Flow rate and source reservoir identification from airborne chemical sampling of the uncontrolled Elgin platform gas release

Lee, James; Mobbs, Stephen; Wellpott, Axel; Allen, Grant; Bauguitte, Stéphane; Burton, Ralph; Camilli, Richard; Coe, Hugh; Fisher, Rebecca E.; France, James L.; Gallagher, Martin; Hopkins, James R.; Lanoisellé, M.; Lewis, Alastair C.; Lowry, David; Nisbet, E. G.; Purvis, R. M.; O’Shea, Sebastian; Pyle, J. A.; Ryerson, Thomas B.

doi:10.5194/amt-11-1725-2018

Cited by 17 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Photo: Mathias Lanoisellé (RHUL group). (lower right) 30 March onboard CH 4 plot for measurements 5 nautical miles (9.26 km) downwind of the leak; peaks are for measurements at different altitudes—from left 37, 153, and 233 m (see Lee, Mobbs, et al, ). (upper right) Keeling plot of air samples from Elgin methane plume.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Nisbet

Fisher

Lowry

et al. 2020

Reviews of Geophysics

235

131

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The atmospheric methane burden is increasing rapidly, contrary to pathways compatible with the goals of the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement. Urgent action is required to bring methane back to a pathway more in line with the Paris goals. Emission reduction from “tractable” (easier to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as the fossil fuel industries and landfills is being much facilitated by technical advances in the past decade, which have radically improved our ability to locate, identify, quantify, and reduce emissions. Measures to reduce emissions from “intractable” (harder to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as agriculture and biomass burning have received less attention and are also becoming more feasible, including removal from elevated‐methane ambient air near to sources. The wider effort to use microbiological and dietary intervention to reduce emissions from cattle (and humans) is not addressed in detail in this essentially geophysical review. Though they cannot replace the need to reach “net‐zero” emissions of CO2, significant reductions in the methane burden will ease the timescales needed to reach required CO2 reduction targets for any particular future temperature limit. There is no single magic bullet, but implementation of a wide array of mitigation and emission reduction strategies could substantially cut the global methane burden, at a cost that is relatively low compared to the parallel and necessary measures to reduce CO2, and thereby reduce the atmospheric methane burden back toward pathways consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2σ error: geometric mean regression). Measurements of CH 4 and δ 13 C CH4 at RHUL(Lee, Mobbs, et al, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Nisbet

Fisher

Lowry

et al. 2020

Reviews of Geophysics

235

131

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“…WAS has previously been successfully deployed on the ground and from aircraft to complement real-time measurements and to identify sources (e.g. Tiwari et al, 2010;Breton et al, 2017;Aruffo et al, 2014;Warneke et al, 2013;Cain et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2018). Tiwari et al (2010) reported high concentrations of ethane, propane and n-butane in Yokohama, Japan, which they attributed to fugitive emissions from petroleum refining and evaporation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…diameter stainless-steel sample line to an all-stainless-steel assembly metal bellows pump (Senior Aerospace, USA) which draws air from the port-side sampling manifold and pressurised air into 3 L canisters (to a maximum pressure of 3.25 bar giving a useable analysis volume of up to 9 L). The collection time of ∼ 20 s equates to a smoothed average VOC concentration over ∼ 2 km (Lee et al, 2018). The WAS canisters were analysed by withdrawing and drying 700 mL samples of air using a glass condensation finger held at −40 • C. These samples were preconcentrated using a Markes UNITY 2 pre-concentrator (fitted with an ozone precursor adsorbent trap) and CIA Advantage autosampler (Markes International Ltd) and then trans-ferred to the gas chromatograph (GC) oven for analysis as described by Hopkins et al (2011).…”

Section: Trace Gas Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Megacity and local contributions to regional air pollution: an aircraft case study over London

et al. 2020

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Abstract. In July 2017 three research flights circumnavigating the megacity of London were conducted as a part of the STANCO training school for students and early career researchers organised by EUFAR (European Facility for Airborne Research). Measurements were made from the UK's Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146-301 atmospheric research aircraft with the aim to sample, characterise and quantify the impact of megacity outflow pollution on air quality in the surrounding region. Conditions were extremely favourable for airborne measurements, and all three flights were able to observe clear pollution events along the flight path. A small change in wind direction provided sufficiently different air mass origins over the 2 d such that a distinct pollution plume from London, attributable marine emissions and a double-peaked dispersed area of pollution resulting from a combination of local and transported emissions were measured. We were able to analyse the effect of London emissions on air quality in the wider region and the extent to which local sources contribute to pollution events. The background air upwind of London was relatively clean during both days; concentrations of CO were 88–95 ppbv, total (measured) volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were 1.6–1.8 ppbv and NOx was 0.7–0.8 ppbv. Downwind of London, we encountered elevations in all species with CO>100 ppbv, VOCs 2.8–3.8 ppbv, CH4>2080 ppbv and NOx>4 ppbv, and peak concentrations in individual pollution events were higher still. Levels of O3 were inversely correlated with NOx during the first flight, with O3 concentrations of 37 ppbv upwind falling to ∼26 ppbv in the well-defined London plume. Total pollutant fluxes from London were estimated through a vertical plane downwind of the city. Our calculated CO2 fluxes are within the combined uncertainty of those estimated previously, but there was a greater disparity in our estimates of CH4 and CO. On the second day, winds were lighter and downwind O3 concentrations were elevated to ∼39–43 ppbv (from ∼32 to 35 ppbv upwind), reflecting the contribution of more aged pollution to the regional background. Elevations in pollutant concentrations were dispersed over a wider area than the first day, although we also encountered a number of clear transient enhancements from local sources. This series of flights demonstrated that even in a region of megacity outflow, such as the south-east of the UK, local fresh emissions and more distant UK sources of pollution can all contribute substantially to pollution events. In the highly complex atmosphere around a megacity where a high background level of pollution mixes with a variety of local sources at a range of spatial and temporal scales and atmospheric dynamics are further complicated by the urban heat island, the use of pollutant ratios to track and determine the ageing of air masses may not be valid. The individual sources must therefore all be well-characterised and constrained to understand air quality around megacities such as London. Research aircraft offer that capability through targeted sampling of specific sources and longitudinal studies monitoring trends in emission strength and profiles over time.

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“…CH 4 and CO 2 mole fractions were measured by a fast 10 Hz G2311-f Picarro (France et al, 2020) on the Twin Otter (precision at 5 sec intervals of <0.5 ppb for CH 4 ) and a Los Gatos Research Fast Greenhouse Gas Analyzer (Lee et al, 2018) on the FAAM aircraft (FGGA, precision of <2 ppb for CH 4 ). Full details of the measurement principles and the implementation of the instrument on board the aircraft, including an assessment of the instrument performance are presented elsewhere (Cain et al, 2017;O'Shea et al, 2013).…”

Section: Ancillary Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speciation of VOC emissions related to offshore North Sea oil and gas production

Wilde¹,

Dominutti²,

Andrews³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The North Sea is Europe's key oil and gas (O&G) basin with the output currently meeting 3–4 % of global oil supply. Despite this, there are few observational constraints on the nature of atmospheric emissions from this region, with most information derived from bottom-up inventory estimates. This study reports on airborne measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from O&G producing regions in the North Sea. VOC source emission signatures for the primary extraction products from offshore fields (oil, gas, condensate, mixed) were determined in four geographic regions. Measured iso-pentane to n-pentane (iC5 / nC5) ratios were 0.89–1.24 for all regions, used as a confirmatory indicator of O&G activities. Light alkanes (ethane, propane, butane, pentane) were the dominant species emitted in all four regions, however total OH reactivity was dominated by unsaturated species, such as 1,3-butadiene, despite their relatively low abundance. Benzene to toluene ratios indicated the influence of possible terrestrial combustion sources of emissions in the southern, gas-producing region of the North Sea, seen only during south or south-westerly wind episodes. However, all other regions showed a characteristic signature of O&G operations. Correlations between ethane (C2H6) and methane (CH4), confirmed O&G production to be the primary CH4 source. The enhancement ratio (ΔC2H6 / ΔCH4) ranged between 0.03–0.18, indicating a spatial dependence on emissions with both wet and dry CH4 emission sources. The excess mole fraction demonstrated that deepwater oil extraction resulted in a greater proportion of emissions of higher carbon number alkanes relative to CH4, whereas gas extraction, typically from shallow waters, resulted in a less complex mix of emissions dominated by CH4. The VOC source profiles measured were similar to those in the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) for oil production, with consistency between the molar ratios of light alkanes to propane. The largest discrepancies between observations and the inventory were for mono-aromatic compounds, highlighting that these species are not currently fully captured in the inventory. These results demonstrate the applicability of VOC measurements to distinguish unique sources within the O&G sector and give an overview of VOC speciation over the North Sea.

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Flow rate and source reservoir identification from airborne chemical sampling of the uncontrolled Elgin platform gas release

Cited by 17 publications

References 21 publications

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement

Megacity and local contributions to regional air pollution: an aircraft case study over London

Speciation of VOC emissions related to offshore North Sea oil and gas production

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