Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/T009268/1
Mobile integrated greenhouse gas assessment system (MIGGAS): targetting Net Zero.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr R E Fisher, Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Earth Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr D Lowry, Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Earth Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor EG Nisbet, Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Royal Holloway, Univ of London, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Earth & environmental
- Climate & Climate Change
- Waste Management
- Pollution
- Land - Atmosphere Interactions
- Abstract:
- This proposal is for a mobile integrated greenhouse gas assessment system (MIGGAS), to locate and isotopically identify greenhouse gas sources, and calculate emission fluxes. MIGGAS will be capable of deployment either on a moving vehicle, to map urban and rural emissions, or as a static installation in field campaigns. Should the request be granted, the university promises funding to develop a technically advanced high precision mid-infrared drone-mounted sensor, to operate directly with MIGGAS. The UK is the global leader in committing for net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This demands far-reaching change to locate and reduce emissions of all major greenhouse gases and to remove them from the atmosphere. While focus is usually on carbon dioxide, methane emissions from industry, domestic gas use, sewers and landfills will also need to be drastically cut. Moreover, both CO2 and CH4 budgets will need measurement as the landscape changes, be it through restoration of peatland, increase in forest cover or change in agricultural land-use to growing biofuels. Whole-life greenhouse gas budgets of these changes are poorly known and urgently need to be quantified. Emission fluxes can be quantified by either eddy covariance or with mobile instrumentation to map emissions and model plumes. MIGGAS will do both. The instrumentation will be field deployable for short campaigns and the high frequency (10 Hz) measurements of methane and carbon dioxide coupled to a 3D sonic anemometer allows eddy covariance to be used to calculate fluxes. It is also deployable on mobile platforms (car or boat) for emission mapping. A portable methane and CO2 analyser can pinpoint exact locations of emissions and can be connected to a chamber for very local real time emission flux calculations. The RHUL team are very experienced in high precision measurements of methane isotopic ratios in air samples collected in the field and then analysed in the lab. Adding ability to carry out isotopic measurements in the field allows real time source apportionment, powerfully advancing specific source identification, for example where landfills, gas leaks and animal barns are closely juxtaposed. Linked to the proposal is the college's exciting promise of providing funds to develop a very advanced drone-mounted mobile sensing system using mid-infrared optics that will deliver much higher-precision than currently available sensors. This will create a world-best integrated system for locating, identifying and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is particularly poorly known, with large uncertainties in fluxes from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Globally, methane's rise since 2007 threatens the Paris Agreement (e.g. Nisbet et al., 2019, GBC). Emissions urgently need to be cut. Different sources are often co-located (e.g. shale gas extraction next to cattle feedlots) but identifiable via differences in isotopic composition and ethane:methane ratio, allowing accurate source apportionment. The instruments will be primarily used in the UK as the nation seeks "Net Zero", but MIGGAS will also be deployable overseas for field campaigns, with close colleagues in Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Kuwait. Topics to be addressed include: 1) better understanding of changing emissions in the UK - how much are landfill methane emissions declining and how large are methane emissions from rapidly growing numbers of biogas plants? 2) What are the methane and CO2 balances of new sustainable forests, or 3) fields of bioenergy crop, and 4) how does this depend on soil and plant type? 5) How are natural methane emissions from water bodies and peats changing in a warming climate? Ultimately we address the big question - how can the UK, and the world, achieve net zero carbon emissions and keep warming below 1.5 degrees C?
- NERC Reference:
- NE/T009268/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Capital
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Capital Call
This grant award has a total value of £273,000
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Equipment |
|---|
| £273,000 |
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