Temporal variability largely explains top-down/bottom-up difference in methane emission estimates from a natural gas production region

Vaughn, Timothy L.; Bell, Clay S.; Pickering, Cody K.; Schwietzke, Stefan; Heath, Garvin A.; Pétron, Gabrielle; Zimmerle, Daniel J.; Schnell, Russell C.; Nummedal, Dag

doi:10.1073/pnas.1805687115

Title: Temporal variability largely explains top-down/bottom-up difference in methane emission estimates from a natural gas production region

Journal Article · Mon Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805687115· OSTI ID:1483064

^[1]; Bell, Clay S. ^[1]; Pickering, Cody K. ^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Pétron, Gabrielle ^[2]; Zimmerle, Daniel J. ^[1]; Schnell, Russell C. ^[4]; Nummedal, Dag ^[5]

Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis, Golden, CO (United States)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)

Here, this study spatially and temporally aligns top-down and bottom-up methane emission estimates for a natural gas production basin, using multiscale emission measurements and detailed activity data reporting. We show that episodic venting from manual liquid unloadings, which occur at a small fraction of natural gas well pads, drives a factor-of-two temporal variation in the basin-scale emission rate of a US dry shale gas play. The midafternoon peak emission rate aligns with the sampling time of all regional aircraft emission studies, which target well-mixed boundary layer conditions present in the afternoon. A mechanistic understanding of emission estimates derived from various methods is critical for unbiased emission verification and effective greenhouse gas emission mitigation. Our results demonstrate that direct comparison of emission estimates from methods covering widely different timescales can be misleading.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Colorado Energy Research Collaboratory; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Program Office; Southwestern Energy; XTO Energy; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1483064

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-6A20-70770

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 115, Issue 46; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 54 works

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A review of close-range and screening technologies for mitigating fugitive methane emissions in upstream oil and gas Fox, Thomas A.; Barchyn, Thomas E.; Risk, David Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0cc3	journal	April 2019
Forward Modeling and Optimization of Methane Emissions in the South Central United States Using Aircraft Transects Across Frontal Boundaries Barkley, Z. R.; Davis, K. J.; Feng, S. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl084495	journal	November 2019
Temporal Variations in Methane Emissions from an Unconventional Well Site Johnson, Derek; Heltzel, Robert; Oliver, Dakota ACS Omega, Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b03246	journal	February 2019
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03 NATURAL GAS
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Title: Temporal variability largely explains top-down/bottom-up difference in methane emission estimates from a natural gas production region

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