
Determining the emission impact of area sources (biofilters, wastewater tanks) on air quality and the environment by classic measurement techniques (i.e. static hood sampling), is currently lacking in pertaining uniform and representative emission data by being restricted in sampling area, time and safety. This creates an extra hindrance when emission rates from such sources need to be determined by the fluxwindow method, which implies measuring emission concentrations up- and downwind along different horizontal and vertical profiles of the area source.
In an effort to improve on this matter, the possibility of using a drone equipped with an emission detection laboratory (OLFASCAN Flying Lab) to quantify emission concentrations and rates via the fluxwindow method from a sludge buffer tank was investigated. The OLFASCAN Flying Lab is equipped with several electrochemical sensors for performing air quality measurements and was attached to a DJI Matrice600 PRO RTK drone.