems come into play, offering precise and reliable solutions that help operators not only identify and manage methane leaks but also comply with increasingly stringent regulations.

One of the key frameworks that smart infrared monitoring systems address is the OGMP 2.0 (Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0) initiative, launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The OGMP 2.0 member framework sets a benchmark for methane emissions reporting for its signees, requiring operators to provide source and site-level quantitative methane emissions data at the highest reporting level. This reporting system is rigorous, given that it requires operators to provide direct quantitative measurements and reconciliation of site-level versus source-level data. Under OGMP 2.0, operators are expected to report methane emissions from five key source categories: equipment leaks, venting, flaring, incomplete combustion, and pneumatic devices, among others. Moreover, upstream operators must also collect this data from both onshore and offshore sites, with an emphasis on reducing methane emissions to meet the broader goals of the Paris Agreement.

Beyond the OGMP 2.0 framework, operators in the oil and gas sector must also contend with a rapidly evolving landscape of national and international methane regulations, particularly in the EU and the Americas. In Europe, the European Commission has rolled out EU Regulation 2024/1787 aimed at significantly reducing methane emissions from the energy sector, requiring quantitative measurements of all aspects of oil and gas operations and will eventually be extended to all oil and gas imports into the EU. Similarly, in the US, methane emissions from the oil and gas sector are under scrutiny. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced sweeping methane regulations OOOOa, OOOOb, and OOOOc requiring operators to use advanced technologies for leak detection and quantification and flare combustion efficiency, including OGI cameras.

Smart IR imaging technology, with its advanced methane leak detection and quantification capabilities, is ideally suited to help operators comply with both EU, US, and other national emissions regulations and paint a more truthful picture of operator emissions. Its ability to detect and quantify methane emissions in real-time not only ensures compliance but also helps operators mitigate leaks before they become environmental, safety, or regulatory nightmares rather than awaiting periodic inspections.

The basics of smart IR imaging technology and the role of AI

Smart IR imaging systems require state-of-the-art IR cameras supported by AI-powered processing software and analytics, forming a complete, autonomous solution very few companies offer and even fewer have mastered. As is widely known, IR imaging is used in a wide variety of applications from surveillance to gas detection. A multitude of gases normally invisible to the naked eye have an absorption presence in the IR spectrum, including most hydrocarbons like methane. There are clearly defined IR adsorption levels of methane (CH4) and other hydrocarbons in mid-wave (MWIR) and long-wave (LWIR), although SWIR is so similar to visible light that it requires sunlight to perform detection of only very big leaks whereas cameras based in other regions of the IR spectrum can operate day and night detecting smaller leaks as well. OGI cameras are equipped with spectrally tuned IR detectors to see just in narrow IR bands. To summarise, these detectors reveal in infrared what is invisible for the naked eye like the temperature of the components, invisible flames and gases, but that is only the beginning.

AI analytics and the proper electronic components are responsible for the last steps in smart IR imaging, the actual detection confirmation of gas, flame, temperature, people, flares, pilot flames etc. which is then followed by alarm generation and communication to the distributed control system (DCS), report creation, and other preset actions. AI utilised in smart infrared monitoring systems is trained with various laws of physics, hundreds of real scenarios of different detection targets, resulting in faster, more accurate and reliable performance without the need of human oversight. In addition to real-time gas detection and quantification at site and component levels, intelligent infrared imaging technology can perform flame detection, intelligent thermography, surveillance, flare efficiency monitoring, adding even more safety and environmental benefits for operators. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show detection and gas leak quantification examples from the field.

Remote flare efficiency measurements with smart IR

Incomplete combustion of flares is labelled by regulatory bodies and environmental groups as another main source of methane emissions. Smart infrared imaging is able to address new minimum flare efficiency requirements by not only visualising unburned hydrocarbons such as methane, but also simultaneously comparing the unburned input gases to the resulting carbon dioxide output. As carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons are both present in the infrared spectrum but at different wavelengths, a bi-spectral camera such as the system shown in Figure 4, is needed to assess the gases at different infrared bands. As seen in Figure 5, operators are granted real-time reports of flare conditions and efficiency changes in terms of destruction and removal efficiency or combustion efficiency according to operator needs, drastically improving measurement accuracy and frequency to meet regulatory requirements.

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