MEthane goes MObile - MEasurements and MOdelling

Project Information

MEMO2

Grant agreement ID: 722479

DOI

10.3030/722479

Project closed

EC signature date 16 August 2016

Start date 1 March 2017

End date 28 February 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 361 290,84

EU contribution

€ 3 361 290,84

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MEMO2 (MEthane goes MObile - MEasurements and MOdelling)

Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2021-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) agreed to limit global warming “well below” 2°C and, if possible, below 1.5°C. Reaching this target requires massive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, far beyond the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

MEMO2 contributed to this goal with a focus on methane (CH4), one of Europe’s most important sources of energy and major contributor to Europe’s global warming impact. Europe’s CH4 emissions are not well quantified, but effective emission reduction can only be achieved if sources are properly constrained, and mitigation efforts are verified.

The main scientific goal of MEMO2, a European Training Network (MSCA-ITN-ETN) with more than 60 scientists from 15 countries, was to develop and apply innovative experimental and modelling tools, based on mobile analysers, state-of-the-art isotope techniques, and a hierarchy of models, including newly developed high-resolution dispersion models. MEMO2 aimed to identify and quantify CH4 emissions from local sources in Europe and use them to improve estimates at the European scale. These tools will enable the scientific and non-academic communities to improve the objective verification of CH4 emission reduction strategies for specific source sectors. As a training network, MEMO2 also educated by this a generation of “cross–thinking” scientists that will be able to effectively develop and use novel measurement and modelling tools in an interdisciplinary and intersectoral context.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

MEMO2 ran smoothly and successfully. The second period was dedicated to jointly collect and evaluate data, and publish them.
CH4 measurements within MEMO2 span the full range from high-precision flask samples for isotope analysis, to continuous time series using laser spectroscopy, and airborne measurements by vehicles, airplanes and drones, which allowed in-situ CH4 monitoring in all three dimensions. The modelling activities allowed the development of new modelling concepts, covering European, regional and local scales by such diverse techniques as inversion of Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Models and Large Eddy Simulations. Another benefit of the network was the opportunity to perform joint field campaigns and intercomparison campaigns such as CoMet and ROMEO.
Beside the joint campaigns, the ESRs monitored CH4 at several locations such as landfills, biogas plants, gas compressor stations, or farms, incl. the isotopic source signature, to derive CH4 emission rates. Next to these locations, several mobile city surveys were executed, e.g. in London, Utrecht, Hamburg, Paris or Bucharest. MEMO2 highlights are:

Urban CH4 emissions: We can detect and quantify CH4 leaks in cities at the street-level with mobile high precision analysers. Similar studies have been carried out in >10 EU cities and in collaboration with interested network operators those measurements are ready to be rolled out at larger scale.
Oil and gas production: We carried out a large study in the oil and gas production region in Romania (ROMEO), with aircraft, drones and vehicles. First results are published and help to improve the emission verification.
Coal mining: In collaboration with CoMet we quantified the CH4 emissions from the Upper Silesian coal mining area. The collaboration and its results contribute to the development of an independent and objective emission monitoring system
Modelling: Micro-scale plume modelling has been significantly improved. Based on the results we can advise on sampling strategies and recommend model specifications.
Model intercomparisons and error quantification: Error estimations and required precision to discriminate CH4 sources has been investigated and results will improve methodologies and long-term monitoring.
Isotopic data: These data are key to characterize and better understand globel CH4 variations. More than 800 source data in 8 European countries are public available now.

MEMO2 is actively disseminating results and network activities by using several platforms, such as the project website (https://h2020-memo2.eu) scientific conferences, and social media such as Research Gate (https://www.researchgate.net/project/MEMO2-MEthane-goes-MObile-MEsurements-and-MOdelling) Twitter (https://twitter.com/H2020_MEMO2) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13506528/) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/h2020_memo2/) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/methane.memo).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

MEMO2 created impact on different levels such as personal levels for the ESRs (career perspective and employability), local and network training levels and scientific level.

ESRs were introduced to a highly interdisciplinary training program and get acquainted with various technologies to identify CH4 emissions in the atmosphere (WP1), attribute emissions to various source categories (WP2) and quantify such emissions from the local to the European scale (WP3). All ESRs were involved in secondments to other project partners, which increased their professional knowledge, broadened their network and complementary skills. Blogging on their secondments on the project website (https://h2020-memo2.eu/category/blog/) enhanced both their writing skills and the visibility of the project towards the public.

On a scientific level, MEMO2 created impact as a project itself but also by each individual ESR project, i.a. by the high number of available new data sets and their quality. Isotopic data were carefully compared and linked them to common scale, produced detailed error estimations for parts of the modelling and prepared guidelines for harmonised measurements. Results lead to recommendations on sampling methodologies, strategies, and data evaluation.

Emission errors were quantified, and simulations demonstrate e.g. that high-frequency measurements of 13C and D are important to better constrain CH4 emission estimates. They clearly show the need of a precision of at least 1 ‰ for D analyses and 0.05 ‰ for 13C analyses to discriminate methane sources at most ICOS sites, which form the backbone of the European greenhouse gas monitoring infrastructure.

The MEMO2 activities allowed in-depth studies of CH4 emissions from various sources in Europe by using different platforms and methodologies. Since there is no or hardly any such data, MEMO2 made a significant contribution to improving the data situation and foster a better understanding of CH4 emissions from these sources. In this context particularly, the joint measurement campaigns have a high impact as they offered unique opportunities to not only collect data, but also to directly compare sampling and evaluation methodologies.

MEMO2 fosters the idea of open access as data, collected on the ICOS data portal, will be publicly available soon after the project has ended. The isotopic characterization of methane sources in Europe performed within MEMO2 is already gathered into an openly available database (Menoud et al. 2020, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3975543). The results represent a substantial new contribution to the existing isotope datasets and will lead to the development or improvement of mitigation strategies and recommendations to decrease CH4 emissions from distinct sources.

In conclusion based on results and general output, MEMO2 was a highly successful project. Not only from our perspective, but also in the perspective of the Research Executive Agency (REA), which declared MEMO2 official a “Success Story”.

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