Characterizing Regional Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Liquids Unloading

Zaimes, George G.; Littlefield, James; Augustine, Dan; Cooney, Gregory

doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b05546

Characterizing Regional Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Liquids Unloading

Journal Article · Fri Mar 29 04:00:00 EDT 2019 · Environmental Science and Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b05546· OSTI ID:1542439

Zaimes, George G.; Littlefield, James; Augustine, Dan; Cooney, Gregory

A “bottom-up” probabilistic model was developed using engineering first-principles to quantify annualized throughput normalized methane emissions (TNME) from natural gas liquid unloading activities for 18 basins in the United States in 2016. For each basin, six discrete liquid-unloading scenarios are considered, consisting of combinations of well types (conventional and unconventional) and liquid-unloading systems (nonplunger, manual plunger lift, and automatic plunger lift). While previous work has advocated that operational malfunctions and abnormal process conditions explain the existence of super-emitters in the natural gas supply chain, this work finds that super-emitters can arise naturally due to variability in underlying component processes. Additionally, average cumulative methane emissions from liquids unloading, attributed to the natural gas supply chain, across all basins are ~4.8 times higher than those inferred from the 2016 Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).

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Research Organization:: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: FE

DOE Contract Number:: FE0025912

OSTI ID:: 1542439

Journal Information:: Environmental Science and Technology, Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 53; ISSN 0013-936X

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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