Brief Description
A new low-cost lidar technology that can detect, image, locate, quantify and autonomously report on methane and other greenhouse gas emissions and thereby help control climate change.
Detailed Description
Reducing industrial methane emissions is one of the most efficient ways to combat climate change. Unfortunately, existing technologies that locate and quantify methane leaks are complex, expensive, and require expert operators. QLM is revolutionizing the control of methane with affordable, innovative autonomous lidar cameras that use advanced quantum lidar technology to detect, image, precisely locate and accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions. QLM’s lidars are now being installed like methane security cameras in cloud-networked systems that monitor emissions at natural gas production sites like gas wells, waste-water treatment plants, gas distribution terminals and coal mines. They are already starting to help the planet and will do much more as these game-changing gas lidars prove themselves with customers and government regulators worldwide.
We founded QLM at the University of Bristol to develop a new low-cost lidar technology that can monitor greenhouse gas emissions better than any existing technology and thereby help identify and control climate changing emissions. We have started with methane but have also developed a carbon dioxide version and our lidar can be adapted to measure many other gases. Essential to having impact on climate change will be our scaling to millions of greenhouse gas monitors around the world. An important part of growing is promoting our technology and we have received recognition from notable organisations such as Innovate UK, Net Zero Technology Centre, UK Institute of Physics, LBS Enterprise 100, Green Angel Syndicate, Bloomberg New Energy Futures and the Spectator.
QLM has a highly differentiated product that addresses an urgent need with global environmental and economic impact. We can see methane leaks from more than 200m away at any time day or night and in all sorts of difficult weather, allowing users to monitor their operations continuously for potential methane emissions anywhere over a wide area and respond promptly to fix any new leaks. We are beating all other approaches in competitive trials of methane detection technology around the world. We will be deploying more than 100 lidar in 2024 and many 1000s in 2025 and beyond. 2000 lidar systems will identify and allow prevention of emissions that are equivalent to taking 1 million cars off the roads. You cannot control what you cannot see and measure. QLM’s Quantum Gas Lidar will allow the world to see its industrial greenhouse gas emissions and stop climate change.
Key Highlights
· Value Proposition: Time-correlated single-photon gas lidar is a new low-cost technology that can continuously and autonomously monitor greenhouse gas emissions better than any existing technology. In 2023, QLM’s technology was tested against 10 competitors at Colorado State University’s Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Centre (METEC) in a continuous 11-week blind trial. QLM demonstrated the best performance of all entries in four key categories: speed to detect a leak, accuracy of determining the leak position, accuracy in quantifying the leak size, and ability to measure leaks below the lower limit required by recently defined EPA regulations. Deploying lidar systems at fossil fuel and renewable methane gas producers, distributors and users worldwide will lead to identification and control of industrial methane emissions and help control climate change.
· Benefits/Outcomes/Advantage vs Classical: Our gas monitoring lidar uses semiconductor lasers developed for telecommunications and single-photon detectors developed for quantum communication in a unique practical and robust architecture. We have received 6 patents already and have another 10 in process. The single-photon quantum detector allows accurate operation with very low signal levels, which allows us to use very low power, low cost and completely eye-safe lasers and be able to detect gas at very long range. We can accurately quantify methane leaks from more than 200m away at any time day or night and in all sorts of extreme weather (snow, fog, rain and high wind) allowing us to identify gas emissions over a wide area anywhere our lidars are deployed. QLM’s cameras are easy to deploy even on remote sites with solar power and satellite communications. Our 365 degrees pan and tilt pointing control and high resolution 20x optical zoom imaging system can detect and visualize individual emission sources and pinpoint them with 3D accuracy without interference from other gas or water vapour. The lidar cameras auto-calibrate with an internal NIST traceable gas cell meaning zero long-term maintenance. The highly credible, high resolution, full-site measurement of emissions allows autonomous continuous monitoring for regulatory compliance purposes. Our lidar’s are controlled by a cloud-based customisable software platform that visualises and manages lidar imagery and data (live and historical) and can be tailored for specific site needs. The system is fully customizable enabling readings in specific areas at pre-defined intervals Data is presented in bespoke screens and reports that can provide actionable information to help customers reduce methane emissions. The technology is designed to be passed to top-tier contract manufacturers for scaling to very low cost at high volume. It uses many of the same components as mature vehicle lidar that saw drastic size and cost reductions over last decade.
· Availability: We have already established the commercial viability of the technology on large, complex, facilities throughout the world. It is ready to scale today.
Customer Testimonials
· “QLM's gas imager technology demonstrators have achieved detection levels that are remarkable for uncooled detector technology and very limited laser power, both are key requirements to get certification for the use in hazardous environments for 24/7 monitoring. I believe that as products these will allow our industry to move from intermittent scheduled inspections under hot working permit to much more effective continuous monitoring, a major step forward.” Peter Droegmoeller, Director of Innovation and Technology, Ametek LAND.
· “With the Methane Lidar Camera you can know everything there is to know about methane leaks in your facility at any time. Size, shape, gas emission rate, duration, location, persistence, timing - everything.” Michael Kenison, Engineering Project Manager, SLB.
Publicly Available Technical Data
https://qlmtec.com/assets/downloads/whitepaper.pdf