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Title: Continued emissions of carbon tetrachloride from the United States nearly two decades after its phaseout for dispersive uses

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
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  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
  2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
  3. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  4. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of Miami, FL (United States)
  6. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Groningen (Netherlands)
  8. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  9. Atmosperic and Environmental Research, Lexington, MA (Untied States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

National-scale emissions of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) are derived based on inverse modeling of atmospheric observations at multiple sites across the United States from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's flask air sampling network. We estimate an annual average US emission of 4.0 (2.0-6.5) Gg CCl4 y-1 during 2008- 2012, which is almost two orders of magnitude larger than reported to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) (mean of 0.06 Gg y-1) but only 8% (3-22%) of global CCl4 emissions during these years. Emissive regions identified by the observations and consistently shown in all inversion results include the Gulf Coast states, the San Francisco Bay Area in California, and the Denver area in Colorado. Both the observation-derived emissions and the US EPA TRI identified Texas and Louisiana as the largest contributors, accounting for one- to two-thirds of the US national total CCl4 emission during 2008-2012. These results are qualitatively consistent with multiple aircraft and ship surveys conducted in earlier years, which suggested significant enhancements in atmospheric mole fractions measured near Houston and surrounding areas. Furthermore, the emission distribution derived for CCl4 throughout the United States is more consistent with the distribution of industrial activities included in the TRI than with the distribution of other potential CCl4 sources such as uncapped landfills or activities related to population density (e.g., use of chlorine-containing bleach).

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1471010
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 113, Issue 11; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (9)

Enhanced North American carbon uptake associated with El Niño journal June 2019
Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases book July 2017
Emissions of halocarbons from India inferred through atmospheric measurements journal January 2019
Intercomparison of atmospheric trace gas dispersion models: Barnett Shale case study journal January 2019
Continued Emissions of the Ozone‐Depleting Substance Carbon Tetrachloride From Eastern Asia journal October 2018
Role of ultrafast dissociation in the fragmentation of chlorinated methanes journal May 2018
Human Chemical Exposure from Background Emissions in the United States and the Implication for Quantifying Risks from Marginal Emission Increase journal November 2021
Toward resolving the budget discrepancy of ozone-depleting carbon tetrachloride (CCl4): an analysis of top-down emissions from China journal January 2018
Model Sensitivity Studies of the Decrease in Atmospheric Carbon Tetrachloride preprint August 2016

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