Local-to-regional methane emissions from the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) quantified using UAV-based atmospheric measurements

Coal mining accounts for similar to 12 % of the total anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions worldwide. The Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB), Poland, where large quantities of CH4 are emitted to the atmosphere via ventilation shafts of underground hard coal (anthracite) mines, is one of the hot spots of methane emissions in Europe. However, coal bed CH4 emissions into the atmosphere are poorly characterized. As part of the carbon dioxide and CH4 mission 1.0 (CoMet 1.0) that took place in May-June 2018, we flew a recently developed active AirCore system aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to obtain CH4 and CO2 mole fractions 150-300 m downwind of five individual ventilation shafts in the USCB. In addition, we also measured delta C-13-CH4, delta H-2-CH4, ambient temperature, pressure, relative humidity, surface wind speed, and surface wind direction. We used 34 UAV flights and two different approaches (inverse Gaussian approach and mass balance approach) to quantify the emissions from individual shafts. The quantified emissions were compared to both annual and hourly inventory data and were used to derive the estimates of CH4 emissions in the USCB. We found a high correlation (R-2=0.7-0.9) between the quantified and hourly inventory data-based shaft-averaged CH4 emissions, which in principle would allow regional estimates of CH4 emissions to be derived by upscaling individual hourly inventory data of all shafts. Currently, such inventory data is available only for the five shafts we quantified. As an alternative, we have developed three upscaling approaches, i.e., by scaling the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) annual inventory, the quantified shaft-averaged emission rate, and the shaft-averaged emission rate, which are derived from the hourly emission inventory. These estimates are in the range of 256-383 ktCH4yr(-1) for the inverse Gaussian (IG) approach and 228-339 ktCH4yr(-1) for the mass balance (MB) approach. We have also estimated the total CO2 emissions from coal mining ventilation shafts based on the observed ratio of CH4/CO2 and found that the estimated regional CO2 emissions are not a major source of CO2 in the USCB. This study shows that the UAV-based active AirCore system can be a useful tool to quantify local to regional point source methane emissions.

Automated summary

Coal mining accounts for 12% of global anthropogenic methane emissions, and the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland is a hotspot for methane emissions in Europe. By using a UAV-based active AirCore system, methane concentrations were measured near ventilation shafts and showed a high correlation with hourly emission inventory data, making it possible to estimate regional methane emissions.