Measurements of Methane Emissions from a Biofertilizer Storage Tank Using Ground-Based Hyperspectral Imaging and Flux Chambers
2024 (English)In: Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN 0013-936X, E-ISSN 1520-5851, Vol. 58, no 8, p. 3766-3775Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Open storages of organic material represent potentially large sources of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4), an emissions source that will likely become more common as a part of societal efforts toward sustainability. Hence, monitoring and minimizing CH4 emissions from such facilities are key, but effective assessment of emissions without disturbing the flux is challenging. We demonstrate the capacity of using a novel high-resolution hyperspectral camera to perform sensitive CH4 flux assessments at such facilities, using as a test case a biofertilizer storage tank for residual material from a biogas plant. The camera and simultaneous conventional flux chamber measurements showed emissions of 6.0 ± 1.3 and 13 ± 5.7 kg of CH4 h-1, respectively. The camera measurements covered the whole tank surface of 1104 m2, and the chamber results were extrapolated from measurements over 5 m2. This corresponds to 0.7-1.4% of the total CH4 production at the biogas plant (1330 N m3 h-1 corresponding to 950 kg h-1). The camera could assess the entire tank emission in minutes without disturbing normal operations at the plant and revealed additional unknown emissions from the inlet to the tank (17 g of CH4 h-1) and during the loading of the biofertilizer into trucks (3.1 kg of CH4 h-1 during loading events). This study illustrates the importance of adequate measurement capacity to map methane fluxes and to verify that methane emission mitigation efforts are effective. Given the high methane emissions observed, it is important to reduce methane emissions from open storage of organic material, for example by improved digestion in the biogas reactor, precooling of sludge before storage, or building gastight storage tanks with sealed covers. We conclude that hyperspectral, ground-based remote sensing is a promising approach for greenhouse gas monitoring and mitigation. © 2024 The Authors.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society , 2024. Vol. 58, no 8, p. 3766-3775
Keywords [en]
Biofuels; Greenhouse Gases; Hyperspectral Imaging; Methane; Sewage; Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Cameras; Gas emissions; Hyperspectral imaging; Methane; Remote sensing; Storage (materials); biogas; hot water; methane; biofuel; methane; Biofertilizer storage; Biofertilizers; CH 4; Emission; Flux chambers; Greenhouses gas; Methane emissions; Organic materials; Storage tank; Unknown source; anaerobic digestion; biofertilizer; biogas; biogenic emission; flux chamber; greenhouse gas; methane; remote sensing; storage tank; air sampling; air temperature; Article; cross correlation; data processing; flow rate; flux assay; Fourier transform; greenhouse gas; hyperspectral imaging; meteorology; methane emission; remote sensing; signal noise ratio; sludge; spectroscopy; temperature; thermal conductivity; water vapor; wind speed; hyperspectral imaging; sewage; Greenhouse gases
National Category
Mechanical Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-72777DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c06810Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85185580660OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-72777DiVA, id: diva2:1858179
Note
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant 725546), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant 101015825 (TRIAGE), grants from the Swedish Research Council VR (Grant VR 2016-04829) and FORMAS (Grant 2018-01794), and a grant from Avfall Sverige (Project U 1000).
2024-05-152024-05-152025-09-23Bibliographically approved