Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks Across Washington, DC

Jackson, Robert B.; Down, Adrian; Phillips, Nathan; Ackley, Robert; Cook, Charles W.; Plata, Desirée L.; Zhao, Kaiguang

doi:10.1021/es404474x

Cited by 215 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Recent measurement campaigns in different cities in the USA and Europe also revealed that significant leaks occur in specific locations (e.g. storage facilities, city gates, well and pipeline pressurization/depressurization points) along the distribution networks to the end-users (Jackson et al, 2014a;McKain et al, 2015). However, methane emissions can vary a lot from one city to another depending in part on the age of city infrastructure (i.e.…”

Section: Oil and Natural Gas Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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945

733

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Abstract. The global methane (CH 4 ) budget is becoming an increasingly important component for managing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. This relevance, due to a shorter atmospheric lifetime and a stronger warming potential than carbon dioxide, is challenged by the still unexplained changes of atmospheric CH 4 over the past decade. Emissions and concentrations of CH 4 are continuing to increase, making CH 4 the second most important human-induced greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Two major difficulties in reducing uncertainties come from the large variety of diffusive CH 4 sources that overlap geographically, and from the destruction of CH 4 by the very short-lived hydroxyl radical (OH). To address these difficulties, we have established a consortium of multi-disciplinary scientists under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project to synthesize and stimulate research on the methane cycle, and producing regular (∼ biennial) updates of the global methane budget. This consortium includes atmospheric physicists and chemists, biogeochemists of surface and marine emissions, and socio-economists who study anthropogenic emissions. Following Kirschke et al. (2013), we propose here the first version of a living review paper that integrates results of top-down studies (exploiting atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modelling framework) and bottom-up models, inventories and data-driven approaches (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, and inventories for anthropogenic emissions, data-driven extrapolations). . Top-down inversions consistently infer lower emissions in China (∼ 58 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 51-72, −14 %) and higher emissions in Africa (86 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 73-108, +19 %) than bottom-up values used as prior estimates. Overall, uncertainties for anthropogenic emissions appear smaller than those from natural sources, and the uncertainties on source categories appear larger for top-down inversions than for bottom-up inventories and models.The most important source of uncertainty on the methane budget is attributable to emissions from wetland and other inland waters. We show that the wetland extent could contribute 30-40 % on the estimated range for wetland emissions. Other priorities for improving the methane budget include the following: (i) the development of process-based models for inland-water emissions, (ii) the intensification of methane observations at local scale (flux measurements) to constrain bottom-up land surface models, and at regional scale (surface networks and satellites) to constrain top-down inversions, (iii) improvements in the estimation of atmospheric loss by OH, and (iv) improvements of the transport models integrated in top-down inversions.

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Section: Oil and Natural Gas Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

Self Cite

945

733

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Gilman et al (2013) analyzed extensive VOC measurements at the same site in Colorado during the winter of 2011, confirming an abundance of alkanes associated with the oil and NG production operations in northeastern Colorado based on differences in chemical signatures (e.g., i-pentane/n-pentane ratios and relative amounts of acetylene to propane) between urban sources and oil/gas well emissions. There have also been studies to estimate the emissions of pollutants in the eastern US from NG production, processing, transmission and distribution (Jackson et al, 2014;Roy et al, 2014).…”

Section: R Ahmadov Et Al: Understanding High Wintertime Ozone Pollumentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding high wintertime ozone pollution events in an oil- and natural gas-producing region of the western US

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Recent increases in oil and natural gas (NG) production throughout the western US have come with scientific and public interest in emission rates, air quality and climate impacts related to this industry. This study uses a regionalscale air quality model (WRF-Chem) to simulate high ozone (O 3 ) episodes during the winter of 2013 over the Uinta Basin (UB) in northeastern Utah, which is densely populated by thousands of oil and NG wells. The high-resolution meteorological simulations are able qualitatively to reproduce the wintertime cold pool conditions that occurred in 2013, allowing the model to reproduce the observed multi-day buildup of atmospheric pollutants and the accompanying rapid photochemical ozone formation in the UB.Two different emission scenarios for the oil and NG sector were employed in this study. The first emission scenario (bottom-up) was based on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Emission Inventory (NEI) (2011, version 1) for the oil and NG sector for the UB. The second emission scenario (top-down) was based on estimates of methane (CH 4 ) emissions derived from in situ aircraft measurements and a regression analysis for multiple species relative to CH 4 concentration measurements in the UB. Evaluation of the model results shows greater underestimates of CH 4 and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the simulation with the NEI-2011 inventory than in the case when the top-down emission scenario was used. Unlike VOCs, the NEI-2011 inventory significantly overestimates the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ), while the topdown emission scenario results in a moderate negative bias. The model simulation using the top-down emission case captures the buildup and afternoon peaks observed during high O 3 episodes. In contrast, the simulation using the bottomup inventory is not able to reproduce any of the observed high O 3 concentrations in the UB. Simple emission reduction scenarios show that O 3 production is VOC sensitive and NO x insensitive within the UB. The model results show a disproportionate contribution of aromatic VOCs to O 3 formation relative to all other VOC emissions. The model analysis reveals that the major factors driving high wintertime O 3 in the UB are shallow boundary layers with light winds, high emissions of VOCs from oil and NG operations compared to NO x emissions, enhancement of photolysis fluxes and reduction of O 3 loss from deposition due to snow cover.

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“…We identified 25 "leaks" exceeding 2.5 ppm methane over 21 miles of road in all study areas. Thus, the combined density (number of leaks per mile) for all 3 routes was approximately one leak per mile, much lower than findings in Boston and Washington [7,8] but comparable to other cities driven in EDF's partnership project, such as several areas in Dallas, TX, which showed one leak for every two miles driven. The leak with the highest concentration of methane in our study areas was recorded at 10.7 ppm ( Table 1).…”

Section: Weather Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…All routes together covered a total of approximately 21 miles of urban roads. Following previous work [7,9], a "leak" was defined as a methane reading of higher than 2.5 ppm. The analyzer was pre-set to take measurements at a frequency of one hertz and general observations were made and recorded during and after the route, including the methane baseline readings of ambient air, and weather observations.…”

Section: Investigated Routesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several recent studies have made use of mobile monitoring to map the frequency and amount of high methane concentrations in urban areas as indicators of natural gas leaks, such as in Washington D.C [7], Boston, MA [8], Durham, NC, Cincinatti, OH, and Manhattan (New York), NY [9], as well as in several more cities investigated in the Environmental Defense Fund's collaborative project with Google Earth outreach, Colorado State University, and various utility companies (https://www.edf.org/climate/methanemaps/partnership). A more detailed look at the Boston, MA emissions revealed that 60-100% of the total emissions could be attributed to natural gas leaks, with a fractional loss rate of approximately 3% as compared to local consumption [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On Methane Leaks from Pipelines in Bryan and College Station, Texas, USA

Koch¹,

Thomas²,

Arana³

et al. 2016

TOASCJ

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Abstract:Methane is the second most important anthropogenically emitted greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Anthropogenic methane sources in the US are dominated by emissions from domestic ruminants and from fossil fuel exploration, storage and transmission. The fossil fuel source is primarily due to natural gas leaks along the production to distribution chain, and pipeline leaks in urban areas have been identified as a significant contributor. In this study, we evaluated possible leaks in three neighborhoods of a midsize Texas metropolitan region surrounding Texas A&M University through mobile measurements using a fast response, high precision methane analyzer. Neighborhoods were selected by age and land use, and each predetermined driving route was evaluated three times. Methane spikes exceeding 2.5 ppm were identified as leaks, and approximately one leak per mile of urban road was discovered. The largest leaks were found around the Texas A&M natural gas plant and in the oldest neighborhood to its north, while fewer leaks were found in a slightly younger neighborhood. No leaks were found in the youngest, less than 20-year old neighborhood suggesting that pipeline system age is a strong determinant of current and future leaks from the natural gas distribution system.

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Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks Across Washington, DC

Cited by 215 publications

References 29 publications

The global methane budget 2000–2012

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Understanding high wintertime ozone pollution events in an oil- and natural gas-producing region of the western US

On Methane Leaks from Pipelines in Bryan and College Station, Texas, USA

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