Evaluating Measurements of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Using a Precision Source - a Natural Gas Burner

Published

March 24, 2015

Author(s)

Rodney A. Bryant, Matthew F. Bundy, Ruowen Zong

Abstract

A natural gas burner has been used as a precise and accurate source for generating large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) to evaluate emissions measurements at near-industrial scale. Two methods for determining carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources are considered here: predicting emissions based on fuel consumption measurements - predicted emissions measurements, and direct measurement of emissions quantities in the flue gas - direct emissions measurements. Uncertainty for the predicted emissions measurement was estimated at less than 1%. Uncertainty estimates for the direct emissions measurement of carbon dioxide were on the order of +/-4%. The relative difference between the direct emissions measurements and the predicted emissions measurements was within the range of the measurement uncertainty, therefore demonstrating good agreement. The study demonstrates how independent methods are used to validate source emissions measurements, while also demonstrating how a fire research facility can be used as a precision test-bed to evaluate and improve carbon dioxide emissions measurements from stationary sources.

Citation

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

Volume

65

Issue

7

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2015.1031294

Keywords

greenhouse gas, stationary source, emissions, carbon dioxide, continuous emissions monitoring, fossil fuel combustion

Citation

Bryant, R. , Bundy, M. and Zong, R. (2015), Evaluating Measurements of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Using a Precision Source - a Natural Gas Burner, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, [online], https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2015.1031294 (Accessed October 20, 2025)