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Title: Improved Mechanistic Understanding of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from Spatially Resolved Aircraft Measurements

Abstract

Divergence in recent oil and gas related methane emission estimates between aircraft studies (basin total for a midday window) and emissions inventories (annualized regional and national statistics) indicate the need for better understanding the experimental design, including temporal and spatial alignment and interpretation of results. In our aircraft-based methane emission estimates in a major U.S. shale gas basin resolved from west to east show (i) similar spatial distributions for 2 days, (ii) strong spatial correlations with reported NG production (R2 = 0.75) and active gas well pad count (R2 = 0.81), and (iii) 2× higher emissions in the western half (normalized by gas production) despite relatively homogeneous dry gas and well characteristics. Operator reported hourly activity data show that midday episodic emissions from manual liquid unloadings (a routine operation in this basin and elsewhere) could explain ~1/3 of the total emissions detected midday by the aircraft and ~2/3 of the west–east difference in emissions. The 22% emission difference between both days further emphasizes that episodic sources can substantially impact midday methane emissions and that aircraft may detect daily peak emissions rather than daily averages that are generally employed in emissions inventories. And while the aircraft approach is valid, quantitative, andmore » independent, this study sheds new light on the interpretation of previous basin scale aircraft studies, and provides an improved mechanistic understanding of oil and gas related methane emissions.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ; ; ; ; ; ; ORCiD logo; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1361561
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1372259
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC26-07NT42677
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Environmental Science and Technology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology; Journal ID: ISSN 0013-936X
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Schwietzke, Stefan, Pétron, Gabrielle, Conley, Stephen, Pickering, Cody, Mielke-Maday, Ingrid, Dlugokencky, Edward J., Tans, Pieter P., Vaughn, Tim, Bell, Clay, Zimmerle, Daniel, Wolter, Sonja, King, Clark W., White, Allen B., Coleman, Timothy, Bianco, Laura, and Schnell, Russell C. Improved Mechanistic Understanding of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from Spatially Resolved Aircraft Measurements. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b01810.
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Schwietzke, Stefan, Pétron, Gabrielle, Conley, Stephen, Pickering, Cody, Mielke-Maday, Ingrid, Dlugokencky, Edward J., Tans, Pieter P., Vaughn, Tim, Bell, Clay, Zimmerle, Daniel, Wolter, Sonja, King, Clark W., White, Allen B., Coleman, Timothy, Bianco, Laura, & Schnell, Russell C. Improved Mechanistic Understanding of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from Spatially Resolved Aircraft Measurements. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01810
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Schwietzke, Stefan, Pétron, Gabrielle, Conley, Stephen, Pickering, Cody, Mielke-Maday, Ingrid, Dlugokencky, Edward J., Tans, Pieter P., Vaughn, Tim, Bell, Clay, Zimmerle, Daniel, Wolter, Sonja, King, Clark W., White, Allen B., Coleman, Timothy, Bianco, Laura, and Schnell, Russell C. Fri . "Improved Mechanistic Understanding of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from Spatially Resolved Aircraft Measurements". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01810.
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@article{osti_1361561,
title = {Improved Mechanistic Understanding of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from Spatially Resolved Aircraft Measurements},
author = {Schwietzke, Stefan and Pétron, Gabrielle and Conley, Stephen and Pickering, Cody and Mielke-Maday, Ingrid and Dlugokencky, Edward J. and Tans, Pieter P. and Vaughn, Tim and Bell, Clay and Zimmerle, Daniel and Wolter, Sonja and King, Clark W. and White, Allen B. and Coleman, Timothy and Bianco, Laura and Schnell, Russell C.},
abstractNote = {Divergence in recent oil and gas related methane emission estimates between aircraft studies (basin total for a midday window) and emissions inventories (annualized regional and national statistics) indicate the need for better understanding the experimental design, including temporal and spatial alignment and interpretation of results. In our aircraft-based methane emission estimates in a major U.S. shale gas basin resolved from west to east show (i) similar spatial distributions for 2 days, (ii) strong spatial correlations with reported NG production (R2 = 0.75) and active gas well pad count (R2 = 0.81), and (iii) 2× higher emissions in the western half (normalized by gas production) despite relatively homogeneous dry gas and well characteristics. Operator reported hourly activity data show that midday episodic emissions from manual liquid unloadings (a routine operation in this basin and elsewhere) could explain ~1/3 of the total emissions detected midday by the aircraft and ~2/3 of the west–east difference in emissions. The 22% emission difference between both days further emphasizes that episodic sources can substantially impact midday methane emissions and that aircraft may detect daily peak emissions rather than daily averages that are generally employed in emissions inventories. And while the aircraft approach is valid, quantitative, and independent, this study sheds new light on the interpretation of previous basin scale aircraft studies, and provides an improved mechanistic understanding of oil and gas related methane emissions.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.est.7b01810},
journal = {Environmental Science and Technology},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01810
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Cited by: 55 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Overview of October 1, 2015 flight track (approximately 150 km west−east and 65 km north−south, black and line color-coded by CH4 mole fractions relative to background (ΔXCH4) along upwind and downwind transects). The arrows show 1 min average aircraft measured wind speed (mean 7.8 m/s) and direction (meanmore » 2° N). The October 2 flight includes a partial transect further south (35.1° latitude) in addition to a full transect at 35.15° latitude to demonstrate that potential downwind CH4 plumes from nearby well pads (−92.1° to −91.8° longitude) were negligible (Figure S2b and Figure S3). Local time indicates Central Daylight Time (UTC−5). Figure was produced using MATLAB.« less
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