Analysis of Oil and Gas Ethane and Methane Emissions in the Southcentral and Eastern United States Using Four Seasons of Continuous Aircraft Ethane Measurements

Barkley, Zachary R.; Davis, Kenneth J.; Feng, Sha; Cui, Yuyan Y.; Fried, Alan; Weibring, P.; Richter, Dirk; Walega, J. G.; Miller, Scott M.; Eckl, Maximilian; Roiger, Anke; Fiehn, Alina; Kostinek, Julian

doi:10.1029/2020jd034194

Title: Analysis of Oil and Gas Ethane and Methane Emissions in the Southcentral and Eastern United States Using Four Seasons of Continuous Aircraft Ethane Measurements

Journal Article · Wed May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd034194· OSTI ID:1987537

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Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
Institute for Atmospheric Physics (Germany)

In the last decade, much work has been done to better understand methane (CH₄) emissions from the oil and gas (O&G) industry in the United States. Ethane (C₂H₆), a gas that is co-emitted with thermogenic sources of CH₄, is emitted in the US predominantly by the O&G sector. Here, in this study, we perform an inverse analysis on 200 h of atmospheric boundary layer C₂H₆ measurements to estimate C₂H₆ emissions from the US O&G sector. Measurements were collected from 2017 to 2019 as part of the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT) America aircraft campaign and encompass much of the central and eastern United States. We find that for the fall, winter, and spring campaigns, C₂H₆ data consistently exceeds values that would be expected based on EPA O&G leak rate estimates by more than 50%. C₂H₆ observations from the summer 2019 data set show significantly lower C₂H₆ enhancements in the southcentral region that cannot be reconciled with data from the other three seasons, either due to complex meteorological conditions or a temporal shift in the emissions. Combining the fall, winter, and spring C₂H₆ posterior emissions estimate to an inventory of O&G CH₄ emissions, we estimate that O&G CH₄ emissions are larger than EPA inventory values by 48%–76%. Uncertainties in the gas composition data limit the accuracy of using C₂H₆ as a proxy for O&G CH₄ emissions. These limits could be resolved retroactively by increasing the availability of industry-collected gas composition data.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; NNX15AG76

OSTI ID:: 1987537

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-179442

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 126, Issue 10; ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Analysis of Oil and Gas Ethane and Methane Emissions in the Southcentral and Eastern United States Using Four Seasons of Continuous Aircraft Ethane Measurements

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