Sustainablility talk has been a focus everywhere I have been this past month. Companies are diligently working on technologies to reduce emissions, capture carbon, improve batteries, recycle plastic, and more. Corporately this makes sense from a public relations and investor relations point of view. But also these problems are also waste. And we Lean aficionados hate waste.
One solution I heard a couple of times was methane leak detection. This solution comes from ABB using optical sensors mounted in a satellite.
GHGSat equips its existing satellite constellation with three more ABB-built optical sensors, increasing the frequency of observations and capacity to precisely pinpoint the source of methane emissions
ABB-built methane detection optical sensors can map industrial emissions from space at a resolution of 100 times higher than comparable technologies currently in operation
Monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from space supports meeting the world’s climate change targets
Canadian company GHGSat, which specializes in high-resolution GHG monitoring from space, launches three new ABB-built optical sensors into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, doubling capacity to monitor methane gas emissions.
With ABB’s technology, the GHGSat team is able to precisely locate and measure methane emissions from any given industrial site on earth. The launch of three new ABB-built high-resolution methane sensors doubles the company’s capacity to monitor customer sites. In addition to the three units being launched – Luca, Penny and Diako – six additional units are under fabrication at ABB.
According to the International Energy Agency, methane is responsible for around 30 percent of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, and rapid and sustained reductions in methane emissions are key to limiting near-term global warming and improving air quality.
