Hydrocarbon emissions characterization in the Colorado Front Range: A pilot study

Pétron, Gabrielle; Frost, G. J.; Miller, Benjamin R.; Hirsch, A.; Montzka, S. A.; Karion, A.; Trainer, M.; Sweeney, Colm; Andrews, A. E.; Miller, L.C.; Kofler, J.; Bar-Ilan, Amnon; Dlugokencky, E. J.; Patrick, Laura; Moore, Charles Thomas; Ryerson, Thomas B.; Siso, Carolina; Kolodzey, William; Lang, P. M.; Conway, T. J.; Novelli, P. C.; Masarie, K. A.; Hall, B. D.; Guenther, D.; Kitzis, Duane; Miller, J. B.; Welsh, D. C.; Wolfe, Dan; Neff, W. D.; Tans, Pieter P.

doi:10.1029/2011jd016360

Cited by 400 publications

(563 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…The diurnal patterns of benzene/ethylbenzene and toluene/ethylbenzene in this study (Fig. 9b,d) was opposite to that observed in Dallas, which was mainly influenced by vehicle emission (Qin et al, 2007). After 14:00 LT, the increasing of the ratios and aromatic concentrations were due to the weakening of photochemical activities.…”

Section: Ambient Ratios: Sources and Photochemical Removalcontrasting

confidence: 37%

One year monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from an oil-gas station in northwest China

Zheng

Kong

Xing

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. Oil and natural gas are important energy supply around the world. The exploring, drilling, transportation, and processing in oil-gas regions can release abundant volatile organic compounds (VOCs). To understand the atmospheric behaviors of VOCs in such region, the fifty-six VOCs designed as the photochemical precursors by the United State 15Environmental Protection Agency were continuously measured for an entire year (September 2014-August 2015) by a set of on-line monitor system at an oil-gas station in northwest China. The VOC concentrations in this study were 1-50 times higher than those measured in many other urban and industrial regions. The VOC compositions were also different from other studies with alkanes contributing up to 87.5% of the total VOCs in this study. According to the propylene-equivalent concentration and maximum incremental reactivity method, alkanes were identified as the most important VOC groups to the ozone 20 formation potential. The photochemical reaction, meteorological parameters (temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and wind speed) and boundary layer height were found to influence the temporal variations of VOCs at different time scales. The positive matrix factorization analysis showed that the natural gas, fuel evaporation, combustion sources, oil refining process, and asphalt contributed 62.6%, 21.5%, 10.9%, 3.8%, and 1.3%, respectively to the total VOCs on the annual average. Clear temporal variations differed from one source to another was observed, due to their differences in source emission strength and 25 the influence of meteorological parameters. Potential source contribution function and contribution weighted trajectory models based on backward trajectories indicated that five identified sources had similar geographic origins. Raster analysis based on CWT analysis indicated that the local emissions contributed 48.4%-74.6% to the VOCs. This research filled the gaps in understanding the VOCs in the oil-gas field region, where exhibited different source emission behaviors compared with the urban/industrial regions. 30

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Section: Ambient Ratios: Sources and Photochemical Removalcontrasting

confidence: 37%

One year monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from an oil-gas station in northwest China

Zheng

Kong

Xing

et al. 2017

Preprint

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“…As a result of these challenges, validation of VOC emission reports is only occasionally conducted. The alternative has been evaluations of VOC emissions using emission ratios in ambient air (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). In this paper, a unique methodology is shown that provides validation of VOC emission reports using a top-down approach, which allows emission rates for a large number of VOCs and chemical speciation profiles from each oil sands surface mining facility to be determined.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Differences between measured and reported volatile organic compound emissions from oil sands facilities in Alberta, Canada

Leithead

Moussa

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

174

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Large-scale oil production from oil sands deposits in Alberta, Canada has raised concerns about environmental impacts, such as the magnitude of air pollution emissions. This paper reports compound emission rates (E) for 69-89 nonbiogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for each of four surface mining facilities, determined with a top-down approach using aircraft measurements in the summer of 2013. The aggregate emission rate (aE) of the nonbiogenic VOCs ranged from 50 ± 14 to 70 ± 22 t/d depending on the facility. In comparison, equivalent VOC emission rates reported to the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) using accepted estimation methods were lower than the aE values by factors of 2.0 ± 0.6, 3.1 ± 1.1, 4.5 ± 1.5, and 4.1 ± 1.6 for the four facilities, indicating underestimation in the reported VOC emissions. For 11 of the combined 93 VOC species reported by all four facilities, the reported emission rate and E were similar; but for the other 82 species, the reported emission rate was lower than E. The median ratio of E to that reported for all species by a facility ranged from 4.5 to 375 depending on the facility. Moreover, between 9 and 53 VOCs, for which there are existing reporting requirements to the NPRI, were not included in the facility emission reports. The comparisons between the emission reports and measurementbased emission rates indicate that improvements to VOC emission estimation methods would enhance the accuracy and completeness of emission estimates and their applicability to environmental impact assessments of oil sands developments.volatile organic compounds | emissions | emission inventory validation | oil sands | aircraft measurements

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“…These studies also identified three possible mechanisms for explaining this relationship, and concluded that the most likely of these is subsurface migration from leaking gas wells. Other researchers have observed thermogenic and other subsurface-sourced methane in atmospheric concentrations high above background levels near conventional and unconventional gas development (4)(5)(6), suggesting that leaking wells may also contribute to fugitive methane and other associated gas emissions, with clear climatic and air quality consequences (7).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment and risk analysis of casing and cement impairment in oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, 2000–2012

Ingraffea¹,

Wells

Santoro³

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

218

156

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Casing and cement impairment in oil and gas wells can lead to methane migration into the atmosphere and/or into underground sources of drinking water. An analysis of 75,505 compliance reports for 41,381 conventional and unconventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania drilled from January 1, 2000-December 31, 2012, was performed with the objective of determining complete and accurate statistics of casing and cement impairment. Statewide data show a sixfold higher incidence of cement and/or casing issues for shale gas wells relative to conventional wells. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate risk of impairment based on existing data. The model identified both temporal and geographic differences in risk. For post-2009 drilled wells, risk of a cement/casing impairment is 1.57-fold [95% confidence interval (CI) (1.45, 1.67); P < 0.0001] higher in an unconventional gas well relative to a conventional well drilled within the same time period. Temporal differences between well types were also observed and may reflect more thorough inspections and greater emphasis on finding well leaks, more detailed note taking in the available inspection reports, or real changes in rates of structural integrity loss due to rushed development or other unknown factors. Unconventional gas wells in northeastern (NE) Pennsylvania are at a 2.7-fold higher risk relative to the conventional wells in the same area. The predicted cumulative risk for all wells (unconventional and conventional) in the NE region is 8.5-fold [95% CI (7.16, 10.18); P < 0.0001] greater than that of wells drilled in the rest of the state.shale oil and gas | casing integrity | cement integrity | onshore wells | wellbore integrity

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Hydrocarbon emissions characterization in the Colorado Front Range: A pilot study

Cited by 400 publications

References 29 publications

One year monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from an oil-gas station in northwest China

One year monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from an oil-gas station in northwest China

Differences between measured and reported volatile organic compound emissions from oil sands facilities in Alberta, Canada

Assessment and risk analysis of casing and cement impairment in oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, 2000–2012

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