Measurements of industrial emissions of alkenes in Texas using the solar occultation flux method

Abstract

Solar occultation flux (SOF) measurements of alkenes have been conducted to identify and quantify the largest emission sources in the vicinity of Houston and in SE Texas during September 2006 as part of the TexAQS 2006 campaign. The measurements have been compared to emission inventories and have been conducted in parallel with airborne plume studies. The SOF measurements show that the hourly gas emissions from the large petrochemical and refining complexes in the Houston Ship Channel area and Mount Belvieu during September 2006 corresponded to 1250 ± 180 kg/h of ethene and 2140 ± 520 kg/h of propene, with an estimated uncertainty of about 35%. This can be compared to the 2006 emission inventory value for ethene and propene of 145 ± 4 and 181 ± 42 kg/h, respectively. On average, for all measurements during the campaign, the discrepancy factor is 10.2(+8,‐5) for ethene and 11.7(+7,‐4) for propene. The largest emission source was Mount Belvieu, NE of the Houston Ship Channel, with ethene and propene emissions corresponding to 440 ± 130 kg/h and 490 ± 190 kg/h, respectively. Large variability of propene was observed from several petrochemical industries, for which the largest reported emission sources are flares. The SOF alkene emissions agree within 50% with emissions derived from airborne measurements at three different sites. The airborne measurements also provide support to the SOF error budget.

Ship emissions of SO<sub>2</sub> and NO<sub>2</sub>: DOAS measurements from airborne platforms

“…The DOAS technique has also been used from airplanes; Wang et al (2006) for instance carried out airborne SO 2 measurements of combustion plants in the Po valley recording ultraviolet light reflected from the ground. The manner the gas flux is derived from the optical measurements here is similar to other mobile remote sensing applications carried out from the ground (Mellqvist et al, 2010;Rivera et al, 2009) i.e. multiplying the measured mass across the plume with the wind speed.…”

Evaluations of NO<sub>x</sub> and highly reactive VOC emission inventories in Texas and their implications for ozone plume simulations during the Texas Air Quality Study 2006

“…Next, the emissions of very reactive VOCs in NEI-2005 are compared with the estimates by Solar Occultation Flux (SOF) measurements . Ethylene and propylene emissions in the NEI-2005 are updated following the SOF observations in Mellqvist et al (2010). Finally, the model simulations of ozone plumes with the default NEI-2005 and with updated emissions based on the findings in this study are compared with the aircraft observations, and the importance of the updated emissions in the ozone plume simulations is discussed.…”

Differential column measurements using compact solar-tracking spectrometers

“…Papers by Stremme et al (2009Stremme et al ( , 2013 and Té et al (2012) used total column measurements from a ground-based FTS to estimate and monitor CO emission in Mexico City and Paris, respectively. Mellqvist et al (2010) studied plumes from industrial complexes, and Lindenmaier et al (2014) examined plumes from two power plants and discriminated them. Kort et al (2014) quantified large methane sources missing in inventories at Four Corners, New Mexico.…”