Monitoring of diffuse biogas emissions from landfills using drone- based technology

When managing a landfill, one must account for the environmental aspects concerning uncaptured landfill gas (LFG), since this gas contains methane which is a powerful GHG, and also one must account for economic aspects since uncaptured LFG represents a loss of earnings, since this gas can be used to produce electrical energy. It is thus essential to have effective emission monitoring systems to check the efficiency of the LFG capturing systems implemented in the landfill. This paper illustrates the authors’ current state of research concerning the use of drone (a.k.a. unmanned aerial vehicle) technology used together with specific sensors as a means of monitoring methane emissions deriving from uncaptured emissions of LFG. Specifically, the technology, setup and approaches used to measure methane concentrations on the landfill surface and methane flux are illustrated. At present the research concerning methane concentration measurement via drone has reached a consolidated state and it has been extensively applied in landfills in Italy. The measurement of methane flux from a landfill surface represents ongoing research which needs to address in more detail aspects concerning the drone flight path, the type of sensors used for the monitoring and the wind measurements during the flight of the drone. This innovative use of drones and of specific sensors has proved to be a very useful complementary tool for landfill managers as a means of identifying hot spots which can then be further investigated with more traditional systems such as flux-boxes and held measuring devices.