Improving consistency in methane emission quantification from the natural gas distribution systems across measurement devices

Tettenborn, Judith; Zavala-Araiza, Daniel; Stroeken, Daan; Maazallahi, Hossein; van der Veen, Carina; Hensen, Arjan; Velzeboer, Ilona; van den Bulk, Pim; Vogel, Felix; Gillespie, Lawson; Ars, Sebastien; France, James; Lowry, David; Fisher, Rebecca; Röckmann, Thomas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 14

Research article

|

31 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 31 Jul 2025

Improving consistency in methane emission quantification from the natural gas distribution systems across measurement devices

Judith Tettenborn, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Daan Stroeken, Hossein Maazallahi, Carina van der Veen, Arjan Hensen, Ilona Velzeboer, Pim van den Bulk, Felix Vogel, Lawson Gillespie, Sebastien Ars, James France, David Lowry, Rebecca Fisher, and Thomas Röckmann

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025-supplement

Data sets

Methane Controlled Release Experiments in Bedford (2019) James L. France et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/Q1NALJ

Methane Controlled Release Experiments in Bedford (2024) James L. France et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/6WEHES

Methane Controlled Release Experiments in Rotterdam (2022) Hossein Maazallahi et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/HD0PTF

Methane Controlled Release Experiment in Toronto (2021) Lawson D. Gillespie et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/YVNJN2

Methane Controlled Release Experiment in Utrecht (2022) Hossein Maazallahi et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/TSTKQA

Methane Controlled Release Experiment in Utrecht (2024) Judith Tettenborn et al. https://doi.org/10.34894/A9IT0K

Methane Controlled Release Experiments - Supplementary Data to Tettenborn et al. (2025) Judith Tettenborn https://doi.org/10.34894/OP0OFA

Model code and software

Controlled Release Experiments - CH4 Quantification Judith Tettenborn et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16503524

Short summary

Measurements of methane with vehicle-based sensors are an effective method to identify and quantify leaks from urban gas distribution systems. We deliberately released methane in different environments and calibrated the response of different methane analysers when they transected the plumes in a vehicle. We derived an improved statistical function for consistent emission estimations using different instruments. Repeated transects reduce the uncertainty in emission rate estimates.