Meade Lewis, mIQroTech, USA, highlights the economical and environmental damage caused by pipeline leaks and how predictive monitoring can be a solution. Last year, nearly 33 trillion ft~3 of natural gas was extracted from US land. What is the fate of these natural resources? For the majority share, it is used to cost-effectively heat our homes, provide our children with electricity, and even help produce the everyday goods our society needs. However, over 450 billion ft~3 of this natural gas, enough to meet the entirety of US demand for nearly a week, is simply leaked into the atmosphere. Also, considering that this natural gas (methane) is 23× more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, the environmental impact of such leaks is immense. In revenue alone, over US$30 billion is lost, industry-wide due to these leaks. This revenue loss does not begin to cover the legal fees, fines, clean-up costs and reputation damage that are all associated with these spills.
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