A smarter way to deal with methane leakage

Satellite pictures have recently showed large patches of methane (CH4) leakage over the Dhaka sky. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and has more than 80 times the warming power than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.

Although it is not proven, the garbage dumping sites near Dhaka are most likely to create these patches of CH4. Other significant causes of CH4 emissions are agriculture and livestock, coal mining, brick kilns, leakages from gas fields, and leakages from age-old transmission and distribution lines. The gas pipelines in Dhaka are more than 50 years old with numerous leaks due to rusty iron pipelines, illegal connections and damages due to road-digging and construction.

Researchers in different countries are working in each of these sectors to bring down CH4 emissions to a bare minimum. I became interested to study gas leakage from leaky age-old pipelines in our city from an environmental protection point of view.

Ecologist Dr Nathan Phillips' work in Boston and New York City has given me some knowledge to see it as a possibility that his expert team can do the same study for Dhaka city. If that could be done, we would get a vivid, digitalised picture of Dhaka city highlighting the extent and magnitude of gas leakage in Dhaka roads.

I was lucky enough to meet Dr Phillips at Boston University, and he was generous enough to show me his lab and demonstrate passionately the work he does to protect against leakages of such a potent greenhouse gas.

The Daily Star published an article in October last year on the current state of gas leakage in our distribution pipelines, illegal connections, damage caused by road-digging and the incapability of utility companies to proactively detect leakage. As a result of these inefficiencies, the government is incurring significant revenue losses, and the cost of irreversible environmental damage due to gas leakage has also become far greater. However, it has come as good news that the government has recently approved big infrastructure projects to replace 50 to 60-years-old gas pipelines, a major overhauling project spanning four to six years.

Now, leakage of natural gases (CH4 is the major constituent) running through the pipelines isn't easy to detect due to their colourless and odourless characteristics. At best, we can see some bubbles on the streets or roadside drains in the rainy season. While suspected leakages can be detected with the help of CH4 testers, our scale deserves far more sophisticated tools and associated knowledge.

Plotting gas leakage for an entire area, or the city as a whole, requires purpose-built testing arrangements with vehicle-mounted gas sniffers and advanced software, coupled with GPS tracking similar to that of the Google Instant Street View project.

Dr Phillips and his team have been using this technology over the last few years to plot the gas leakage profile of Boston, Massachusetts. It may be mentioned here that gas distribution pipelines in Boston are more than 100 years old in many places and are equally leaky. The administration there has neither changed the whole pipeline at a single go, nor did they find it necessary to do so. The reason was their investment in research and its practical implementation to identify a leakage profile. Utility companies in Boston focused their resources and energy where they were needed most and hence made it unnecessary to change the whole pipeline.

While replacing the pipeline in Bangladesh, if we only use our gut feeling at the planning stage without using sophisticated leakage-profiling techniques, we may be designing for suboptimal outcomes of our efforts and resources. After all, our resources are limited. In such circumstances, it will probably not be an overstatement to say that leaky areas would continue to damage the environment for a few more years while waiting for their turn to be replaced. The pipelines which are in fairly good conditions would also be replaced, wasting quite a lot of national resources in the process.

It is therefore crucial to highlight that the planning stage of such an old gas distribution pipeline replacement project should attract technology aids to draw current leak profiles (magnitude and breadth) so that disruptions can be minimised. The project can be divided into meaningful phases to derive value for money and for the environment. I would request the relevant government authorities and utility companies to take interest in exploring and investing in proper technology aids from the very onset of this project.

To take care of the environment, the ultimate objective is to stop burning this fossil fuel for cooking and to switch to the much cleaner electric induction cooking stoves. A number of local companies are already manufacturing and marketing these stoves at affordable costs, but their uptake is low due to fear of high electricity costs, the fixed low cost of gas burners and people's inertia regarding learning new ways of cooking. However, induction cook stoves are flameless, do not pollute indoor air, are safe, and save both time and money.

For those who use bottled gas, the hassle of exchanging gas cylinders further adds to the possibility of damage or harm due to gas leakage. Only private sector initiatives are not sufficient. The time has come to think through the further expansion of new gas pipelines, new connections for business and residential usage, and eventual migration to cleaner energy for daily use.

M Sabbir Hussain is a banker by profession and an environmentalist by passion.

Email: msabbir.hussain@gmail.com