title: Analysis of operational methane emissions from pressure relief valves from biogas storages of biogas plants.
abstract: The study presents the development of a method for the long term monitoring of methane emissions from pressure relief valves (PRV(1)) of biogas storages, which has been verified during test series at two PRVs of two agricultural biogas plants located in Germany. The determined methane emission factors are 0.12gCH4kWhel(-1) (0.06% CH4-loss, within 106days, 161 triggering events, winter season) from biogas plant A and 6.80/7.44gCH4kWhel(-1) (3.60/3.88% CH4-loss, within 66days, 452 triggering events, summer season) from biogas plant B. Besides the operational state of the biogas plant (e.g. malfunction of the combined heat and power unit), the mode of operation of the biogas flare, which can be manually or automatically operated as well as the atmospheric conditions (e.g. drop of the atmospheric pressure) can also affect the biogas emission from PRVs.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Torgauer Straße 116, 04347 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: torsten.reinelt@dbfz.de.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinelt
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Torgauer Straße 116, 04347 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liebetrau
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH, Torgauer Straße 116, 04347 Leipzig, Germany; University of Rostock, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nelles
mesh_terms: D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis*; D005858:Germany; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis*; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008697:Methane
keywords: Biogas plants; Operational state; Pressure relief valves; Time-variant emissions