Citation:

Thoma, E. Fugitive Sources and Fenceline Monitoring - Next generation Emission Measurements (NGEM) - ACE 2.3.4. Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Air, Climate, and Energy Subcommittee (ACE SC) for the Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) Research Program, Durham, NC, October 12 - 14, 2021.

Impact/Purpose:

Many traditional point and mobile sources of air pollution have a known emission origin (e.g. stack, vent, or tailpipe) with predictable temporal profiles. Accurate source emissions test data and engineering models (e.g., to derive fuel-based emission factors) improve the characterization of these emissions, leading to well-developed inventories. Robust emissions knowledge enables credible decision-making regarding source management issues (e.g., NAAQS/SIP development, compliance, permitting) by EPA, states, local regulators, and tribes. Using established air quality models, the potential public health impacts of well-characterized air pollutant sources can be confidently understood and communicated to near-source populations. However, some types of air pollution sources have much higher uncertainty in both emissions and impacts because they are difficult to measure and model and can exhibit significant stochastic behavior. Refineries, chemical plants, oil and gas production sites, waste facilities, and other industrial/commercial operations can emit air pollutants from complex sources such as fugitive equipment leaks, waste ponds and sewers, unconfined operations, process startups/malfunctions, and improperly controlled systems. Unlike traditional sources, this category of emissions can be spatially distributed and temporally variable or randomly occurring, with a source’s location or even its existence sometimes unknown. In many cases, emissions from these sources can be profoundly affected by atmospheric conditions, creating complicated near-source dynamics. A key to achieving better understanding and management of these “stochastic industrial sources (SISs)” lies in the development of new measurement approaches that can help identify and characterize emissions, advance knowledge of impacts, and enable efficacious mitigation strategies. These efforts are executed under the Next Generation Emissions Measurement (NGEM) program under Output AE2.3.

Description:

Short presentation titled "Fugitive Sources and Fenceline Monitoring - Next generation Emission Measurements (NGEM) - ACE 2.3.4" to support the "Meet the Scientists" Session of  the U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD), Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) Air, Climate, and Energy Subcommittee (ACE SC) for the Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) Research Program

Record Details: