Atmospheric implications of large light alkane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry
Date
2018
Authors
Tzompa-Sosa, Zitely A.
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Abstract
Emissions of non-methane light alkanes from the U.S. oil and gas sector have changed rapidly over the last decade. We use a nested GEOS-Chem simulation driven by updated atmospheric abundances of light alkanes over the U.S., and 2) estimate the contribution of emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry to these patterns. The oil and gas sector in the updated NEI 2011 contributes >80% of the total U.S. emissions of ethane (C2H6) and propane (C3H8), and emissions of these species are largest in the central U.S. Observed mixing ratios of C2-C5 alkanes show enhancements over the central U.S. below 2 km. A nested GEOS-Chem simulation underpredicts observed C3H8 mixing ratios in the boundary layer over several U.S. regions and the relative underprediction is not consistent, suggesting C3H8 emissions should receive more attention moving forward. Our decision to consider only C4-C5 alkane emissions as a single lumped species produces a geographic distribution similar to observations. Due to the increasing importance of oil and gas emissions in the U.S., we recommend continued support of existing long-term measurements of C2-C5 alkanes. We suggest additional monitoring of C2-C5 alkanes downwind of northeastern Colorado, Wyoming and western North Dakota to capture changes in these regions. The atmospheric chemistry modeling community should also evaluate whether chemical mechanisms that lump larger alkanes are sufficient to understand air quality issues in regions with large emissions of these species.
Description
This repository contains twelve directories corresponding to each month in 2011. Inside each monthly directory, there are daily emission files for point and non-point sources over the continental U.S.
Department of Atmospheric Science
Department of Atmospheric Science
Rights Access
Subject
oil and gas
alkanes
2011NEI
Citation
Associated Publications
Tzompa‐Sosa, Z. A., Henderson, B. H., Keller, C. A., Travis, K., Mahieu, E., Franco, B., et al. (2019). Atmospheric implications of large C2‐C5 alkane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 1148–1169. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028955