Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA.
Leidos, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA 15236, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Dec 15;748:142490. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142490. Epub 2020 Sep 24.
Quantifying methane (CH) leaks of pipeline systems is critical to ensure accurate emission factors in regional and global atmospheric models. The previous emission factors in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI) are from 1996 and do not reflect the modern gathering pipeline system. Additional data from different basins across the United States are urgently needed to improve the emission factors. The National Energy Technology Laboratory conducted a ground-based vehicle survey at Carson National Forest in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, in September 2019. 187 km of natural gas gathering pipeline systems were surveyed. The mobile CH survey system was efficient in identifying CH plumes and pinpointing the leak sources. Gaussian dispersion modeling suggested our survey system had a minimum detection limit of 1.5 LPM. No leaks were found from the pipelines while a leak of 7.1 +/- 0.2 LPM was on a pig launcher door and another leak of 0.7 +/- 0.1 LPM on a block valve. Limited access to the gathering pipeline system prevented us from quantifying all potential leaks detected by the CH sensors. The low leak frequency phenomenon was also observed in the sole existing study of natural gas gathering pipelines in the Fayetteville Shale.
量化管道系统的甲烷（CH）泄漏对于确保区域和全球大气模型中准确的排放因子至关重要。美国环境保护署（EPA）温室气体清单（GHGI）中的先前排放因子源自 1996 年，无法反映现代集气管道系统。美国不同流域急需更多数据来改进排放因子。国家能源技术实验室（National Energy Technology Laboratory）于 2019 年 9 月在新墨西哥州圣胡安盆地的卡森国家森林进行了一项基于地面车辆的调查。调查了 187 公里的天然气集气管道系统。移动 CH 调查系统在识别 CH 羽流和精确定位泄漏源方面非常有效。高斯扩散模型表明，我们的调查系统的最小检测限为 1.5 LPM。在管道上未发现泄漏，而在猪发射器门上发现了 7.1 +/- 0.2 LPM 的泄漏，在一个块阀上发现了 0.7 +/- 0.1 LPM 的泄漏。由于无法进入集气管道系统，我们无法对 CH 传感器检测到的所有潜在泄漏进行量化。在仅有的一项关于费耶特维尔页岩地区天然气集气管道的研究中也观察到了低泄漏频率现象。
