Methane and hydrogen sulfide emissions from abandoned, active, and marginally producing oil and gas wells in Ontario, Canada

Hachem, Khalil El; Kang, Mary

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153491

Cited by 32 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…H 2 S concentrations ranging from few ppms to percents are found in crude oil and natural gas (NG) reservoirs [4] . A recent study on releases of methane (CH 4 ) and H 2 S from active, abandoned and marginally producing oil and gas wells in Ontario (Canada), classifies these emissions as major risks for human and ecosystem health [5] . In addition, leakages from NG transmission pipelines systems typically occur.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of H2S QEPAS detection in methane-based gas leaks dispersed into environment

et al. 2023

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of H2S QEPAS detection in methane-based gas leaks dispersed into environment

et al. 2023

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“…natural attenuation processes at contaminated sites or the environmental impact of abandoned landfills on sensitive receptors (Cardellini et al 2003;Heggie and Stavropoulos 2018;Jovanov et al 2018;Scheutz and Kjeldsen 2019). Furthermore, fugitive emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells might be an important pathway for gases from subsurface sources and gas-flux measurements are essential to evaluate their contribution to the global gas exchange processes (Boothroyd et al 2016;El Hachem and Kang 2022;Kang et al 2014;Levintal et al 2020;Neeper 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A gas-flow funnel system to quantify advective gas emission rates from the subsurface

Lübben

Leven

2022

Environ Earth Sci

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The estimation of greenhouse gas emission rates from the subsurface into the atmosphere is an important part of climate-related research activities and associated efforts concerning the global carbon cycle. For the direct quantification of gas emission rates from the subsurface to the atmosphere a large variety of gas detection and flux quantification techniques exists. With the goal of measuring advective CO2 gas exhalations circumventing limitations of available systems such as e.g. accumulation-chamber systems or eddy-flux covariance methods, we developed a simple, robust, and low-cost gas-flow funnel system. The device allows for the continuous measurement of mass flow rates with a free, unrestricted gas flow from advectively dominated gas exhalation spots. For the design of the gas-flow funnel we used custom-made, though easy-to-produce components, and sensors that are typically already available when working at such sites. Our general design can easily be applied at sites with focused, advectively driven gas exhalation like volcanic areas, shale-gas seeps, landfills, and open boreholes. For the proof-of-concept we tested the system during three field campaigns at a site with natural CO2-bound emissions associated with a geologic fault in southwestern Germany. The measurements showed to be comparable and repeatable throughout the three campaigns, and are consistent with findings from other field sites with comparable CO2 exhalations.

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“…While these data are important for validating greenhouse gas inventories and quantifying emissions from super-emitting methane sources (Brandt et al, 2016;Ravikumar et al, 2017), emissions data at the component level are also needed to construct actionable mitigation strategies. Many of the component level sources we consider such as manholes, livestock, abandoned oil and gas wells, and NG pipeline leaks have all been shown to be significant methane sources at municipal, provincial/state/territorial, and national levels (Williams et al, 2022(Williams et al, , 2020el Hachem et al, 2022;Seiler et al, 1983;Kang et al, 2016;Hendrick et al, 2016). These sources are all characterized by low methane emissions rates below 100 g/hour range on average, which are challenging to measure using indirect methods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As an alternative, the static chamber methodology is a direct methane measurement method (Riddick et al, 2022;Pihlatie et al, 2013) traditionally used in the measurement of methane and other trace gas emissions emissions from soils (Conen et al, 1998;Raich et al, 1990;Smith et al, 2003). In recent years, the static chamber method has been applied in a wide range of settings such as the quantification of methane emissions from oil and gas wells (Lebel et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2020;Kang et al, 2014;el Hachem et al, 2022;Townsend-Small et al, 2016Saint-Vincent et al, 2020;Riddick et al, 2019), manholes (Fries et al, 2018;Williams et al, 2022), landfill vents and observation wells (Williams et al, 2022), and natural gas (NG) distribution infrastructure (Williams et al, 2022;Lamb et al, 2016Lamb et al, , 2015. All of these sources vary in terms of their leakage properties and structural complexity with regards to the installation of chambers over leaking components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled release testing of the static chamber methodology for direct measurements of methane emissions

Williams

Hachem

Kang

2023

Preprint

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Abstract. Direct measurements of methane emissions at the component level provide the level of detail necessary for developing actionable mitigation strategies. As such, there is a need to understand the magnitude of component level methane emission sources and test methane quantification methods that can capture methane emissions from component level sources. The static chamber method is a direct measurement technique that is being applied to measure large and complex methane sources such as oil and gas infrastructure. In this work we compile component level methane emission factors from the IPCC emission factor database to understand the magnitude of component level methane flowrates, review the tested flowrates and measurement techniques from 38 controlled release experiments, and perform 64 controlled release testing of static chambers methodology with mass flowrates of 1.02, 10.2, 102, and 512 grams of methane per hour (g/hour). We vary the leak properties, chamber shape, chamber size, and usage of fans to evaluate how these factors affect the accuracy of the static chamber method. We find that 99 % of component level methane emission rates from the IPCC emission factor database are below 100 g/hour, and that 76 % of previously-available controlled release experiments did not test for methane mass flowrates below 100 g/hour. We find that the static chamber method quantified methane flowrates with an overall accuracy of ±14 %, and that optimal chamber configurations (i.e., chamber shape, volume, usage of fans) can improve accuracy to below ±5 %. We find that smaller chambers (<20 L) performed better than larger volume chambers (>20 L), regardless of the shape of chamber or usage of fans. However, we found that the usage of fans can substantially increase the accuracy of larger chambers, especially at higher mass flowrates of methane (>100 g/hour). Overall, our findings can be used to engineer static chamber systems for future direct measurement campaigns targeting a wide range of sources, including landfills, manholes, and oil and natural gas infrastructure.

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Methane and hydrogen sulfide emissions from abandoned, active, and marginally producing oil and gas wells in Ontario, Canada

Cited by 32 publications

References 30 publications

Characterization of H2S QEPAS detection in methane-based gas leaks dispersed into environment

Characterization of H2S QEPAS detection in methane-based gas leaks dispersed into environment

A gas-flow funnel system to quantify advective gas emission rates from the subsurface

Controlled release testing of the static chamber methodology for direct measurements of methane emissions

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