For 112 days late last year and into 2016, a Los Angeles storage facility leaked millions of pounds of natural gas, producing the worst manmade greenhouse gas disaster in the US, according to the Washington Post.
Now, GE is testing a drone that might prevent something similar from happening in the future. The company's so-called Raven drone prototype is "engineered to detect emissions precisely and cost-effectively."
The drone was piloted this summer by Southwestern Energy Company in Arkansas, which was able to find leaks on oilfield equipment at well sites. But GE showed it off again last week at the unveiling of the GE Oil and Gas Technology Center in Oklahoma City, which will act as a central hub for GE scientists and engineers to work on new technologies for the oil and gas industry.
Raven is a platform that includes a drone, autonomous flight technology, and a ground-based telecom system that will stream data from the drone to a cloud-based analytics systems. According to GE, the system is designed so anyone can use it; just plug coordinates into a mobile app and the drone will take flight, hopping from one GPS point to another. Workers can watch from afar; no need to be in the field themselves.
Drones have become cost-effective technologies for companies to enhance their operations. Google and Amazon, for instance, are eyeing drones for product delivery. Facebook is also using drones to experiment with providing Internet access to people in emerging markets around the world.
For now, the Raven drone is just a prototype; GE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.