Estimation of Volatile Organic Compound Fluxes from Oil and Gas Production in the Permian Basin
Abstract
As production facilities in the oil and gas (O&G) industry continue to expand, the role of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in both environmental and health impacts becomes increasingly concerning. This work focuses on hazardous air pollutant emissions, specifically benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) emissions from multiple sites in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico. Measurements were made using the University of Wyoming's mobile laboratory, which houses an Ionicon Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (PTR-TOF), allowing BTEX mixing ratios to be measured downwind of individual production sites at 1 Hz. Whole air canisters were also collected and utilized to verify and contextualize measurements from the PTR-TOF. We apply the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Other Test Method 33A (OTM 33A), an inverse Gaussian flux estimation method, to directly quantify BTEX fluxes at the facility-level. Since VOC fluxes have not been quantified from the Permian Basin, we use these facility-level estimates to provide basin-wide flux estimates in order to address local and regional environmental and health impacts. Past studies indicate large variations between fluxes measured by the OTM 33A method, among other methods, and those reported in emission inventories. The calculated flux estimates are scaled up and compared to the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) in order to understand how well emission inventories are representing VOCs in the Permian Basin.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMA116.0011P
- Keywords:
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- 3315 Data assimilation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3360 Remote sensing;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1610 Atmosphere;
- GLOBAL CHANGE