Continuous quantification of methane emission reductions achieved by passive methane oxidation biosystems (PMOB)

在COP21峰会上，甲烷（CH4）经常被称为“唾手可得的果实”。在20年的基础上（在全球温度超过2°C之前的最后一个窗口期），甲烷的全球变暖潜势大约是二氧化碳的86倍。为了实现加拿大的碳中和目标，不仅必须大幅减少甲烷的排放，而且需要在整个经济中以尽可能低的成本迅速部署有前途的技术。我们的项目以科学减排能力和监测为基础，以实现雄心勃勃的温室气体减排目标。被动甲烷氧化生物系统（PMOBs）是一种高效、低建设、低运行和低维护成本的技术，可以快速采用。在IPCC第四次报告中，它们被确定为非常有希望的，这已经在无数已发表的研究中得到了证实。简而言之：通过生物过滤器的CH4被无处不在的细菌氧化成二氧化碳。在过去的16年里，PI已经设计、安装和监控了20个pmob。最终用户，如市政当局、垃圾填埋场经营者和农业废物管理人员，采用它们需要最后两个基本步骤：排放的持续量化和技术经济评估。这些是项目的主要目标，也是建立合作关系的原因。我们提出的实地规模实验将使连续计算CH4和碳质量平衡成为可能（从而确认我们根据抽查获得的出色的CH4减排效率），并评估PMOBs在不同经济部门的可行性。co-PI（新兴研究人员）的分析专业知识将是安装一个强大的监测系统的基础。该项目产生的证据与现场表面通量测量相结合，将提高PMOBs的可信度，减少其更广泛采用和部署的障碍，并为将CH4氧化纳入碳信用计划铺平道路。这将使一些最终用户受益，包括我们不同的合作伙伴关系，其中包括咨询公司、运营商和市政当局。

During the COP21 summit, methane (CH4) was often referred to as the "low hanging fruit". The CH4 global warming potential on a 20-year basis (our last window before exceeding a global temperature increase of 2° C) is approximately 86 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2). To achieve Canada's carbon neutrality objective, not only must CH4 emissions be reduced substantially, but promising technologies need to be deployed quickly, at the lowest possible cost, throughout the economy. Our project builds on scientific emission abatement capacity and monitoring to meet ambitious GHG mitigation goals. Passive methane oxidation biosystems (PMOBs) are effective, low construction, operation, and maintenance cost technologies that can be adopted quickly. They were identified in the 4th IPCC report as very promising, and this has been confirmed in myriad published studies. In a nutshell: CH4 passing through a biofilter is oxidized into CO2 by ubiquitous bacteria. The PI has designed, installed and monitored 20 PMOBs in the last 16 years. Their adoption by end users, such as municipalities, landfill operators, and agricultural waste managers, requires two final fundamental steps: continuous quantification of emissions and technical economical assessment. These are the main goals of the project and why the partnership was created. The field-scale experiment we are proposing will make it possible to calculate CH4 and carbon mass balances continuously (thereby confirming the excellent CH4 abatement efficiencies we have obtained based on spot checks) and assess the feasibility of PMOBs for different economic sectors. Analytical expertise by the co-PI (emerging researcher) will be fundamental in installing a robust monitoring system. Evidence generated by the project, combined with spot surface flux measurements, will lead to a greater level of credibility of PMOBs, reducing barriers to their wider adoption and deployment, and paving the road to inclusion of CH4 oxidation in carbon credit schemes. This would benefit several end users, including our diverse partnership, which includes consultancies, operators and municipalities.