Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California
Accurate and timely detection, quantification, and attribution of methane emissions from Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facilities is essential for improving confidence in greenhouse gas inventories, enabling emission mitigation by facility operators, and supporting efforts to assess facility integri...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab751d |
| _version_ | 1797747558233145344 |
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| author | Andrew K Thorpe Riley M Duren Stephen Conley Kuldeep R Prasad Brian D Bue Vineet Yadav Kelsey T Foster Talha Rafiq Francesca M Hopkins Mackenzie L Smith Marc L Fischer David R Thompson Christian Frankenberg Ian B McCubbin Michael L Eastwood Robert O Green Charles E Miller |
| author_facet | Andrew K Thorpe Riley M Duren Stephen Conley Kuldeep R Prasad Brian D Bue Vineet Yadav Kelsey T Foster Talha Rafiq Francesca M Hopkins Mackenzie L Smith Marc L Fischer David R Thompson Christian Frankenberg Ian B McCubbin Michael L Eastwood Robert O Green Charles E Miller |
| author_sort | Andrew K Thorpe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Accurate and timely detection, quantification, and attribution of methane emissions from Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facilities is essential for improving confidence in greenhouse gas inventories, enabling emission mitigation by facility operators, and supporting efforts to assess facility integrity and safety. We conducted multiple airborne surveys of the 12 active UGS facilities in California between January 2016 and November 2017 using advanced remote sensing and in situ observations of near-surface atmospheric methane (CH _4 ). These measurements where combined with wind data to derive spatially and temporally resolved methane emission estimates for California UGS facilities and key components with spatial resolutions as small as 1–3 m and revisit intervals ranging from minutes to months. The study spanned normal operations, malfunctions, and maintenance activity from multiple facilities including the active phase of the Aliso Canyon blowout incident in 2016 and subsequent return to injection operations in summer 2017. We estimate that the net annual methane emissions from the UGS sector in California averaged between 11.0 ± 3.8 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 (remote sensing) and 12.3 ± 3.8 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 ( in situ ). Net annual methane emissions for the 7 facilities that reported emissions in 2016 were estimated between 9.0 ± 3.2 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 (remote sensing) and 9.5 ± 3.2 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 ( in situ ), in both cases around 5 times higher than reported. The majority of methane emissions from UGS facilities in this study are likely dominated by anomalous activity: higher than expected compressor loss and leaking bypass isolation valves. Significant variability was observed at different time-scales: daily compressor duty-cycles and infrequent but large emissions from compressor station blow-downs. This observed variability made comparison of remote sensing and in situ observations challenging given measurements were derived largely at different times, however, improved agreement occurred when comparing simultaneous measurements. Temporal variability in emissions remains one of the most challenging aspects of UGS emissions quantification, underscoring the need for more systematic and persistent methane monitoring. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:53:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e7d67185b0d844e18b420f8253db0390 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:53:17Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-e7d67185b0d844e18b420f8253db03902023-08-09T15:04:51ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-0115404500510.1088/1748-9326/ab751dMethane emissions from underground gas storage in CaliforniaAndrew K Thorpe0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7968-5433Riley M Duren1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4723-5280Stephen Conley2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6753-8962Kuldeep R Prasad3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5817-7306Brian D Bue4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7856-3570Vineet Yadav5Kelsey T Foster6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2471-7319Talha Rafiq7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1348-3219Francesca M Hopkins8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6110-7675Mackenzie L Smith9Marc L Fischer10https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7956-2361David R Thompson11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1100-7550Christian Frankenberg12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0546-5857Ian B McCubbin13Michael L Eastwood14Robert O Green15Charles E Miller16https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9380-4838Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of America; University of Arizona , Tucson, AZ 85721, United States of AmericaScientific Aviation, 3335 Airport Rd suite b, Boulder, CO 80301, United States of AmericaNational Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaStanford University , 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States of AmericaUniversity of California Riverside , 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92521, United States of AmericaUniversity of California Riverside , 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92521, United States of AmericaScientific Aviation, 3335 Airport Rd suite b, Boulder, CO 80301, United States of AmericaEnergy Technology Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS 90R3029-B Berkeley, CA 94720, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaCalifornia Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of AmericaAccurate and timely detection, quantification, and attribution of methane emissions from Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facilities is essential for improving confidence in greenhouse gas inventories, enabling emission mitigation by facility operators, and supporting efforts to assess facility integrity and safety. We conducted multiple airborne surveys of the 12 active UGS facilities in California between January 2016 and November 2017 using advanced remote sensing and in situ observations of near-surface atmospheric methane (CH _4 ). These measurements where combined with wind data to derive spatially and temporally resolved methane emission estimates for California UGS facilities and key components with spatial resolutions as small as 1–3 m and revisit intervals ranging from minutes to months. The study spanned normal operations, malfunctions, and maintenance activity from multiple facilities including the active phase of the Aliso Canyon blowout incident in 2016 and subsequent return to injection operations in summer 2017. We estimate that the net annual methane emissions from the UGS sector in California averaged between 11.0 ± 3.8 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 (remote sensing) and 12.3 ± 3.8 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 ( in situ ). Net annual methane emissions for the 7 facilities that reported emissions in 2016 were estimated between 9.0 ± 3.2 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 (remote sensing) and 9.5 ± 3.2 GgCH _4 yr ^−1 ( in situ ), in both cases around 5 times higher than reported. The majority of methane emissions from UGS facilities in this study are likely dominated by anomalous activity: higher than expected compressor loss and leaking bypass isolation valves. Significant variability was observed at different time-scales: daily compressor duty-cycles and infrequent but large emissions from compressor station blow-downs. This observed variability made comparison of remote sensing and in situ observations challenging given measurements were derived largely at different times, however, improved agreement occurred when comparing simultaneous measurements. Temporal variability in emissions remains one of the most challenging aspects of UGS emissions quantification, underscoring the need for more systematic and persistent methane monitoring.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab751dmethaneemissionsunderground gas storageAliso Canyontemporal variabilityimaging spectrometer |
| spellingShingle | Andrew K Thorpe Riley M Duren Stephen Conley Kuldeep R Prasad Brian D Bue Vineet Yadav Kelsey T Foster Talha Rafiq Francesca M Hopkins Mackenzie L Smith Marc L Fischer David R Thompson Christian Frankenberg Ian B McCubbin Michael L Eastwood Robert O Green Charles E Miller Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California Environmental Research Letters methane emissions underground gas storage Aliso Canyon temporal variability imaging spectrometer |
| title | Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California |
| title_full | Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California |
| title_fullStr | Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California |
| title_full_unstemmed | Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California |
| title_short | Methane emissions from underground gas storage in California |
| title_sort | methane emissions from underground gas storage in california |
| topic | methane emissions underground gas storage Aliso Canyon temporal variability imaging spectrometer |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab751d |
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