Predictive Pollution Monitoring System

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Non-conventional oil and gas production)

Applied Research and Development

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)

Project Contact
Trolex Limited

Feasibility Study

Innovate UK

01 April 2015

31 December 2015

9 months

£85,667

North West

Competition Call: 1406_FS_ENRG_SG - Shale Gas. Activity Developing technologies for safe and responsible exploration of shale gas

Project Contact, Trolex Limited

Project Contact, Durham University

Despite the high public profile and controversy surrounding fracking there is very little serious information or research about its implications in the UK and Europe. This is particularly true in terms of how to mitigate the risks involved in order to achieve a safe and productive operation where potential pollution and other problems have been effectively engineered out. This project aims to address these issues by investigating the feasibility of a comprehensive fugitive emissions monitoring system that is capable of detecting developing situations before they become major incidents. This will be achieved by developing a sound mathematical model of a typical fracking well pad in terms of its environmental behaviour and potential risk profile. From this risk map , and its associated possible distribution characteristics, a monitoring schema will be designed that can then be demonstrated to detect any potential threat within the well pad area, without having to predict a particular failure mode. The project represents a close cooperation between the ReFINE research consortium and Trolex to produce the basis for environmentally controlled fracking.Despite the high public profile and controversy surrounding fracking there is very little serious information or research about its implications in the UK and Europe. This is particularly true in terms of how to mitigate the risks involved in order to achieve a safe and productive operation where potential pollution and other problems have been effectively engineered out. This project aims to address these issues by investigating the feasibility of a comprehensive fugitive emissions monitoring system that is capable of detecting developing situations before they become major incidents. This will be achieved by developing a sound mathematical model of a typical fracking well pad in terms of its environmental behaviour and potential risk profile. From this risk map , and its associated possible distribution characteristics, a monitoring schema will be designed that can then be demonstrated to detect any potential threat within the well pad area, without having to predict a particular failure mode. The project represents a close cooperation between the ReFINE research consortium and Trolex to produce the basis for environmentally controlled fracking.

16/10/15