Determining hydrocarbon effluent combustion efficiency

A gas monitoring system for determining a property of a gas plume produced by burning of a hydrocarbon effluent via a burning device, wherein the gas monitoring system comprises:

• a laser emission system operable to emit first and second laser beams along a path passing through the gas plume;
• a detection system operable to facilitate determining first and second intensity data indicative of intensities of the first and second laser beams, respectively, that have been backscattered by a surface after passing through the gas plume;
• and
• a processing system comprising a processor and a memory device storing a computer program code that, when executed by the processor, causes the processing system to:
• cause the laser emission system to emit the first laser beam along the path while tuning wavelength of the first laser beam around a first wavelength corresponding to a spectral absorption line of a first predetermined gas, wherein the first predetermined gas is carbon dioxide (CO2);
• cause the laser emission system to emit the second laser beam along the path while tuning wavelength of the second laser beam around a second wavelength corresponding to a spectral absorption line of a second predetermined gas;
• determine first concentration path lengths of the first predetermined gas along the paths based on the first intensity data;
• output first concentration path length data indicative of the first concentration path lengths;
• discretize the first concentration path length data in the form of a first concentration path length map, wherein the first concentration path length map comprises a plurality of first pixels representing the first concentration path length data;
• find a plume region of the first concentration path length map comprising instances of the first pixels associated with the gas plume;
• determine mean first concentration path length of the first predetermined gas based on the first concentration path length data of the first pixels of the plume region;
• determine second concentration path lengths of the second predetermined gas along the paths based on the second intensity data;
• output second concentration path length data indicative of the second concentration path lengths;
• discretize the second concentration path length data in the form of a second concentration path length map, wherein the second concentration path length map comprises a plurality of second pixels representing the second concentration path length data;
• superimpose the plume region of the first concentration path length map onto the second concentration path length map to encompass instances of the second pixels;
• and
• determine second mean concentration path length of the second predetermined gas based on the second concentration path length data of the second pixels within the plume region.