Measurements of Methane Emissions from Landfills Using a Time Correlation Tracer Method Based on FTIR Absorption Spectroscopy

Abstract

Methane is an important climate gas contributing significantly to global warming. A large part of the anthropogenic emissions of methane comes from landfills. Due to the biogenic origin of these emissions and the inhomogeneous characteristics of landfills and their soil cover, these emissions show large spatial variation. Thus, development of reliable and cost-effective methods for measurements of these emissions is an important task and a challenge to the scientific community. Traditionally, field chamber methods have been used but also different area integrating methods based on downwind plume measurements. These measurements have been supported by meteorological data either directly from local measurements or by controlled release of tracer gas from the landfill providing the dispersion characteristics of the plume. In this paperwe describe a method,the Time Correlation Tracer method, combining controlled tracer gas release from the landfill with time-resolved concentration measurements downwind the landfill using FTIR absorption spectroscopy. The method has been tested and used on measurements at a landfill in southern Sweden over the past 1.5 years. The method has proven to be a usable method for measurements of total methane emission from landfills, and under favorable meteorological conditions we estimate an achievable accuracy of 15-30%. The real time analysis capability of the FTIR makes it possible to judge the success of the measurement already on site and to decide whether more measurements are necessary. The measurement strategy is relatively simple and straightforward, and one person can make a measurement from a medium sized landfill (1-4 ha) within a few days to a week depending on the meteorological situation.

Methane emissions from 20 landfills across the United States using vertical radial plume mapping

“…The collection of optical remote sensing data for each cover type at a specific landfill combined with the associated surface area might allow approximation of the surface methane emissions for the total landfill surface. However, other methods, such as the tracer gas correlation technique, exist for estimating total landfill methane emissions (Czepiel et al, 1996;Galle et al, 2001;Scheutz et al, 2011).…”

Methane emission estimates using chamber and tracer release experiments for a municipal waste water treatment plant

“…This method has often been used in previous studies to determine CH 4 from landfills and more recently WWTPs (Czepiel et al, 1996;Galle et al, 2001;Spokas et al, 2006;Fredenslund et al, 2010;Mønster et al, 2014b;Yoshida et al, 2014). Concentrations of the tracer as well as the gas of interest are measured using a mobile instrument downwind in the co-propagating plumes.…”

The Application of FT-IR Spectroscopy in Waste Management

“…Due to infrared absorption of many air pollutants they can be detected and quantified by FT-IR long-path instruments (Bacsik et al, 2005). Quantification of gaseous compounds is carried out according to Lambert-Beer's law (Weber et al, 1996;Galle et al, 2001;Hegde et al, 2003). Methane and nitrous oxide are the main components to be measured in the context of landfill monitoring.…”