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We've had exceptional reports recently on lasers, fiber optics, and imaging in the oil and gas industry. Whatever your interest in this field—from technical to political—the facts are that photonics plays critical roles from fracking and extraction, to processing and environmental monitoring.
1.Mark Zondlo at Princeton's MIRTHE provides a brilliant overview of environmental concerns regarding methane, data from his research, and insights on the different lasers used for monitoring methane released during extraction and processing.
Fracking, climate change, and lasers: new tools to reduce fugitive methane emissions
2. Downhole sensing with optical fiber has become de rigor in the oil and gas industry for monitoring conditions and pumping status.
Downhole sensing puts fiber optics to the test
3. Fiber optics that sense optimal fracking sounds could improve fracking operations.
Sound-sensing fiber optics improve fracking
4. One company, Foro Energy, has been testing a 20-kW fiber laser system that will actually drill for oil.
Fiber lasers drill for oil
5. And Rebellion Photonics uses a hyperspectral imaging camera to detect leaking around oil rigs and refineries.
System spies spectral signatures
BONUS NEWS: Rebellion Photonics has been named the Wall Street Journal's Startup of the Year.
Conard Holton
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.