METEC 2.0 – Site Redesign
The METEC facility was developed with funding from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, Energy (ARPA-E) in 2016, with most infrastructure constructed during 2017. Conceptually, METEC has always included both above-ground emissions from oil and gas equipment and under-ground emissions from pipeline leaks.
In many ways, the research site may be thought of as a ‘wind simulator.’ The METEC facility mimics real-world oil and gas facility layout and equipment. As a result, wind transport disperses emissions similar to real-world conditions. This allows LDAQ solution developers to understand how their solutions operate in challenging field conditions using controllable emissions sources. The result is a unique facility for developing and characterizing LDAQ solutions.
The south pad build out (video above) saw the addition of multiple pieces of equipment.
METEC is primarily a location for ‘controlled release testing’—releasing gas from equipment in a highly realistic, but completely controlled environment. A controlled environment allows hundreds of experiments to be conducted a reasonable test program—METEC Testing Programs—something that’s hard to accomplish in field testing.
The image on the left is the partially completed south pad with a dense layout of equipment. (photo – May 2025)
Planned Design
The updated METEC research site will closely mimic current oil and natural gas facilities, including multiple well-heads, separators, tanks, and related equipment. This, in turn, impacts how wind transports methane and other gases. The site design, represented in the CAD design to the right, will include three major zones: 1) a dense facility layout representative of current facilities (bottom of design), 2) older site representative of O&G sites circa 2014 (top half of the design), and 3) a simple legacy site (upper right corner of the design).
Other Major Upgrades Include:
- A complex windfield representative of modern sites, including large batteries of tanks, separators, and wellheads, along with scaffolding & overhead piping,
- Baseline emissions that simulate an active production site,
- Failures on specific components (e.g., thief hatches, pneumatics, flanges) for solutions to locate,
- Over 200 fully autonomous gas release points simulating leaks,
- High release points on VRTs.
METEC 2.0 Site Redesign Project Updates
- Summer 2025: Installing and testing controlled release leak points.
- May – June 2025: Receive and install final equipment donations (wellheads & VRUs)
- March & April 2025: Equipment donations arrive and installed on the south research pad at the site.
- November – February, 2024-25: Coordinated outreach by staff to solicit equipment donations from mid-stream operators.
- June 2024: METEC staff conducted listening sessions among industry experts to gather feedback concerning the METEC 2.0 redesign concept. Read the summary report.
