Investigating ambient ozone formation regimes in neighboring cities of shale plays in the Northeast United States using photochemical modeling and satellite retrievals

Chang, Chih-Yuan; Faust, Eric; Hou, Xiudan; Lee, Pius; Kim, Hyun Cheol; Hedquist, Brent C.; Liao, Kuo-Jen

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.06.058

Cited by 46 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…As noted in other studies, many counties within and adjacent to Appalachia are designated nonattainment or maintenance areas under the Clean Air Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and increasing emissions from shale activity contribute to and are projected to continue to contribute to regional noncompliance. 11,25 In isolation, most shale gas activities across the supply chain, including some natural gas electric generating units, do not constitute major sources under federal regulations, but in aggregate at the county-level may exceed thresholds.…”

Section: Air Quality Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

et al. 2019

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Natural gas has become the largest fuel source for electricity generation in the United States and accounts for a third of energy production and consumption. However, the environmental and socioeconomic impacts across the supply chain and over the boom-and-bust cycle have not been comprehensively characterized. To provide insight for long-term decision making for energy transitions, we estimate the cumulative impacts of the shale gas boom in the Appalachian basin from 2004 to 2016 on air quality, climate change, and employment. We find that air quality impacts (1200 to 4600 deaths; $23B +99%/−164%) and employment impacts (469,000 job-years ±30%; $21B ±30%) follow the boom-and-bust cycle, while climate impacts ($12B to $94B) persist for generations well beyond the period of natural gas activity. Employment effects concentrate in rural areas where production occurs. However, almost half of cumulative premature mortality due to air pollution is downwind of these areas, occurring in urban regions of the Northeast. The cumulative temperature impacts of methane and carbon dioxide over a 30-year time horizon are nearly equivalent, but over the long term, the cumulative climate impact is largely due to carbon dioxide. We estimate that a tax on production of $2 per thousand cubic foot (+172%/−76%) would compensate for cumulative climate and air quality externalities across the supply chain.

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Section: Air Quality Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

et al. 2019

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“…This work has been refined and extended to Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) products to characterize O 3 sensitivity over the USA. (Chang et al, ; Choi et al, ; Duncan et al, ) and East Asia (Jin & Holloway, ; Souri et al, ). The finer spatial resolution of OMI (up to 13 × 24 km 2 ) better captures the urban‐rural gradient of O 3 sensitivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating a Space‐Based Indicator of Surface Ozone‐NO_x‐VOC Sensitivity Over Midlatitude Source Regions and Application to Decadal Trends

et al. 2017

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Determining effective strategies for mitigating surface ozone (O3) pollution requires knowledge of the relative ambient concentrations of its precursors, NOx, and VOCs. The space‐based tropospheric column ratio of formaldehyde to NO2 (FNR) has been used as an indicator to identify NOx‐limited versus NOx‐saturated O3 formation regimes. Quantitative use of this indicator ratio is subject to three major uncertainties: (1) the split between NOx‐limited and NOx‐saturated conditions may shift in space and time, (2) the ratio of the vertically integrated column may not represent the near‐surface environment, and (3) satellite products contain errors. We use the GEOS‐Chem global chemical transport model to evaluate the quantitative utility of FNR observed from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument over three northern midlatitude source regions. We find that FNR in the model surface layer is a robust predictor of the simulated near‐surface O3 production regime. Extending this surface‐based predictor to a column‐based FNR requires accounting for differences in the HCHO and NO2 vertical profiles. We compare four combinations of two OMI HCHO and NO2 retrievals with modeled FNR. The spatial and temporal correlations between the modeled and satellite‐derived FNR vary with the choice of NO2 product, while the mean offset depends on the choice of HCHO product. Space‐based FNR indicates that the spring transition to NOx‐limited regimes has shifted at least a month earlier over major cities (e.g., New York, London, and Seoul) between 2005 and 2015. This increase in NOx sensitivity implies that NOx emission controls will improve O3 air quality more now than it would have a decade ago.

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“…Archibald et al (2018) modeled over the UK the potential impacts of VOC and NO x emissions related to future shale gas fracking activities there for 2013 and generally found increases in MDA8 across the country throughout the year with a maximum increase of 2.3 ppb in June. In addition to these studies, much of the literature on US shale gas has focused on O 3 , e.g., AACOG Natural Resources Department (2013, Chang et al (2016), Edwards et al (2014), Field et al (2015), Helmig et al (2014), Koss et al (2015), NC Division of Air Quality (2015), Olaguer (2012), Schade (2017), Schnell et al (2009). These works underline the value and need for studies that analyze how O 3 may be affected by oil and gas development.…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the impact of a potential shale gas industry in Germany and the United Kingdom on ozone with WRF-Chem

Weger

Lupaşcu

Cremonese

et al. 2019

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Germany and the United Kingdom have domestic shale gas reserves which they may exploit in the future to complement their national energy strategies. However gas production releases volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ), which through photochemical reaction form ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that can trigger adverse health effects e.g. on the respiratory system. This study explores the range of impacts of a potential shale gas industry in these two countries on local and regional ambient ozone. To this end, comprehensive emission scenarios are used as the basis for input to an onlinecoupled regional chemistry transport model (WRF-Chem). Here we simulate shale gas scenarios over summer (June, July, August) 2011, exploring the effects of varying VOC emissions, gas speciation, and concentration of NO x emissions over space and time, on ozone formation. An evaluation of the model setup is performed, which exhibited the model's ability to predict surface meteorological and chemical variables well compared with observations, and consistent with other studies. When different shale gas scenarios were employed, the results show a peak increase in maximum daily 8-hour average ozone from 3.7 to 28.3 μg m -3 . In addition, we find that shale gas emissions can force ozone exceedances at a considerable percentage of regulatory measurement stations locally (up to 21% in Germany and 35% in the United Kingdom) and in distant countries through long-range transport, and increase the cumulative healthrelated metric SOMO35 (maximum percent increase of ~28%) throughout the region. Findings indicate that VOC emissions are important for ozone enhancement, and to a lesser extent NO x , meaning that VOC regulation for a future European shale gas industry will be of especial importance to mitigate unfavorable health outcomes. Overall our findings demonstrate that shale gas production in Europe can worsen ozone air quality on both the local and regional scales.

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Investigating ambient ozone formation regimes in neighboring cities of shale plays in the Northeast United States using photochemical modeling and satellite retrievals

Cited by 46 publications

References 34 publications

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

Evaluating a Space‐Based Indicator of Surface Ozone‐NO_x‐VOC Sensitivity Over Midlatitude Source Regions and Application to Decadal Trends

Modeling the impact of a potential shale gas industry in Germany and the United Kingdom on ozone with WRF-Chem

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Investigating ambient ozone formation regimes in neighboring cities of shale plays in the Northeast United States using photochemical modeling and satellite retrievals

Cited by 46 publications

References 34 publications

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

Cumulative environmental and employment impacts of the shale gas boom

Evaluating a Space‐Based Indicator of Surface Ozone‐NOx‐VOC Sensitivity Over Midlatitude Source Regions and Application to Decadal Trends

Modeling the impact of a potential shale gas industry in Germany and the United Kingdom on ozone with WRF-Chem

Contact Info

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Evaluating a Space‐Based Indicator of Surface Ozone‐NO_x‐VOC Sensitivity Over Midlatitude Source Regions and Application to Decadal Trends