Using Quantum Gas Lidar for Continuous Methane Emissions Monitoring and Quantification in Water Sewage Treatment, Landfills and Biogas Plants: POSTER
Lindsay, G. and Van Pelt, A., QLM Technology Ltd, UK
(Free)
Abstract
We present recent work utilizing novel gas sensing lidar for continuous methane emissions monitoring and quantification at landfills, sewage treatment plants and in various biomethane production environments.
Results from process and fugitive emissions monitoring campaigns in these applications are presented and include ongoing monitoring at multiple sewage treatment sites, some having full gas to grid infrastructure. Specific elements of the infrastructure are targeted for continuous, automated measurement by the lidar system (especially the digesters, gas storage, combined heat and power engines and gas to grid plants) and any detected methane emission plumes are imaged, their origins are pinpointed, and their emission rates are quantified. The individual emission sources are intermittent and can have emission rates that vary in time depending on various process variables so that an accurate accounting of the overall emissions over time is reliant on the high-accuracy quantification and high temporal resolution that the lidar system provides. The continuous measurements have so far identified some previously unknown emission sources and have allowed the actual emissions of those sources to be accurately quantified for the first time, offering a high-confidence, measurement-based accounting of the methane emissions at these sites. Third-party performance validation of the lidar is also presented.