Browsing by Author "Marzolf, Greg, committee member"
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Item Embargo Performance of continuous emission monitoring systems at operating oil and gas facilities(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Day, Rachel Elizabeth, author; Riddick, Stuart, advisor; Zimmerle, Daniel, advisor; Blanchard, Nathaniel, committee member; Marzolf, Greg, committee memberGlobally, demand to reduce methane (CH4) emissions has become paramount and the oil and natural gas (O&G) sector is highlighted as one of the main contributors, being the largest industrial emission source at ≈30%. In efforts to follow legislation of CH4 emission reductions, O&G operators, emission measurement solution companies, and researchers have been testing various techniques and technologies to accurately measure and quantify CH4 emissions. As recent changes to U.S. legislative policies in the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are imposing a methane waste emission charge beginning in 2024, O&G operators are looking for more continuous and efficient methods to effectively measure emissions at their facilities. Prior to these policy updates, bottom-up measurement methods were the main technique used for reporting yearly emissions to the GHGRP, which involves emission factors and emission source activity data. Top-down measurement methods such as fly-overs with airplanes, drones, or satellites, can provide snap in time surveys of the overall site emissions. With prior research showing the variance between top-down and bottom-up emission estimates, O&G operators have become interested in continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMs) for their sites to see emission activity continually overtime. A type of CEM, a continuous monitoring (CM) point sensor network (PSN), monitors methane emissions continuously with sensors mounted at the perimeter of O&G sites. CM PSN solutions have become appealing, as they could potentially offer a relatively cost effective and autonomous method of identifying sporadic and fugitive leaks. This study evaluated multiple commercially available CM PSN solutions under single-blind controlled release testing conducted at operational upstream and midstream O&G sites. During releases, PSNs reported site-level emission rate estimates of 0 kg/h between 38-86% of the time. When non-zero site-level emission rate estimates were provided, no linear correlation between release rate and reported emission rate estimate was observed. The average, aggregated across all PSN solutions during releases, shows 5% of mixing ratio readings at downwind sensors were greater than the site's baseline plus two standard deviations. Four of six total PSN solutions tested during this field campaign provided site-level emission rate estimates with the site average relative error ranging from -100% to 24% for solution D, -100% to -43% for solution E, -25% for solution F (solution F was only at one site), and -99% to 430% for solution G, with an overall average of -29% across all sites and solutions. Of all the individual site-level emission rate estimates, only 11% were within ± 2.5 kg/h of the study team's best estimate of site-level emissions at the time of the releases.Item Open Access The next generation space suit: a case study of the systems engineering challenges in space suit development(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Cabrera, Michael A., author; Simske, Steve, advisor; Marzolf, Greg, committee member; Miller, Erika, committee member; Delgado, Maria, committee memberThe objective for a NASA contractor, the performing organization in this case study, is to develop and deliver the next generation space suit to NASA, the customer in this case study, against a radically different level of customer expectation from previous years. In 2019, the administration had proposed a return to the moon, thus transforming and changing the system context of the current, next generation space suit in addition to pushing schedule expectations forward two years. The purpose of this dissertation will serve as a case study in two specific areas with qualitative and quantitative analyses regarding a new process and approach to (i) project lifecycle development and (ii) requirements engineering with the intent that if utilized, these tools may have contributed to improvements across the project in terms of meeting cost, scope, budget and quality while appropriately accounting for risk management. The procedure entails a research method in which the current state of the project, current state of the art, and the identified systems engineering challenges are evaluated and iterative models are tempered through development by continual improvements by engineering evaluation of engineers on the project. The current results have produced (i) a prototype project lifecycle development method via agile, Lean and Scrum hybrid implementations into a Traditional Waterfall framework and (ii) a prototype requirements engineering scorecard with implementations of FMEA and quantitative analysis to determine root cause identification.Item Open Access To save carbon or to save forest: comparing effectiveness of climate impact messaging on household energy behavior(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Curcio, Hannah, author; Aloise-Young, Pat, advisor; Graham, Dan, committee member; Marzolf, Greg, committee member; Tompkins, Sara Anne, committee memberImpacts from the climate change crisis are already being seen across the world. With these adverse events, awareness of, and communication about, climate change is increasing. Despite this, though, there has been an inadequate increase in climate action. Thus, it is important to determine the best ways to communicate climate impact information to consumers. The present study investigates how we can best frame climate impact messages for them to be effective in changing consumer behavior. Specifically, the effectiveness of four different carbon messages was examined in the context of household energy behavior. While meeting U.S. electricity demand with renewable energy is an attainable goal, it will require greater flexibility in the electricity grid, including flexibility in demand timing. Thus far, utility companies have used price signals as a main form of demand response. However, communicating environmental savings to consumers in addition to/instead of price savings is an emerging trend. For these reasons, the present study focused on the impact that climate impact messages may have consumers' willingness to shift their appliance use toward a time of day when renewable energy sources are more plentiful. Participants were recruited online and through local environmental groups. In an online survey, 244 participants were randomly assigned to one of four messaging conditions for three household appliances (air conditioning, dishwasher, and washing machine). The goal of the messages is to convince consumers to shift the times they use these appliances, and, as a result, shift demand on the electricity grid, to 9 a.m. (a time with higher renewable energy sources on average in the continental U.S.). Based on previous message framing research, the messages tested were framed in terms of environmental gain: specifically, the environmental savings accomplished by the behavior change. Three messages were created based on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions data, with savings calculated in terms of pounds of CO2 emissions, percent change in CO2 emissions, and the equivalent of acres of forest planted. (For example, "…would cut your yearly CO2 emissions by the equivalent of planting 475 square feet of forest…") A fourth message simply stated that the behavior is "more environmentally friendly" to test a non-numeric message. Participants were asked the likelihood of changing the time that they run each appliance, first with no message present (which acted as a baseline covariate) and then with the randomly assigned message present. Because previous research has shown that numeracy plays a role in the effectiveness of numerical messaging, I also tested a numeracy moderation effect. To compare participants' likelihood of switching across messaging conditions and to test whether numeracy played a moderating role, I ran individual analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) for each of the three appliances. This allowed me to control for participants' baseline likelihood (i.e., with no environmental message), by adding it as a covariate. Across all three appliances, neither the main effects of messaging condition and numeracy nor the interaction between the two were significant predictors of post-test likelihood. This means there was no evidence to suggest a difference in effectiveness between the messaging conditions, although there was a notable nonsignificant trend of the forest equivalency message performing better. Additionally, I ran mean differences tests comparing baseline likelihood and experimental likelihood for each of the conditions. These tests showed strong evidence that each climate impact message significantly increased participants' likelihood of switching the time they use their appliances. The finding that the messages were effective confirms the need to understand how to optimize the impact that climate impact messages can have on behavior and the mechanisms through which they are effective. Furthermore, the finding that the forest equivalency message had the strongest effect of the four messages (though not statistically significant) is worth researching further, because of the potential applications of this finding. Communicating climate impact information in terms of equivalency in square footage of forest planted easily allows for visualizations to be included, more so than other numerical messages, which may increase a message's saliency and persuasiveness. Furthermore, the findings of the present study and a pilot study that is reported suggest that future research should examine effectiveness within different segments of the population. More research, overall, is needed to further investigate the most effective ways to inform consumers about the climate impact of their behaviors.