EPA works with Dow Chemical Company to Collect Emissions from Natural Gas Boilers

Published December 19, 2023

Manufacturing sites are required to measure stack emissions at their facilities to ensure compliance with air quality standards. Traditional methods of measuring stack emissions can be hazardous to personnel and equipment because they involve close proximity to these hazardous sources. EPA researchers recently signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Dow Chemical Company to measure stack emissions using unmanned aircraft systems (UASs, or drones). This innovative use of unmanned aircraft systems could lead to simpler, cheaper, and effective real-time measurements.

As part of this project, researchers from EPA and Dow gathered air samples downwind of natural gas boiler stacks at Dow facilities in Midland, Missouri and New Orleans, Louisiana. The researchers attached EPA sensors to Dow-owned and operated UASs to take measurements of a number of pollutants, including CO, CO2, NO, and NO2 species.

This work compared the ability of aerial sampling for emissions with that of traditional stack sampling, which typically involves measurements via probes into the stack. The sampling UAS was maneuvered into the plumes with the aid of CO2 telemetry to ground operators at one location and a second UAS equipped with an infrared-visible camera. Emissions of CO2, CO, NO, and NO2 were measured at the stack using continuous emission monitoring and simultaneously in the downwind plume using the UAS for comparison.

The results of the study indicate 94%-96% correlation of the UAS collected data with the traditionally collected data, demonstrating the ability to effectively measure from a plume using UAS technology. This is the first known use of a UAS to compare plume emission measurements with continuous emission measurements from stacks. The potential benefit from this research is application of a safer and easier method for sampling stacks and a newly demonstrated use for drone technologies in air emission sampling.

Read more about this study here: Use of an unmanned aircraft system to quantify NOx emissions from a natural gas boiler**. **

Contact EPA’s Federal Technology Transfer Act team at ftta@epa.gov to learn more.

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