Smart leak detection in Italy’s gas distribution systems

Italian gas distribution operator Italgas has introduced Picarro for methane emission detection and reduction in its networks.

With carbon dioxide emissions effectively under management, the focus is shifting to other greenhouse gases, notably methane, which also contains carbon and is even more potent.

A full understanding of methane sinks and sources – known ones including wetlands and manure and waste treatment – is yet to emerge and the proportions that are man-made versus natural are open to debate, but companies with emission reduction targets need to account for methane while gas distributors also need to consider the safety and revenue aspects of its losses in their operations.

This was the thinking behind an initiative from the Italian gas DSO Italgas to introduce a new methane detection system designed to overcome the limited speed and narrow and partial network coverage limitations of the traditional approaches.

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‘Picarro’ as the system is named from the Silicon Valley startup of the same name, is vehicle based with an inlet system mounted on the front and analysers utilising laser-based cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) offering parts per billion sensitivity. A stringent driving protocol is worked out for coverage of the network and analysis is via machine learning algorithms and risk ranking to compute leak indication area markers.

“If one thinks about the role of gases in the energy transition we cannot only talk about the conventional gas value chain but have to think wider and consider the whole ecosystem in which gas is included,” Stefano Guglielmo, head of management central services at Italgas, explained in a presentation at the European gas stakeholder GRIDTech 2022 event.

“We have to think of both the upstream and downstream and how we can do better in terms of safety and continuity of service as well as our impact on the environment.”

Guglielmo said that the CRDS is an innovative and breakthrough technology in terms of what it offers and the vehicle mounted system is supplemented with a miniaturised backpack version for surveys on foot and also by boat on the canals of Venice.

“We want to cover Italgas’s whole network twice a year and we place store on the repair time of leaks to reduce the emission losses,” he said, pointing to an approximately 0.8 leaks/km detection rate of Picarro compared with the 0.03 leaks/km of traditional gas detection.

Other benefits include natural gas discrimination from other false positives and absence of weather restrictions.

Proactive network maintenance

Looking ahead Guglielmo said the intention is to use Picarro for improved proactive maintenance of the network and the focus is on developing an algorithm combining the methane detection data with weather, atmospheric, GIS and other data to determine the most critical points of the network.

“This is critical for optimising the use of our workforce and budget.”

Among the lessons learned, Guglielmo commented that with the complexities of running Picarro across its network, some 73,000km in extent, it was found necessary to establish a new business organisation with an 800-strong work team.

Moreover, Italgas is Picarro’s largest user globally with over 20 vehicle and 80 backpack units and earlier in March acquired a $15 million minority share in the company, and the utility is now supporting the development of the detection algorithms and actively promoting the technology and its compliance with standards to gas DSOs in Europe.

Guglielmo concluded by pointing to Italgas’s commitments to reducing methane emissions – a 30% greenhouse gas emission reduction is targeted by 2027 – with promotion of a common approach through Gas Distributors for Sustainability (GD4S) and membership of the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP) with a ‘Gold standard’ award for its 2021 reporting.

“We want to lead the process to evaluate methane emissions and what we can do to strongly reduce this with new solutions as the technology evolves.”