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Landfill Methane Reclamation and Flare Stack Monitoring
Challenge
To meet governmental regulations, landfill managers need to accurately monitor methane gas production, removal, venting, and burning.
The ability to efficiently measure and collect data is an issue not only of resource management but also of compliance and accountability to local, state, and federal organizations.
Knowledge of both methane flow and temperature at the flare stack can define when CH4 is being emitted to the atmosphere.
Because releasing methane could be a breach of the operator’s license, an operator could be fined or forced in the future to purchase “carbon credits.”
Solution
To accurately determine methane production levels and flow, a pressure transducer can detect both pressure and vacuum present within the methane production system.
Thermocouples connected to FlexPower Nodes are used to accurately detect the heat of an active flame to verify that the combustion of methane is ongoing. Logically, if the meter is indicating a methane flow and the temperature at the flare stack is high, then the operator is in compliance. If the meter indicates methane flow and the temperature is low, the operator is not in compliance.
The FlexPower Nodes connected to both the pressure transducer and the temperature sensors collect the data and wirelessly transmit the data back to a GatewayPro or host system for logging and analysis to comply with local, state, and federal regulations.
For difficult topologies, SureCross Data Radios can be used to transmit data over obstructions and extend the range of the DX80 sensor network.
Featured Products
Performance Series Industrial Wireless Gateways and Nodes
Create point-to-multi point networks that distribute I/O over large areas. Input and output types include discrete (dry contact, PNP/NPN), analog (0 to 10 V dc, 0 to 20 mA), temperature (thermocouple and RTD), and pulse counter.
