Quantification of methane emissions in Hamburg using a network of FTIR spectrometers and an inverse modeling approach

Abstract

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas, and anthropogenic CH4 emissions contribute significantly to global warming. In this study, the CH4 emissions of the second most populated city in Germany, Hamburg, were quantified with measurements from four solar-viewing Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers, mobile in situ measurements, and an inversion framework. For source type attribution, an isotope ratio mass spectrometer was deployed in the city. The urban district hosts an extensive industrial and port area in the south as well as a large conglomerate of residential areas north of the Elbe River. For emission modeling, the TNO GHGco (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research greenhouse gas and co-emitted species emission database) inventory was used as a prior for the inversion. In order to improve the inventory, two approaches were followed: (1) the addition of a large natural CH4 source, the Elbe River, which was previously not included in the inventory, and (2) mobile measurements were carried out to update the spatial distribution of emissions in the TNO GHGco gridded inventory and derive two updated versions of the inventory. The addition of the river emissions improved model performance, whereas the correction of the spatial distribution with mobile measurements did not have a significant effect on the total emission estimates for the campaign period. A comparison of the updated inventories with emission estimates from a Gaussian plume model (GPM) showed that the updated versions of the inventory match the GPM emissions estimates well in several cases, revealing the potential of mobile measurements to update the spatial distribution of emission inventories. The mobile measurement survey also revealed a large and, at the time of the study, unknown point source of thermogenic origin with a magnitude of 7.9 ± 5.3 kg h−1 located in a refinery. The isotopic measurements show strong indications that there is a large biogenic CH4 source in Hamburg that produced repeated enhancements of over 1 ppm which correlated with the rising tide of the river estuary. The CH4 emissions (anthropogenic and natural) of the city of Hamburg were quantified as 1600 ± 920 kg h−1, 900 ± 510 kg h−1 of which is of anthropogenic origin. This study reveals that mobile street-level measurements may miss the majority of total methane emissions, potentially due to sources located within buildings, including stoves and boilers operating on natural gas. Similarly, the CH4 enhancements recorded during the mobile survey from large-area sources, such as the Alster lakes, were too small to generate GPM emission estimates with confidence, but they could nevertheless influence the emission estimates based on total column measurements.