Beef cattle methane emissions measured with tracer-ratio and inverse dispersion modelling techniques

Author(s)
Bai, Mei
Velazco, José I
Coates, Trevor W
Phillips, Frances A
Flesch, Thomas K
Hill, Julian
Mayer, David G
Tomkins, Nigel W
Hegarty, Roger S
Chen, Deli
Publication Date
2021-05-12
Abstract
<p>The development and validation of management practices to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock require accurate emission measurements. This study assessed the accuracy of a practical inverse dispersion modelling (IDM) technique to quantify methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) emitted from a small cattle herd (16 animals) confined to a 63 m × 60 m experimental pen. The IDM technique calculates emissions from the increase in the CH<sub>4</sub> concentration measured downwind of the animals. The measurements were conducted for 7 d. Two types of open-path (OP) gas sensors were used to measure concentration in the IDM calculation: a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (IDM-FTIR) or a CH<sub>4</sub> laser (IDM-Laser). The actual cattle emission rate was measured with a tracer-ratio technique using nitrous oxide (N<sub>2</sub>O) as the tracer gas. We found very good agreement between the two IDM emission estimates (308.1 ± 2.1 – mean ± SE – and 304.4 ± 8.0 g CH4 head<sup>−1</sup> d<sup>−1</sup> for the IDM-FTIR and IDM-Laser respectively) and the tracer-ratio measurements (301.9 ± 1.5 g CH4 head<sup>−1</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>). This study suggests that a practical IDM measurement approach can provide an accurate method of estimating cattle emissions.</p>
Citation
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 14(5), p. 3469-3479
ISSN
1867-8548
1867-1381
Link
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Title
Beef cattle methane emissions measured with tracer-ratio and inverse dispersion modelling techniques
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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