Monitoring and Mitigation of Methane Emissions from Pressure Relief Valves of a Biogas Plant

Abstract

AbstractThe two‐year monitoring (732 days) of operational methane emissions from pressure relief valves of the gasholders from an agriculture biogas plant is presented. The monitoring aimed at the identification of major factors influencing the emissions and the effect of mitigation measures deduced from the results. The determined emission factors from the valves of both gastight covered digesters are 1.8 and 0.6 % CH4 loss for the first and second year of investigation, respectively. The emission rates strongly depend on seasonal factors like (fast) changes in ambient air temperature as well as the capacity utilization of the combined heat and power and the operation of the gasholders. The implemented mitigation measures significantly reduced the measured methane emissions in the second year of the investigation.