Long-Term Accuracy of Qube’s Methane Sensor Calibration: A Two-Year Study
This white paper describes the lab calibration process and presents the findings from a comprehensive field study validating the prolonged accuracy of Qube's calibration methods over two years of operational use.
Key findings include:
Qube's sensors maintain consistent calibration and performance throughout the two-year period.
The technology effectively manages baseline drift and enables reliable, autonomous recalibrations as needed.
The study underscores the robustness of Qube's sensing technology and calibration approach, ensuring operational integrity in challenging industrial environments.
Qube has developed an innovative continuous monitoring solution specifically designed for industrial applications to detect, localize, and quantify methane emissions. Utilizing metal oxide (MOx) sensing technology, Qube’s sensors offer high sensitivity to methane, predictable performance across diverse environmental conditions, and a cost-effective technology for large-scale deployment. Each sensor undergoes rigorous lab calibration to ensure accuracy within 1 PPM before it is deployed in the field.
The lab calibration process characterizes the sensor’s response to methane from 0 to 2,000 PPM, while compensating for environmental conditions. To maintain precision and consistency once deployed in the field, Qube has developed a patent pending auto-baselining algorithm that autonomously adjusts for sensor drift, seamlessly adapting to environmental changes and sensor aging without human intervention.
This white paper describes the lab calibration process and presents the findings from a comprehensive field study validating the prolonged accuracy of Qube's calibration methods over two years of operational use.
Key Findings Include:
Qube's sensors maintain consistent calibration and performance throughout the two-year period.
The technology effectively manages baseline drift and enables reliable, autonomous recalibrations as needed.
The study underscores the robustness of Qube's sensing technology and calibration approach, ensuring operational integrity in challenging industrial environments.
Learn more about our emission reduction technology.
The study demonstrates that sensors operating in the field and exposed to various environmental conditions over two years can still operate with an accuracy of 1 ppm without a full lab recalibration, by implementing Qube’s auto-baselining algorithm. The findings confirm that the calibration methods have accurately identified and accounted for the aging elements which are responsible for baseline drift. The findings also confirm that Qube devices can reliably detect and compensate for baseline drift over at least two years of deployment in the field.
The study affirms a core value proposition of the Qube platform: minimal sensing hardware is needed to produce accurate measurement and quantification of methane emissions, and that the devices’ capabilities remain consistent over time.
This enables primary industries oil and gas operators to cost-effectively deploy the Qube platform at scale and avoid time-consuming field maintenance to manage uncalibrated sensors.
While these test results are encouraging, we acknowledge a limitation of the study. The sensors tested have only been operating in the field for two years, not the expected five-year operational life of the sensors. Continued testing is needed to fully evaluate the calibration methods and confirm performance over the full lifespan of Qube sensors. We intend to conduct annual testing on a statistically significant subset of sensors to continue to evaluate long-term performance.
