Fugitive emissions, defined as unintended or irregular leaks of gases and vapors, these are an important source of pollutants to the atmosphere, which is difficult to monitor and control. These sources are present in different sites, including megacities like São Paulo that are growing in size and economic activity. At the same time, there is a remarkable growth in concerns about the environmental issues associated with these activities. In a constantly changing world, with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs), among them methane (CH4) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), mitigation of atmospheric emission of these gases to contain global warming, make field campaigns in the metropolitan region of São Paulo very relevant. Optical remote sensing techniques as lidar can attend the need for real time and trustable information on fugitive emissions. The Cavity Ringdown Laser Spectroscopy (CRDS) technique was adopted because it is widely used in the detection of gas samples that absorb light at specific wavelengths and also for their ability to detect mole fractions up to the parts per trillion level. The Raman lidar system used includes a commercial laser pulsed Nd:YAG Quantel S.A., model CFR 200, with wavelengths of 355 nm, 353 nm and 396 nm, 120 mJ pulse power, with laser repetition rate of 20 Hz and pulse width of 20 s, with a spatial resolution of 7,5 m. The system includes an ethernet interface, used together with LabView software to control the measurement and readout of the acquired data. The mixing ratio of CH4 can be observed within the planetary boundary layer. The measured methane profiles correlate with the acquisitions made with the CRDS, however, an additional contribution of control data in which the Raman lines detect with high sensitivity.
This study presents an overview of the recently results obtained by a novel concept of a lidar to remotely monitor methane and volatile organic compound including aerosols and fugitive gas emissions from pipelines, waste disposal areas and tankages. The system works based on Raman and fluorescence scattering principles by emission of a 355 nm beam (3rd Nd:YAG harmonic) and detection of the wavelengths at 355 nm (elastic), 353 nm (oxygen + nitrogen rotational Raman) and 396 nm (methane vibrational Raman) and alternatively the system can be switched to a uorescence lidar based on a 32-channel PMT coupled to an spectrometer to be able to observe fluorescence scattering caused by VOC's and aerosols. This paper shows a summary of the results obtained in the preliminary campaigns, which were carried out under different conditions to be adopted as benchmark for the system performance regarding detection limits, calibration capabilities, and time vs range resolution, in order to optimize the system performance.
This paper reports the results of campaigns carried out with a scanning lidar system in an industrial area for monitoring the spatial distribution of atmospheric aerosol. The aim of the study was to verify the possibility of applying a lidar system to identify fixed sources of aerosol emission, as well as to monitor the dispersion of the emitted plume, and the ability of the system to evaluate pertinent properties of the suspended particles, such as particle number concentration and representative particle size.
The data collection was carried out with a scanning backscatter lidar system in the biaxial mode with a three-wavelength light source, based on a commercial Nd:YAG laser, operating at 355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm. The campaigns were carried out in an industrial site close to the city of Cubatao, Brazil, 23° 53’ S and 46° 25’ W, one of the largest industrial sites of the Country, comprising a steel plant, two fertilizer complexes, a cement plant and a petrochemical complex.
Backscattered light intensity plots were made from the primary data collected via 360-degree scans at 15 degree elevation. The collected data correspond to distances ranging from 200 m to 1500 m from the measurement location. The results indicate that the technique can provide valuable information on the spatial and temporal distribution of aerosol concentration in the area, which therefore can represent a valuable tool in source apportionment and to validate plume dispersion models.
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