[Stoves] Unexpected Rising Levels of Atmospheric Methane

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Julien

We have a few hundred tests from Yogyakarta that include CH4 measurements. In general CH4 tracks CO pretty closely at a fixed fraction (less than 100%).

For a biomass stove with decent performance, the CO/CO2 ratio will average under 3%. Methane is perhaps 1/4 or 1/8th of that. Let's go with 1/5th.

So that has methane at 0.6 of the CO2 emissions on a volumetric basis. Give it a 20 year CO2e of 20 (as discussed previously) it means 12% of the CO2.

I can't see how this turns into money or benefit for anything. Stoves produce far less methane than another use of biomass. I think it is safe to assume, as CDM does, that all biomass C ends up as CO2 within a short time (which it does).

Turning waste biomass into char and burying it (waste that would otherwise have been badly burned) has a net carbon draw down, for  while. But the effect is Lilliputian compared with planting trees in the Sahel.

Regards
Crispin
From: pienergy2008 at gmail.com
Sent: March 5, 2019 9:20 PM
To: stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org; winter.julien at gmail.com
Reply to: ndesai at alum.mit.edu
Cc: d.michael.shafer at gmail.com; crispinpigott at outlook.com
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Unexpected Rising Levels of Atmospheric Methane


Julian:

Thank you.

I agree in principle that changes in methane emissions should be recognized by stove testers.

However, a) methane measurements are inherently questionable even in labs, as Crispin has argued, b) field origins are below any de minimus standard I can imagine worth bothering about.

Until we get modern stoves accepted by tens of millions of people, I don't think obsessing over methane emission rates from biomass stoves is worth a dime.

Still, I would very much like to make it worth a dime per kgCO2e avoided - no cost-sharing with Gold Standard, and I will not license them the use of the standard.

Nikhil
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Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202 568 5831
Skype: nikhildesai888



On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 12:19 PM Julien Winter <winter.julien at gmail.com<mailto:winter.julien at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi all;

This week's podcast from the BBC's "Science in Action" talks about unexpected increases in methane, that may be coming from expanding wetlands in the tropics.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsnb<https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fprogrammes%2Fp002vsnb&data=02%7C01%7C%7C3b3f9218466d4211755108d6a1da5b5f%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636874356531955643&sdata=8SlaqUXPD5hHBVDCZe1UI3lbFV2U8lXIc6j49hjoFFA%3D&reserved=0>   "Rising Methane Levels Impact Climate Change"

We need to have methane included as a standard measure of cookstove emissions.

We should also be looking at the interaction between stoves and different types of fuels on the emissions of NOx

Cheers,
Julien

--
Julien Winter
Cobourg, ON, CANADA
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