VENTURA — The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) is excited to announce their new handheld optical gas imaging (OGI) infrared camera technology for enhanced inspection for use in crude oil and natural gas processing facilities and landfills.
The new OGI inspection tool is an innovative thermal imaging technology that utilizes high sensitivity infrared cameras for detecting minute fugitive emissions of industrial gases in real time. Unlike other tools, an OGI camera offers the ability to visualize unsafe conditions from a safe distance. The OGI technology provides an inspection process that allows for both social distancing with no direct physical contact and provides additional safety for the inspector, including safe access to areas that were previously either not accessible or not safe to access such as tops of tanks, process valves, pumps, motors, and high-pressure components. In addition, it enables APCD inspectors to scan large areas and check many components from safer and greater distances. The OGI camera detects methane, other hydrocarbon, and volatile organic compounds resulting from the production, transportation, and use of oil and natural gas.
This technology has improved efficiency of District inspections by allowing the expeditious detection, identification, and subsequent repair of leaking components at rates that are much faster compared to what conventional inspection tools would allow, resulting in greater criteria pollutants and GHG emission reductions.
APCD’s mission is to provide clean air for all by improving air quality and protecting public health and the environment. To help meet this objective, APCD is using an OGI camera to enhance its inspection capabilities and efficiencies in crude oil and natural gas processing facilities, tank farms, landfills, and other sources. The OGI camera has already found methane leaks that were subsequently repaired, resulting in greater reductions of harmful pollutants in Ventura County.