title: Determining methane emissions from biogas plants--Operational and meteorological aspects.
abstract: A micrometeorological method, combining an inverse dispersion technique with path-integrated concentration measurements, was applied on an Austrian biogas plant over the period of more than one year to determine emissions of the whole plant. Measurement campaigns were conducted to characterize the emission response to operational activities (e.g. digestate management) and meteorological changes. When digestate storage tanks were filled, an average emission rate of 7.2 kg CH4/h (approx. 4% of the calculated CH4 production) was determined, while 5.4 kg CH4/h of emissions (approx. 3% of the calculated CH4 production) were quantified after the tanks had been emptied. It could be observed that besides the operation mode (e.g. filling level or agitation of the openly stored digestate, maintenance), the meteorological conditions such as wind speed and solar radiation (e.g. heat flux) can also affect the emission rate.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Waste Management, Department of Water-Atmosphere-Environment, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: marlies.hrad@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Marlies
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hrad
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Meteorology, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Hohe Warte 38, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piringer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Waste Management, Department of Water-Atmosphere-Environment, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huber-Humer
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D056804:Biofuels; D055904:Meteorology; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008697:Methane
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Fugitive emission; Inverse dispersion modeling; Methane; Open-path tunable diode laser