Use of an unmanned aircraft system to quantify NOsubix/i/sub emissions from a natural gas boiler

摘要

Aerial emission sampling of four natural gas boiler stack plumes wasconducted using an unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a lightweightsensor–sampling system (the “Kolibri”) for measurement of nitrogen oxide(NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbonmonoxide (CO). Flights (n = 22) ranged from 11 to 24 min in duration attwo different sites. The UAS was maneuvered into the plumes with the aid ofreal-time CO2 telemetry to the ground operators and, at one location, asecond UAS equipped with an infrared–visible camera. Concentrations werecollected and recorded at 1 Hz. The maximum CO2, CO, NO, and NO2concentrations in the plume measured were 10 000, 7, 27, and 1.5 ppm, respectively. Comparison of the NOx emissions between the stackcontinuous emission monitoring systems and the UAS–Kolibri for three boilersets showed an average of 5.6 % and 3.5 % relative differencefor the run-weighted and carbon-weighted average emissions, respectively. Toour knowledge, this is the first evidence of the accuracy performance ofUAS-based emission factors against a source of known strength.