Education  January 23, 2015

To find gas leaks, CSU team Googles it

Joe von Fischer, a professor of biology at Colorado State University, looks over equipment he uses to detect natural-gas leaks along city streets. He leads the CSU team that developed the sensing system Google installed in its Street View cars to measure methane leaks from natural-gas pipelines in U.S. cities. Courtesy Colorado State University
By

FORT COLLINS — For Colorado State University biology professor Joe von Fischer, work is a gas.

Methane gas, to be exact.

For the third year, Fischer and his CSU team are studying data fed to them from devices they developed through grants from the Environmental Defense Fund to measure how much methane is leaking from the miles of underground pipelines that deliver natural gas to American homes and businesses.

“The EDF brought us on board to develop the algorithm for interpreting the data,” said von Fischer.

It all started in late 2012 when von Fischer and a CSU student…

With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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