A Locally Deployable Tool-Grounded LLM Multi-agent Framework for Automating Methane Emission Analysis and Reporting

Abstract

Methane field monitoring requires the integration of sampling design, meteorological interpretation, sensor processing, plume analysis, visualization, and reporting, but these steps are often distributed across separate expert-driven workflows. We developed a locally deployable, tool-grounded large language model (LLM) multi-agent framework for our low-cost methane sensing and field-monitoring campaigns. The framework uses LLM agents as workflow coordinators that link field measurements, meteorological data, deterministic sensor-processing routines, Gaussian plume inversion, and report generation, rather than directly estimating methane concentrations or emissions. Extensive field deployments across diverse real-world environments (e.g., wastewater treatment facilities, landfills, and oil and gas sites) demonstrate that our framework can achieve 92.0\% accuracy in workflow routing and parameter extraction, 85.0\% success in emission-rate estimation and plume prediction, and 95.0\% success in generating editable reports under practical operating conditions. Compared with manual and general-purpose LLM-assisted workflows, it reduced workflow time from hours-level to minutes-level, lowered manual coordination and prompt-engineering requirements, and retained traceable plume-based outputs. In addition, most processing can be performed locally, reducing exposure of sensitive facility and field data to cloud services. These results indicate that tool-grounded LLM coordination can reduce the time, labor, usability, and data-security barriers of methane field monitoring.