Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hatch, M. A.
• Kennedy, M. J.
• Hamilton, M. W.
• Vincent, R. A.

Titel

Methane variability associated with natural and anthropogenic sources in an Australian context

Ist Teil von

• Australian journal of earth sciences, 2018-07, Vol.65 (5), p.683-690

Ort / Verlag

Hoboken: Taylor & Francis

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Taylor & Francis

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Coal seam gas (CSG) has the potential to be a low-carbon transition fuel, but CSG fields may be a source of fugitive emissions of methane (CH 4 ). We use mobile cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) measurements to attribute CH 4 concentrations to sources in southeastern Australia including CSG fields. Our study shows higher CH 4 concentration values associated with both natural and anthropogenic sources other than CSG. These include urban landfills (>320 ppm) and urban infrastructure (>17 ppm), agricultural activities (>20 ppm) and open-pit coal mines (>30 ppm). We confirm reports of increased concentration of CH 4 downwind of some parts of CSG fields (<5 ppm), but elevated concentrations are not endemic and could not be separated from contributions of natural geological seeps (>16 ppm) that form part of the background levels. While CRDS allows direct determination of CH 4 sources, repeat measurements show the strong influence of atmospheric conditions on concentration and highlight the need for methods that quantify flux.