USE OF AUTOMATED SYSTEMS TO MEASURE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS FROM RESERVOIRS  IN MANITOBA AND QUEBEC, CANADA

Demarty, M.¹ , Bastien, J.¹ and  Tremblay, A.²

¹ : Environnement Illimité inc., Montréal, Québec (julie.bastien@envill.com, maud.demarty@envill.com)
² : Hydro-Québec Production, Direction Barrages et Environnement, Montréal, Québec (tremblay.Alain@hydro.qc.ca)

The growing concern to determine the contribution of freshwater reservoirs to the increase of GHGs in the atmosphere and the relevance of long term continuous measurements to ensure better comparison of energy production methods, for CO₂ credits evaluation and for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, has lead us to develop continuous GHG monitor. We have installed automated systems in 7 generating stations of  temperate and boreal reservoirs in Quebec and Manitoba, Canada. Continuous water pCO₂, pCH₄ and pO₂ measurements allowed us to estimate gas fluxes. Comparison of results obtained at Eastmain-1 either with the automated system, or from summertime and wintertime field campaign demonstrate that  continuous GHG monitor at a single sampling station provide representative and robust results for CO₂. These systems are very interesting for hydro facilities as they measure temporal variations of gas concentrations in reservoirs on long period of time for a minimum cost of operation.

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