Air Pollution Issues Associated with Natural
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em • feature Air Pollution Issues Associated by Ramón A. Alvarez Exploration and production of natural gas and oil are rapidly expanding across the country due and Elizabeth Paranhos to technological developments that have made extraction of previously untapped unconventional Ramón A. Alvarez, Ph.D., resources, such as shale gas, economically feasible. In part due to expansion of operations to is with the Environmental locations where the industry has never been active, emissions of air pollutants, along with other Defense Fund in Austin, TX. Elizabeth Paranhos is with potential environmental and public health impacts, have come under increasing scrutiny. Delonelaw Inc. in Boulder, CO. E-mail: [email protected]. An overview of environmental and public health Sources of Air Emissions risks and the need for improved regulation and Leaks and routine venting during the extraction, industry practices is presented in a recent report of processing, and transportation of NG result in the National Petroleum Council.1 Although some emissions of GHGs and, depending on the local efforts are underway to improve our knowledge composition of unprocessed gas, other pollutants about air emissions from the oil and gas industry, that contribute to locally- and regionally-elevated there remains much uncertainty about the actual air pollution that may threaten public health. There amount released. Notwithstanding this uncertainty, are numerous individual components used through- studies suggest that emissions from the oil and gas out NG and oil production systems that are prone industry could be comparable to other major to leaks, including compressors, valves, pumps, source categories in some concentrated areas. flanges, gauges, and pipe connectors. Moreover, while smokestack emissions of green- house gases (GHGs) from coal-fired power plants In addition to unintentional leaks, a number of are substantially higher than from natural gas (NG)- sources intentionally vent gas. For example, one fired plants, questions have been raised about how technology used throughout NG systems is pneu- the upstream emissions associated with the extrac- matic valves, which operate on pressurized NG tion, processing, and transportation of each fuel and by design bleed small quantities of gas during affect the relative climate footprint of NG when the normal operation. Additionally, gas is often vented complete fuel cycles are considered. from storage tanks, dehydrators, depressurization of equipment before maintenance, and wells after This article reviews key air pollution concerns and hydraulic fracturing or when accumulated liquids air policy considerations associated with the gas are removed. Within the oil sector, nearly all and oil industries. methane (CH4) emissions come from production fields in the form of venting from oil wells, storage tanks, and processing equipment.2 Engines and other combustion sources associated with the upstream and midstream segments of the 22 em june 2012 awma.org Copyright 2012 Air & Waste Management Association with Natural Gas and Oil Operations NG and oil industry also produce emissions that recent paper based on a pilot study using innova- can affect local and regional air quality. tive air sampling approaches concluded that NG leakage in the Denver–Julesburg Basin might be Air Pollution Concerns even higher than EPA’s estimate; although the The fugitive and vented emissions from NG oper- measurements provide only one snapshot of what ations consist predominantly of CH4, a potent is happening in NG production fields, 4% was the GHG, but often also include organic compounds central estimate reported.7 This discrepancy points that contribute to the formation of ground-level to the need for more direct measurement of emis- ozone (smog), as well as hazardous air pollutants sions, as discussed later. like benzene. Ozone Precursors Methane Natural gas and oil industry activities also emit Methane is the principal component of NG and is Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and oxides a potent GHG with a warming potential 25 times of nitrogen (NOx), which are precursors to ground- that of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the long term level ozone. In areas of concentrated activity, the (100-year time horizon) and 72 times over the emissions can be substantial. short term (20-year time horizon). [Note: The values of 25 and 72 are CH4’s global warming potential For example, NG and oil activities were the single (GWP); GWP is a commonly used concept to com- largest source of ozone precursor pollutants in pare the radiative forcing of GHGs relative to that Colorado in 2008.9 The Texas Commission on of CO2. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Environmental Quality has reported that storage Change (IPCC) typically uses a 100-year time tanks used in the exploration and production of horizon for the calculation of GWP; but a 20-year NG and oil are the single largest source of VOCs horizon is sometimes used.] in Texas.10 In the Barnett Shale of North Texas, the combined VOC and NOx emissions from NG and oil In addition to its climate impacts, CH4 contributes production have been estimated to be comparable to higher global background levels of ozone pol- to those from the roughly 4 million cars and trucks lution.3-5 Natural gas and oil operations are the in the adjoining Dallas Fort-Worth metro area.11 largest source of U.S. CH4 emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) estimate The air quality impacts of these emissions vary of the amount of CH4 released in 2009 because of based on local conditions, but they can be impor- leaks and venting in the NG network between tant, especially in rural areas.12 Wintertime ozone production wells and the local distribution network levels in excess of the nation’s health-based air is 10.5 million metric tons (MMT);6 this corresponds quality standards have been recorded in remote to just over 2% of gross U.S. NG production. A awma.org june 2012 em 23 Copyright 2012 Air & Waste Management Association parts of Wyoming and Utah, where little industrial There are two main differences among these activity other than NG and oil production occurs. papers. The first is how they compare the time- Air modeling for the Haynesville Shale projects an dependent effects on climate of CH4 and CO2, the increase in ozone levels near NG drilling and pro- principal contributor to man-made climate change. duction and in adjacent regions due to ozone CH4 is a much more potent GHG than CO2, transport.13 molecule for molecule, but it is removed from the atmosphere much more quickly; these competing Hazardous Air Pollutants effects complicate the comparison of their climate Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from NG and oil impacts. The second, more fundamental difference operations include hydrogen sulfide and certain is the choice of CH4 leakage assumed for the NG hydrocarbons such as benzene, a known human supply. This choice is challenging due to the limited carcinogen. Formaldehyde is a HAP found in the empirical data available on the actual amount of exhaust of compressor engines. Elevated levels of CH4 released to the atmosphere across the benzene have been detected near NG production NG supply chain, including during production, sites in Texas14 and Colorado.15,16 In these cases, processing, and delivery to customers. ambient concentrations appear to be variable and lower than health-based screening levels. Although A recent paper proposed a more transparent ana- little work has been done to characterize the health lytical approach that reveals the inherent climatic effects of such exposures, media reports anecdotally trade-offs of different policy and investment choices 25 suggest growing complaints of health concerns involving NG for electricity and transportation. (e.g., respiratory and skin irritation, neurological Using the best available data from EPA on CH4 problems, dizziness, and headaches) by people leakage in the NG supply and similar data for other living near NG operations.17,18 fuel cycles, this paper concluded that new NG com- bined cycle plants are beneficial on all time frames Policy Considerations for climate compared to new coal plants, as long as Methane Emissions leakage stays under 3.2%. On the other hand, for Although NG burns cleaner than coal and NG vehicles to produce climate benefits on all petroleum- based fuels, uncombusted CH4 leaked time frames, well-to-wheels CH4 leakage would 26 along the NG supply chain erases some of the have to be reduced to 1.0–1.6%. carbon advantage that NG has over other fossil Because of the pivotal role that NG leakage plays in fuels at the point of combustion. At some point, determining whether fuel switching scenarios NG leakage can be large enough to make NG use involving NG are better or worse for the climate, it worse overall for climate for some period of time. A is critical that definitive, scientifically rigorous meas- number of scientific papers on the climatic implications urements of actual emissions be made. While NG of NG production and use relative to other fuels operators will begin reporting CH emissions to have been published in the past 18 months.19-24 4 EPA later this year, it is unclear how accurate these These papers have inadvertently figured into a grow- data will be, especially during the first year or two ing sense of confusion due to sometimes divergent of reporting because companies have been allowed conclusions and approaches. a grace period to use less rigorous estimation meth- ods than technically required in EPA’s rules. How Important Is CH4 Leakage from NG Systems? VOC and HAP Emissions Over a 100-year time horizon, EPA’s estimate that NG systems emitted 10.5 MMT On April 17, 2012, EPA adopted final rules estab- of CH4 in 2009 has the same effect on climate as 263 MMT of CO2. For comparison, lishing—for the first time—emission standards for 263 MMT of CO2 is the same amount of CO2 that is released annually by 62 coal- NG well sites and strengthening existing standards fired power plants or 52 million passenger vehicles.8 The cumulative climate “influ- for gas processing plants and pipeline compressors.27 ence” (more specifically, the cumulative radiative forcing) of this CH4 leakage is 3.9% of the total from all U.S.