Fugitive Methane and Odour Emission Characterization at a Composting Plant using Remote Sensing Measurements

Gaseous emissions of biowaste treatment facilities have several adverse effects. In Germany, a law to collect biological waste separately was introduced in January 2015. Since then there is a discussion about greenhouse gases which could be emitted in a significant rate and exceed the positive aspects. Default factors for methane and nitrous oxide from biological treatments given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) suggests that fugitive emissions even from composting processes should not be neglected. The research work presents an innovative method to quantify fugitive methane and odour emissions at a composting plant. The proposed method uses a combination of a remote sensing measurements and the application of a backwards Lagrangian stochastic (bLs) based micrometeorological dispersion modelling. The remote sensing technology is based on the absorption of infrared light with a wavelength sensitive to the substance to be determined. With the downwind measured methane concentration deducted by the upwind measured background concentration and the known wind conditions, a gas dispersion is simulated back in time to estimate the gas emission rate of a plant. Using the methane emissions as a tracer for dispersion characteristics in the atmosphere it is even possible to estimate a more accurate odour emission rate from passive sources at composting plants.