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Development of Mobile Tracer Correlation Method for Assessment of Air Emissions from Landfills and Other Area Sources
Citation:
Foster-Wittig, T., E. Thoma, R. Green, G. Hater, N. Swan, AND J. Chanton. Development of Mobile Tracer Correlation Method for Assessment of Air Emissions from Landfills and Other Area Sources. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 102:323-330, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
This is a journal article describing a mobile tracer correlation method for measurement of area sources. This method was used to measure landfill emissions. This paper describes the field studies, equipment, methods and how the data is processed. Future papers will discuss the landfill emissions.
Description:
Abstract - A standardized version of a mobile tracer correlation measurement method was developed and used for assessment of methane emissions from 15 landfills in 56 field deployments from 2009 to 2013. This general area source measurement method uses advances in instrumentation technology (e.g. cavity ring-down spectroscopy) along with a novel acetylene tracer gas to provide a more widely implementable approach than previously demonstrated. Described here is a real-world method evaluation conducted in the field by typical users, under randomly-encountered atmosphericconditions during daylight-only operations. Data from these field studies are evaluated to explore factors a?ecting method use, emissions determinations, and draft method quality indicators. A total of 1366 mobile tracer correlation measurement transects were acquired over 131 field sampling days yielding 456 transects that pass acceptable data criteria. Unacceptable transects were primarily associated with insu?cient advected plume transport to the ground-level observinglocation and poor correlation between the tracer and source plumes. This paper describes the instrumentation, tracer release equipment, data analysis procedures, and a range of use conditions from the study. Typically encountered measurement scenarios that produce method execution errors are described, and the e?ects of method quality indicator data acceptance levels on emission rate determinations and data completeness are discussed. This information may help contribute tothe development of a standardized mobile tracer correlation method.
