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Detection and quantification of methane and VOC emissions from oil and gas production operations using remote measurements, Interim report
Citation:
THOMA, E. D., B. C. SQUIER, A. Eisele, M. C. Miller, J. M. DeWees, R. SEGALL, M. Amin, AND M. MODRAK. Detection and quantification of methane and VOC emissions from oil and gas production operations using remote measurements, Interim report. In Proceedings, 104th Annual Conference of the Air & Waste Management Association, Orlando, FL, June 21 - 24, 2011. AWMA, Pittsburgh, PA, Paper A-58, 6 p., (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
symposium paper
Description:
Improved understanding of air pollutant emissions from oil and gas production operations is needed. With a steadily increasing number of production sources, the impact of emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on regional ozone is potentially significant. As the separation distance of potential sources from nearby populations decreases, the exposure risk for hazardous air pollutant emissions must be better understood. Improved knowledge of greenhouse gas emissions from this sector is also of growing national importance. Emissions estimates from oil and gas production activities are complicated by the variety of equipment designs and configurations, differences in maintenance states, and variable product composition. Since leak survey and component-level emission measurements require site access and are somewhat burdensome, cost-effective approaches to locate and assess emissions using off-site observations are attractive from both a source understanding and routine inspection perspective. To improve the knowledge of air pollutant emissions and mitigation options for this sector, the U.S. EPA is developing a mobile assessment approach that allows for drive-by inspection of potential sources from remote vantage points. The technique is a subset of EPA's Geospatial Measurement of Air Pollution (GMAP) program which uses fast-response instruments and a precise global positioning system in a mobile platform to map air pollution patterns in areas around sources. The GMAP Remote Emission Quantification, Direct Assessment (REQ-DA) technique utilizes a sensitive, high time resolution methane instrument and advanced wind measurements to locate and measure emissions of a primary surrogate gas and estimate emissions of other compounds of interest through SUMMA canister ratio calculations. This June 2011 interim report will discuss progress on developing this new measurement method and will present preliminary results from the 2010 pilot studies in Greeley, CO and Fort Worth, TX.
