Abstract
Coal mining accounts for ~ 12 % of the total anthropogenic methane emissions worldwide. The Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland, where large quantities of CH4 are emitted to the atmosphere via ventilation shafts of underground hard coal (anthracite) mines, is one of the hot spots of methane emissions in Europe. However, coalbed CH4 emissions into the atmosphere are poorly characterized. As part of the Carbon Dioxide and CH4 mission 1.0 (CoMet 1.0) that took place in May – June 2018, we flew a recently developed active AirCore system aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to obtain CH4 and CO2 mole fractions 150–300 m downwind of five individual ventilation shafts in the USCB. In addition, we also measured δ13C-CH4, δ2H-CH4, ambient temperature, pressure, relative humidity, surface wind speeds and directions. We have used 34 UAV flights and two different approaches (inverse Gaussian approach and mass balance approach) to quantify the emissions from individual shafts. The quantified emissions were compared to both annual and hourly inventory data, and were used to derive the estimates of CH4 emissions in the USCB. We found a high correlation (R2 = 0.7 – 0.9) between the quantified and hourly inventory data-based shaft-averaged CH4 emissions, which in principle would allow regional estimates of CH4 emissions to be derived by upscaling individual hourly inventory data of all shafts. Currently, such inventory data is available only for the five shafts we quantified though. As an alternative, we have developed three upscaling approaches, i.e., by scaling the E-PRTR annual inventory, the quantified shaft-averaged emission rate, and the shaft-averaged emission rate that are derived from the hourly emission inventory. These estimates are in the range of 325 – 447 kt CH4/year for the inverse Gaussian approach and 268 – 347 kt CH4/year for the mass balance approach, respectively. This study shows that the UAV-based active AirCore system can be a useful tool to quantify local to regional point source methane emissions.
Highlights
Methane (CH4) is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG), only second to carbon dioxide (CO2). 35 its abundance is lower than that of CO2, CH4 has a warming potential 28 times greater on a 100-year time frame (Etminan et al, 2016; Van Dingenen et al, 2018)
This study shows that the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-based active AirCore system can be a useful tool to quantify local to regional point source methane emissions
We present quantified emissions of 34 active AirCore flights based on atmospheric sampling of 90 CO2 and CH4 downwind of five individual coal mine ventilation shafts spread across the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB)
Summary
Methane (CH4) is the second most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG), only second to carbon dioxide (CO2). 35 its abundance is lower than that of CO2, CH4 has a warming potential 28 times greater on a 100-year time frame (Etminan et al, 2016; Van Dingenen et al, 2018). According to the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E80 PRTR), the USCB emitted 447 kt CH4 in 2017 (E-PRTR, 2017), with individual coal mine ventilation shafts ranging between emission rates of 0.03 to 20 kt CH4/year This makes the USCB a strong contributor to the annually emitted CH4 from Europe, being responsible for 27.3 % of the total European CH4 emissions of 1642 kt CH4/year in 2017 according to EPRTR With the large emission of CH4, and large uncertainties, the USCB is an important region to study and quantify the emitted CH4 from the contributing sources. We present quantified emissions of 34 active AirCore flights based on atmospheric sampling of 90 CO2 and CH4 downwind of five individual coal mine ventilation shafts spread across the USCB.
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