Quantification of methane emissions from UK biogas plants
File(s)Bakkaloglu et al 2021.pdf (1.19 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The rising number of operational biogas plants in the UK brings a new emissions category to consider for methane monitoring, quantification and reduction. Minimising methane losses from biogas plants to the atmosphere is critical not only because of their contribution of methane to global warming but also with respect to the sustainability of renewable energy production. Mobile greenhouse gas surveys were conducted to detect plumes of methane emissions from the biogas plants in southern England that varied in their size, waste feed input materials and biogas utilization. Gaussian plume modelling was used to estimate total emissions of methane from ten biogas plants based on repeat passes through the plumes. Methane emission rates ranged from 0.1 to 58.7 kg CH4 hr-1, and the percentage of losses relative to the calculated production rate varied between 0.02 and 8.1%. The average emission rate was 15.9 kg CH4 hr-1, and the average loss was 3.7%. In general, methane emission rates from smaller farm biogas plants were higher than from larger food waste biogas plants. We also suggest that biogas methane emissions may account for between 0.4 and 3.8%, with an average being 1.9% of the total methane emissions in the UK excluding the sewage sludge biogas plants.
Date Issued
2021-04-01
Date Acceptance
2020-09-02
Citation
Waste Management, 2021, 124, pp.82-93
ISSN
0956-053X
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
82
End Page
93
Journal / Book Title
Waste Management
Volume
124
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Source
American Geoscience Union
Subjects
Anaerobic digestion
Biogas plant
Emission factor
Fugitive methane emission
Gaussian plume modelling
Mobile survey
Environmental Sciences
0907 Environmental Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-02-18