Rod Robinson

Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) Measurements of Landfill Methane Emissions

Methane is one of the most important gaseous hydrocarbon species for both industrial and environmental reasons. Understanding and quantifying methane emissions to atmosphere is therefore an important element of climate change research. Range-resolved infrared differential absorption Lidar (DIAL) measurements provide the means to map and quantify a wide range of different methane sources. This paper describes the DIAL measurement technique and reports the application of an infrared DIAL system to field measurements of methane emissions from active and closed landfill sites. This paper shows how the capability of the DIAL to measure the spatial distribution of methane plumes enables DIAL vertical scans to spatially separate and independently quantify emissions from different sources. It also allows DIAL horizontal scans carried out above the surface to identify emission hot-spots. An overview of the landfill emission surveys carried out over the last decade by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) DIAL system is presented. These surveys were part of research projects and commercial works aimed to validate the method and to provide reliable information on the methane emissions measuring the total site and area-specific emissions from active areas, capped areas, and gas engine stacks. This work showed that methane emissions are significantly higher for active sites than closed sites due to the methane emitted directly to air from the uncapped active areas. On active sites, the operational tipping areas generally have higher emission levels than the capped areas, although there is considerably variation in the emission from different capped areas. The information obtained with DIAL measurements allow site operators to identify significant fugitive emission sources and validate emissions estimates, and they allow the regulators to revise and update the emission inventories. Operators’ remediation actions driven by DIAL measurements have also been shown to considerably decreased total site methane emission.

DIAL measurements for air pollution and fugitive-loss monitoring

This paper describes a mobile differential absorption LIDAR system, which operates in the UV, visible, and IR spectral regions. This system can measure a range of important air pollutants emitted by industry, including SO2, NO2, NO, HCl, benzene, toluene, and a large range of other VOCs. These species can be monitored at fugitive and flammable levels at ranges of up to 1 km (for IR measurements) and 3 km (for UV measurements). Examples of measurements of fluxes emitted from large scale industrial sties are presented and discussed. Comparisons are given between measured fluxes and those calculated using the US Environmental Protection Agencys and American Petroleum Institutes standard procedures for estimating industrial emissions. The fluxes measured by DIAL are higher than the values derived from the API procedures. Possible reasons for discrepancies between the measured results and the EPA/API estimation procedures will be discussed.

The development of gas standards and calibration techniques for measurements of vehicle, aircraft and industrial emissions, natural gas, occupational exposure and air quality

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is involved in the dissemination of nationally traceable standards to which measurements of air quality, occupational exposure and air pollution source emissions, and natural gas analyses, can be referenced. This has required the development of national primary gas standards using absolute gravimetric and other techniques, and the development of dynamic calibration techniques for gaseous species which would be unstable in high-pressure cylinders. The methodology used for preparing gas standards gravimetrically is described, together with the rigorous quality assurance measurements and consistency checks which are used to demonstrate their accuracy and stability. The uncertainty budget assigned to these standards will also be summarised. NPL primary standards are used to certify traceable ‘secondary’ gas standards which are disseminated so as to ensure the accuracy of gas analysis measurements. Examples of the applications of these secondary standards are presented. The gas standards are employed in proficiency testing of industrial stack-testing organisations, and results of the initial rounds are presented. NPL gas standards are also now being used as the basis of the United Kingdom Environment Agencys new type-approval and certification scheme for continuous industrial stack-emission analysers. A recent important international initiative, in the field of gas analyses, is the agreement by national standards laboratories across the world to demonstrate the equivalence of their calibrations, by means of key comparisons between them. These worldwide key comparisons are complemented in Europe through the EUROMET initiative which seeks to establish the equivalence and comparability of calibration standards held at national standards laboratories across Europe. Examples of these intercomparisons are presented.

State of UK emissions monitoring of stacks and flues: an evaluation of proficiency testing data for SO2, NO and particulates

We report an examination of the UK stack testing industry’s proficiency for monitoring industrial emissions of SO2, NO and particulates from 2000 to 2011. Data were taken from three proficiency testing schemes run by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), UK; Calibration Gas Scheme (gas bottle certified reference materials), Gas Measurement Scheme (using a Stack Simulator Facility to test the entire measurement system) and Particulate Scheme (foil shims and salt solutions—i.e., filter and probe washing simulants). In each round of each scheme, participants’ deviations from assigned value were normalised to an allowable deviation based on the required uncertainty for stack emission measurements stipulated in the European Union’s Industrial Emissions Directive. This normalisation produced a z-score and limits were set to define satisfactory, warning and unsatisfactory participant performance. As a function of time, it was found that across all schemes, the number of unsatisfactory/outlier scores decreased, evidencing an overall improvement in industry proficiency. With regard to the gas schemes, it was found that the industry had a poorer proficiency for SO2 than NO and that there was a distribution bias toward negative scores in the Gas Measurement scheme consistent with SO2 sample losses in drying units. It was evident that this industry bias was insufficient to force the vast majority of the industry outside of the satisfactory z-score limits; however, it was noted that this issue should be carefully monitored in the future.

Field Validation of Remote Sensing Methane Emission Measurements

Area sources are a key contributor to overall greenhouse gas emissions but present a particular challenge to emission measurement techniques due to the heterogeneous nature of the sources. A new Controlled Release Facility (CRF) has been developed that is able to recreate in the field both the distribution and rate of emissions seen in actual industrial applications. The results of a series of field validation experiments involving this facility and an infrared differential absorption Lidar (DIAL) facility are presented, which have demonstrated the capability of the CRF to generate controlled methane emissions from 1.8 kg/h to 11 kg/h with a typical expanded (k = 2) uncertainty of ~0.3 kg/h, and established that any underlying systematic uncertainty in the DIAL measurements across this range of methane emissions is less than 4% (or 0.2 kg/h).

Mass emissions and carbon trading: a critical review of available reference methods for industrial stack flow measurement

Flow measurements in industrial ducts and stacks are combined with pollutant or greenhouse gas concentrations to deduce mass emissions. These are then used to populate pollutant emission inventories and are traded under emissions trading schemes. Reference methods for flow are described in ISO 10780 and more recently in EN ISO 16911-1. This paper discusses the key differences between the two standards. We consider sources of error in flow measurement and discuss how each standard addresses them. We find that EN ISO 16911-1 introduces a series of improvements that when combined provide critical uncertainty gains that support compliance with the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). All these areas are either not addressed or only partially dealt with in ISO 10780. More specifically, EN ISO 16911-1, (a) specifies a wider range of reference techniques enabling the optimal one to be used for different flue gas environments. (b) Provides a method to correct for cyclonic flow effects. (c) Addresses measurement assembly misalignment and specifies tolerance values for it and (d) provides wall effect correction factors. Most importantly, it has been validated through laboratory and field work. However, the quality control specified in EN ISO 16911-1 is more suitable for measurements to support EU ETS requirements and at times can be too onerous for pollutant mass emission reporting that will usually have less stringent uncertainty requirements.

Testing equivalency of an alternative method based on portable FTIR to the European Standard Reference Methods for monitoring emissions to air of CO, NOx, SO2, HCl, and H2O

We compare the performance of an alternative method based on portable Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy described in TGN M22, “Measuring Stack Gas Emissions Using FTIR Instruments,” to the Standard Reference Methods (SRMs) for CO (EN 15058), NOx (EN 14792), SO2 (EN 14791), HCl (EN 1911), and H2O (EN 14790). Testing was carried out using a Stack Simulator facility generating complex gas matrices of the measurands across concentration ranges of 0–75 mg m−3 and 0–100 mg m−3 CO, 0–200 mg m−3 and 0–300 mg m−3 NO, 0–75 mg m−3 and 0–200 mg m−3 SO2, 0–15 mg m−3 and 0–60 mg m−3 HCl, and 0–14 vol% H2O. The former values are the required monitoring range for each measurand as described in the European Union (EU) Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU) for waste incineration processes, and the latter are supplementary ranges representative of emissions from some large combustion plant processes. Test data were treated in accordance with CEN/TS 14793, and it was found that equivalency test criteria could be met across all concentration ranges with the exception of the NO supplementary range. The results demonstrated in principle where TGN M22/FTIR could be used in place of the existing SRMs to provide, as required under the Industrial Emissions Directive, annual validation/calibration of automated measuring systems (AMSs being permanently installed on industrial stacks to provide continuous monitoring of emissions to air). These data take a step toward the wider regulatory acceptance of portable FTIR providing the advantages of real-time calibration and quantification of all measurands on a single technique. Implications: Portable FTIR offers significant advantages for the calibration (as is required by the EU’s Industrial Emissions Directive, 2010/75/EU) of process plant operators instrumentation installed for continuous monitoring of emissions to air. All key gaseous emission species regulated under the directive can be calibrated using a single technique, and the real-time calibration data allows issues with plant instrumentation to be identified sooner, reducing the amount of time where unreliable emissions data might be reported from the plant. This work takes an important step toward the regulatory acceptance of portable FTIR for the validation/calibration of in situ emissions monitoring systems.

Regulating landfills using measured methane emissions: An English perspective

Methane emissions from landfills are an important source of greenhouse gases in the UK and worldwide. This paper considers how measurements of methane emissions could be used to regulate landfills in England in order to reduce the contribution of landfilling to climate change. The paper presents the results of a number of UK studies undertaken to quantify methane emissions from landfills. The methods used have included the DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) technique and a tracer gas dispersion method. A method based on aerial measurements has been developed. Methane emission rates were measured at 15 biodegradable waste landfills. All of the landfills where measurements took place had an active landfill gas extraction system. A methane collection index (MCI) is calculated for each landfill using the ratio of the methane collection rate to the sum of the collection and emission rates. The values of the index in the campaigns reported here ranged from 0.28 to 0.90. The modern operational landfills surveyed achieved MCI values with a much narrower range of between 0.64 and 0.90 with an average of 0.76. This has demonstrated that it is possible for these landfills to collect a high proportion of the landfill gas. A proposed approach is presented for regulating landfills using the measured MCI. This would involve an annual measurement campaign to quantify the methane emissions and the use of the data provided by these surveys to develop an achievable but challenging MCI limit. A limit value of 0.75 for the MCI is used to illustrate the approach. An MCI that falls below the limit would trigger actions to reduce the methane emissions from the landfill.