ABSTRACT
Ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) have been under extensive examination by the scientic community and policy makers in recent history. e three GHGs that have been subject to the most scrutiny are carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide
(N2O), and methane (CH4). Once present in the atmosphere, CO2, N2O, and CH4 can contribute to the greenhouse eect, with N2O and CH4 both found to be more ecient at trapping infrared radiation (heat) in comparison to CO2. Specically, CH4 has 25 times and N2O has 298 times greater atmospheric heating potential over 100 years in comparison to CO2 [26]. From
36.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................437 36.2 Emission and Measurement of Fugitive Nitrous Oxide and Methane from
36.5 Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................... 445 References ............................................................................................................................................ 446
Preface e emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) has gained a great deal of interest from scientists, policy makers, and the general public in recent history. Two GHGs that have come under increasing examination are nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). N2O and CH4 are both known to be signicant contributors to the greenhouse eect, at a level higher than that of carbon dioxide (CO2). Not only can N2O and CH4 emissions be generated in industrial and agricultural systems, but also fugitive emissions of N2O and CH4 can occur in wastewater treatment processes. e magnitude and temporal variation of these fugitive emissions have been measured in investigations performed at numerous wastewater treatment systems using a variety of analysis techniques. is chapter provides a literature review summarizing how these investigations were performed and their most signicant outcomes. In addition, recommendations are made on how this research can be developed to better understand wastewater-based GHG production, how to capture and reuse GHG emissions onsite, and how to improve the accuracy of N2O and CH4 measurements made at both large-scale (centralized) and small-scale (decentralized) wastewater treatment plants in order to deliver better GHG footprint reporting data for water management authorities.
