13 Jul 2022Amine chemistry modelling in ADMS for carbon capture and storage

CERC are a partner in this ground-breaking SCOPE project (Sustainable OPEration of post-combustion Capture plants) to accelerate large scale CO2-capture projects by providing critical data, methodologies and tools, essential for plant owners and regulators engaged in managing emissions and permitting processes.

A goal is to establish methods and rules for risk assessment of flue gas emissions from CO2-capture facilities. CERC’s role will be to further develop the chemistry model for amine degradation and formation of nitrosamines and nitramines, within the ADMS dispersion model, to allow for multiple sources, multiple amine species and uptake of amines into the aqueous phase. We will also assist Imperial College and other partners in testing and applying the modelling system to amine releases at test sites. This will result in improved prediction of the impacts of amine emissions from CO2-capture solvents for the permitting process.

Other key activities in the project comprise development of knowledge for determining volatile and aerosol-based emissions, including development of technology for minimising emissions, and the creation of tools for online emission measurements. These will be aided by pilot demonstration of emission mitigation technologies at six test sites and implementation of online emission measurement equipment. Another goal is to map the public concerns in diverse countries and regions in terms of the social, environmental, economic, and political impacts of amine-based Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) developments.

This work will be undertaken by an international consortium of key science, technology and policy experts, and stakeholders in Norway, UK, Netherlands, Germany, India and USA. In the UK, the project is led by the Imperial College Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering and funded by BEIS; the overall project leader is SINTEF of Norway.

6 Jul 2022EMIT 3.9 released

CERC are pleased to announce that EMIT 3.9 is now available from the CERC website user area.

EMIT is our comprehensive tool for compiling and editing emissions inventories, which allows simple, fast calculation and analysis of emissions to air. This update provides:

• a feature to export 3D grid emissions for ADMS-Urban
• road traffic emission factors from COPERT for pollutants not included in EMIT's EFT dataset: specifically CO₂, CH₄, Benzene, Butadiene, B[a]P, CO, N₂O, NH₃, SO₂, and VOC. The EFT dataset includes NO_x and PM factors.

All the updates are described in detail in the What's New? guide. The update itself can be downloaded from the CERC website user area. The CERC website user area is open to our model users with a valid support contract. You can register for a username and password to access the user area online here.

For further information on this release or any CERC products please email us.

16 Jun 2022Calculation of the heat impacts of a biogas flare

The CERC consultancy team recently completed a heat impact assessment for an enclosed biogas flare using ADMS 5. We assessed the worst case heat impact of the proposed flare on adjacent site buildings. The results informed the choice of a safe combustion chamber height for the flare installation.

The flare source characteristics were based on typical biogas compositions for minimum and maximum methane contents, a range of combustion conditions, and sensitivity for stack downwash assumptions.

ADMS 5 includes a temperature and humidity output option. The plume temperature output from this model option was used to calculate the convective heat impact. The first figure shows plume centreline temperature with downwind distance. The similar temperature drop-offs with distance for all flare source scenarios highlighted that plume height is expected to have the biggest effect on heat impact at nearby buildings.

We used standard fire safety methods to calculate the radiative heat impact. The second figure shows the dependence of relative combustion chamber height on radiative heat impact at the top of a building wall facing the flare chamber, the differences in heat impact are most significant at locations close to the flare.

26 May 20222022 ADMS User Group Meetings to be held in Birmingham, 16-17 November

We are pleased to announce that the 2022 User Group Meetings will be held in person at IET Birmingham: Austin Court, on the 16th and 17th of November.

• ADMS 6 User Group Meeting: Wednesday 16th November
• ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads User Group Meeting: Thursday 17th November

These meetings will include the usual mix of presentations by CERC staff and software users and are the ideal opportunity to hear the latest news and advice on new model features. Users with a valid support contract are entitled to a number of free or reduced-rate delegate places depending on the type of licence held.

More details will be published later in the year; registration will open online soon.

20 May 2022Can I use NWP met data for dispersion modelling?

CERC has been commissioned to carry out an investigation into the use of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) met data in atmospheric dispersion modelling. CERC's consultancy and scientific research teams will focus on modelling carried out for planning and permitting under EPR, whilst the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will target probabilistic accident consequence assessments. The project will provide important evidence for determining which NWP data are most appropriate for dispersion modelling and how complex terrain affects this.

To date, CERC has carried out a review of NWP models and their associated datasets. For selected datasets, we will compare meteorological parameters at a range of receptor locations over flat and complex terrain, including near coastlines.

CERC will carry out comparison studies for regulatory atmospheric dispersion modelling by configuring ADMS and AERMOD to represent different scenarios, using the selected NWP met datasets as input. The aim is to examine the extent to which more finely resolved NWP met data may result in dispersion modelling predictions that better reflect meteorological conditions at the dispersion site.

Where local terrain modelling and the NWP model take account of a coincident range of spatial scales, the impacts of terrain on flow, and hence dispersion, may be double counted. We will carry out an investigation to quantify the magnitude of this effect on modelled concentrations.

UKHSA will investigate the use of NWP data in probabilistic accident consequence assessments, using the PACE suite of models and the Met Office NAME model.

The work is funded by the UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee (ADMLC). CERC have previously led or contributed to ADMLC studies of near-field dispersion, non-point source dispersion, dispersion model sensitivity to source term parameters, urban dispersion and odour modelling. The reports for these studies and those by other authors on various topics remain freely available.

Credit: figure taken from NOAA, Public Domain