博彩平台推荐的LongPath Technologies在甲烷探测方面处于领先地位

LongPath正在利用量子技术来检测石油和天然气作业中的甲烷排放, 创新有利于工业、投资者和地球. Most recently, LongPath received landmark financial backing from the Department of Energy (DOE) for a loan of up to $189 million to accelerate the scale-up of the company’s monitoring systems.

2013年初的一个冬夜，芝加哥大学机械工程副教授格雷格·里克(Greg Rieker)来到了纽约 College of Engineering and Applied Science, had a ‘eureka’ moment. 他连续几个晚上都工作到很晚，用激光射向窗外 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), trying to measure trace gasses in the atmosphere. 与实验室内部相比，这是一个动荡的测试环境, but the atmosphere was quieter at night, 在没有太阳的竞争下，他可以更好地“看到”光束. 

To detect trace gasses, he aimed a laser over one kilometer at a mirror which reflected the light to a specialized dual-comb spectrometer where the data were analyzed. In the return laser signal that night, Rieker saw carbon dioxide–indicated by dips or pauses in a graph on his computer screen–just what the team had spent months looking for. “我记得当时在想，‘博彩平台推荐真的找到了一些东西，’”他说. 

That ‘something’ was a technology that could accurately measure temperature and atmospheric gas concentrations over a ‘long path’. Not long after that night at NIST, Rieker开始在博彩平台推荐教书，并将他的时间分配给校园和NIST. That’s when the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) put out a funding call for low-cost ways to monitor methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure to address environmental impacts.

Rieker answered that urgent need and landed the grant by fusing his open-path sensing with other critical NIST innovations (in work by Ian Coddington, Laura Sinclair and Kuldeep Prasad). 他说，博彩平台推荐的工程师和NIST的物理学家之间的密切合作是关键. “We were able to work together in a really unique way to think about (what would become the LongPath system) as a sensor,” he said. 

The path to commercialization 

In 2015, Marta Zgagacz, director of licensing for Venture Partners at CU Boulder, 开始与Rieker的研究团队合作，制定他们的商业化战略. The researchers partnered with the university on the ARPA-E grant as well as on intellectual property rights and agreements while they were “figuring out the ecosystem around potential products,” said Zgagacz. “It seemed like the technology was solving a real problem, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, 这个团队正在寻找一个可能有效的解决方案.”

Rieker回忆起一段忙碌的时光，一边要在校园里建一个新实验室，一边要教书，还要创办一家公司. 他很珍惜来自Zgagacz和大学里其他人的重要支持. “在科罗拉多大学，没有人质疑甚至暗示我的做法是个坏主意. 而在其他大学可能就不是这样了。. “领导层一直是深思熟虑的，鼓励的，而不是沮丧的，甚至是中立的. That has been fantastic.”

从实验室搬到野外的早期, LongPath’s founders—including Rieker, Caroline Alden, 肖恩·科伯恩和罗伯特·赖特也利用了其他商业化机会. They won what’s now the Lab Venture Challenge in 2017 and presented at Destination Startup in 2021, both Venture Partners programs. LongPath通过Innosphere Ventures获得了额外的资金流, after their first commercial deployment, with ARPA-E’s SCALEUP Program. 

去年，该公司以29美元完成了A轮融资.其中包括来自白鹿能源公司、康菲石油公司、威廉姆斯石油公司和美国石油公司的投资 Buff Gold Ventures是一家与venture Partners合作成立的风险投资基金. Sally Hatcher, co-founder and general partner of Buff Gold Ventures, was impressed by LongPath’s “unique approach based on advanced optoelectronics” to get decision-makers timely, accurate information. “It’s very exciting to see the level of interest from the oil and gas industry and the DOE’s strong support of LongPath’s growth,” she said. 

Most recently, LongPath received additional landmark financial backing—a conditional commitment from the DOE Loan Programs Office for up to a $189 million loan guarantee to accelerate the scale-up of the company’s monitoring systems across key oil and gas production basins in several western states. 

A measurable impact

LongPath’s breakthroughs in laser technology and quantum sensing ultimately created a leak detection system now used to do what previous approaches could not: continuously detect invisible-to-the-eye natural gas escaping from pipes on-site at oil and gas facilities. The system is based on a central tower from which lasers are beamed out like spokes on a wheel across the area being monitored. 
 

Finding and patching those leaks is a triple win—in industry cost savings (from $820 to $980 million per year) to air quality and public health. LongPath’s technology can identify natural gas leaks that sicken and displace thousands of people each year and cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly methane. A potent GHG, methane can trap nearly 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (over a 20-year time frame). 

In 2022, atmospheric concentrations of methane reached a record high—the largest annual increase recorded since systematic measurements began in 1983. Research suggests that escaped methane from oil and gas operations accounts for an estimated one-third of global emissions and, according to the International Energy Agency, mitigating those leaks is the most impactful action countries can take to rein in emissions and slow global temperature rise. 

“公司的主要目标之一是能够解决甲烷问题,” said Sean Coburn, 博彩平台推荐Rieker实验室的LongPath研发经理和高级研究员. “With our company, 通过博彩平台推荐帮助提升其他技术的活动, we can have a measurable impact,” he said. “It’s very meaningful.”

Today, LongPath的主动排放监控系统在几个州的石油和天然气作业中投入使用, covering hundreds of thousands of acres. Rieker和他的团队看到这些系统的影响每天都在增长, 他估计，每个系统每年可以节省4000万到8000万立方英尺的甲烷. 他说:“每次博彩平台推荐部署一个新系统，它真的很有影响力。. The team still ‘celebrates’ every large leak located. Rieker说:“博彩平台推荐将为客户敲定一个大订单，这真的很令人兴奋。. 

LongPath的使命和能力与本地化的关键时刻相交叉, national and global standards and regulations on methane. In November 2023, clamping down on methane emissions was a major topic at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). Delegates there urged more than 150 countries to make firm commitments to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030.

Weeks after COP28, the U.S. 美国环境保护署最终确定了削减石油和天然气作业中甲烷污染物的标准. “Sharp cuts in methane emissions are among the most critical actions the United States can take in the short term to slow the rate of climate change,” they said. 

“博彩平台推荐感到很幸运，能在这波达到顶峰的时候站在波浪的顶端,” said Caroline Alden, LongPath chief scientist. She said the idea of continuous monitoring for methane leaks seemed laughably difficult to many people until recently. “Now that’s understood to be the gold standard. It’s been a huge sea change,” said Alden.  

The other long path

LongPath的突破性技术和最近的成功之路本身就很漫长, explained Rieker. “It's a technology that evolved over so long. It’s been touched by many hands,” he said. 这些人包括约翰·“简”·霍尔和其他研究人员 JILA, a joint institute of CU Boulder and NIST, who first demonstrated their laser frequency comb in 1999. 

Hall, now NIST senior fellow emeritus, received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Theodor Hänsch) for contributing to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy. 罗伊·格劳伯(Roy Glauber)也因其光学相干的量子理论分享了那一年的诺贝尔物理学奖.) Hall’s optical frequency comb was revolutionary in the world of precise measurement and now has many applications, from atomic clocks to medical diagnostics. 

在接下来的十年里，不同的NIST研究人员在霍尔的创新基础上进行了进一步的研究. In 2012, Rieker picked up on that work and started using dual-comb spectroscopy as a sensor for measuring temperature and chemical concentrations along the laser path. That work led to his eureka moment in 2013. “It’s taken such a huge amount of time to get it all to come together that the name LongPath has taken on another meaning–this long journey that we’ve been on,” said Rieker. 

The magic sauce

What are the secrets to LongPath’s success? “They had the magic sauce basically, 以正确的形式将技术与正确的问题类型相结合, most importantly, the right team,” said Zgagacz. Reiker agreed. “在过去十年的大部分时间里，这个团队一直很有凝聚力. We’re all passionate about this, 因此，整个团队的勇气和“坚持到底”的精神有所帮助,” he said.

Reiker added persistence to that list. “这是我根深蒂固的想法，我设定了一个目标，然后坚持不懈地追求, pursue, pursue,” he said. “Patience has been the name of the game with this company,就推进和商业化这项技术而言，瑞克说, responding to customer needs and biding time as the oil and gas industry began to evolve to use that technology. 

Rieker说，庆祝一路走来的小胜利也是关键. “There’s little glimmers of hope as you go, because it’s really hard, and they’re just enough to keep everybody going,” he said. “Now, finally, LongPath is flying on its own.”