Methane emissions from an oil sands tailings pond: a quantitative comparison of fluxes derived by different methods

Tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands region are significant sources of fugitive emissions of methane to the atmosphere, but detailed knowledge on spatial and temporal variabilities is lacking due to limitations of the methods deployed under current regulatory compliance monitoring programs. To develop more robust and representative methods for quantifying fugitive emissions, three micrometeorological flux methods (eddy covariance, gradient, and inverse dispersion) were applied along with traditional flux chambers to determine fluxes over a 5-week period. Eddy covariance flux measurements provided the benchmark. A method is presented to directly calculate stability-corrected eddy diffusivities that can be applied to vertical gas profiles for gradient flux estimation. Gradient fluxes were shown to agree with eddy covariance within 18 %, while inverse dispersion model flux estimates were 30 % lower. Fluxes were shown to have only a minor diurnal cycle (15 % variability) and were weakly dependent on wind speed, air, and water surface temperatures. Flux chambers underestimated the fluxes by 64 % in this particular campaign. The results show that the larger footprint together with high temporal resolution of micrometeorological flux measurement methods may result in more robust estimates of the pond greenhouse gas emissions.

Technical note: Facilitating the use of low-cost methane (CH₄) sensors in flux chambers – calibration, data processing, and an open-source make-it-yourself logger

A major bottleneck regarding the efforts to better quantify greenhouse gas fluxes, map sources and sinks, and understand flux regulation is the shortage of low-cost and accurate-enough measurement methods. The studies of methane (CH4) – a long-lived greenhouse gas increasing rapidly but irregularly in the atmosphere for unclear reasons, and with poorly understood source–sink attribution – suffer from such method limitations. This study presents new calibration and data processing approaches for use of a low-cost CH4 sensor in flux chambers. Results show that the change in relative CH4 levels can be determined at rather high accuracy in the 2–700 ppm mole fraction range, with modest efforts of collecting reference samples in situ and without continuous access to expensive reference instruments. This opens possibilities for more affordable and time-effective measurements of CH4 in flux chambers. To facilitate such measurements, we also provide a description for building and using an Arduino logger for CH4, carbon dioxide (CO2), relative humidity, and temperature.

Methane emissions from an oil sands tailings pond: A quantitative comparison of fluxes derived by different methods

Tailings ponds in the Alberta Oil Sands Region are significant sources of fugitive emissions of methane to the atmosphere, but detailed knowledge on spatial and temporal variabilities is lacking due to limitations of the methods deployed under current regulatory compliance monitoring programs. To develop more robust and representative methods for quantifying these emissions, three micrometeorological flux methods were applied along with traditional flux chambers to determine fluxes over a 5-week period. Eddy covariance flux measurements provided the benchmark. A method is presented to directly calculate stability-corrected eddy diffusivities that can be applied to vertical gas profiles for gradient flux estimation. Gradient fluxes were shown to agree with eddy covariance within 7 %, and inverse dispersion model fluxes within 11 %, with an overall uncertainty of 28 % for the calculated mean flux. Fluxes were shown to have only a minor diurnal cycle (18 % variability) and to be mostly independent of wind speed, air and water surface temperatures. Flux chambers underestimated the fluxes by a factor of 2 in this particular campaign. These measurements indicate that the larger footprint of micrometeorological measurements results in more robust emission estimates representing the whole pond.

Technical note: Facilitating the use of low-cost methane (CH₄) sensors in flux chambers – calibration, data processing, and an open source make-it-yourself logger

A major bottleneck regarding the efforts to better quantify greenhouse gas fluxes, map sources and sinks, and understand flux regulation, is the shortage of low-cost and accurate-enough measurement methods. The studies of methane (CH4) – a long-lived greenhouse gas increasing rapidly but irregularly in the atmosphere for unclear reasons, and with poorly understood source-sink attribution – suffer from such method limitations. This study present new calibration and data processing approaches for use of a low-cost CH4 sensor in flux chambers. Results show that the change in relative CH4 levels can be determined at rather high accuracy in the 2–700 ppm range, with modest efforts of collecting reference samples in situ, and without continuous access to expensive reference instruments. These results open for more affordable and time-effective measurements of CH4 in flux chambers. To facilitate such measurements, we also provide a description for building and using an Arduino logger for CH4, carbon dioxide (CO2), humidity, and temperature.

Passive diffusive flux chambers – a new method to quantify vapour intrusion into indoor air

A conceptually new method to quantify mass fluxes of toxic vapours for contaminated land risk assessment applications was developed and compared against the traditional dynamic flux chamber.