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Development of EPA OTM 10 for Landfill Applications, Interim Report
Citation:
THOMA, E. D., S. THORNELOE, R. SEGALL, R. B. Green, G. R. Hater, R. HASHMONAY, M. MODRAK, M. J. Chase, AND D. C. Goldsmith. Development of EPA OTM 10 for Landfill Applications, Interim Report. In Proceedings, AWMA's 101st Annual Conference and Exhibition, Portland, OR, June 24 - 27, 2008. AWMA, Pittsburgh, PA, NA, (2008).
Impact/Purpose:
conference paper
Description:
Quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from area sources is of increasing importance. Due to the spatial extent and non homogenous nature of many area sources, assessment of fugitive emissions using traditional point sampling techniques can be problematic. To address this, the U.S. EPA published a new test method in 2006 called Other Test Method 10 (OTM 10), "Optical remote sensing for emission characterization from non-point sources", which describes direct measurement of pollutant mass emission flux from area sources using ground-based optical remote sensing (ORS). The technique utilizes open-path spectroscopic instrumentation to obtain path-integrated pollutant concentration information along multiple plane-configured optical paths. The multi-path pollutant concentration data along with wind vector information are processed with a plane integrating computer algorithm to yield a mass emission flux for the source. But additional guidance is needed for landfill applications where large source size, complex topography, and frequent interfering sources can impact results when using standard configurations and data processing procedures. Since fugitive emissions of methane from landfill operations is of growing interest, there is significant interest in expanding and refining OTM 10 for these applications. In 2007, Waste Management, Inc. (WM) began using a modified version of OTM 10 around the U.S. In 2008, WM and EPA began collaboration to test the performance of special configurations in landfill applications. This paper describes the 2008 tracer release studies and presents the interim findings.