Forensic Geo-Gas Investigation of Methane: Characterization of Sources within an Urban Setting

Abstract

A forensic geo-gas investigation within an urban environment has identified distinct compositional and stable-isotope characteristics related to various reference sources of methane gas by using analytical techniques such as geochemical screening, stable-carbon and stable-hydrogen isotope analysis, and radioactive carbon-isotope analysis. The results of the investigation concluded that the combination of a number of geochemical indicators produced a distinctive geo-gas fingerprint for samples from similar reference sites.

Keywords:

• environmental forensics
• fugitive methane
• stable isotope analysis
• isotope fingerprinting

Acknowledgement

This project was conducted for the Environmental & Safety Management business unit of The City of Calgary. The authors would like to thank Toni Zunti and Jamie-Johnston Stewart for their assistance in the technical preparation of manuscript and the anonymous reviewers for their contributions which improved the quality of the manuscript.