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EVALUATION OF THE ACCEPTABILITY OF NATURAL GAS AS A MITIGATING FUEL FOR UTILITY COMBUSTION SOURCES
Citation:
Bruklin, C., T. Nelson, AND B. Tilkicioglu. EVALUATION OF THE ACCEPTABILITY OF NATURAL GAS AS A MITIGATING FUEL FOR UTILITY COMBUSTION SOURCES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/D-91/175.
Description:
The paper gives preliminary findings of a joint EPA/Gas Research Institute study of methane (CH4) loss from the U.S. natural gas industry. he study, not scheduled for completion until 1992, is part of an effort to resolve the issue of CN4 emissions from natural gas production and distribution. arly estimates of the loss of CH4 from natural gas production were based on gas company records of "unaccounted for (UAF) gas," and ranged from 2 to 4% of the natural gas produced. owever, UAF gas was a bookkeeping adjustment and did not represent an estimate of CH4 lost to the atmosphere. H4 has been implicated as a significant greenhouse gas, perhaps second only to carbon dioxide (CO2). hile CH4 concentrations in the atmosphere are lower than those of CO2, its warming potential is thought to be from 10 to 140 times greater than that of CO2 on a mass basis. H4 is also considered to be a product of the production and transportation of natural gas to the consumer. If the losses of CH4 during natural gas production were large enough, they could greatly reduce or even negate the greenhouse benefits from switching to natural gas combustion.