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Introduction: Fugitive aerosol concentrations generated by different nebulizers and interfaces in vivo, and mitigation of aerosol dispersion into the environment with various commercially available devices are not known. Methods: Nine healthy volunteers were given 3 mL saline with a small volume nebulizer (SVN) or vibrating mesh nebulizer (VMN) with a mouthpiece, a mouthpiece with an exhalation filter, an aerosol mask with open ports for SVN and a valved facemask for VMN, and a facemask with a scavenger (Exhalo) in random order. Five of the participants received treatments using a face tent scavenger (Vapotherm) and a mask with exhalation filter with SVN and VMN in a random order. Treatments were performed in an ICU room, with 2 particle counters positioned 1 and 3 feet from participants measuring aerosol concentrations at sizes of 0.3-10 µm at baseline, before, during and after each treatment. The Ethics Committee at Rush University approved this study. Results: Fugitive aerosol concentrations were higher with SVN than VMN and higher with a facemask than a mouthpiece. Adding an exhalation filter to a mouthpiece reduced aerosol concentrations of 0.3-1.0 µm in size for VMN and 0.3-3.0 µm for SVN (all p

Methane ( CH4 ) emissions from human activities are a threat to the resilience of our current climate system. The stable isotopic composition of methane ( δ13 C and δ2 H) allows us to distinguish between the different CH4 origins. A significant part of the European CH4 emissions, 3.6 % in 2018, comes from coal extraction in Poland, the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) being the main hotspot. Measurements of CH4 mole fraction ( χ ( CH4 )), δ13 C, and δ2 H in CH4 in ambient air were performed continuously during 6 months in 2018 and 2019 at Krakow, Poland, in the east of the USCB. In addition, air samples were collected during parallel mobile campaigns, from multiple CH4 sources in the footprint area of the continuous measurements. The resulting isotopic signatures from sampled plumes allowed us to distinguish between natural gas leaks, coal mine fugitive emissions, landfill and sewage, and ruminants. The use of δ2 H in CH4 is crucial to distinguish the fossil fuel emissions in the case of Krakow because their relatively depleted δ13 C values overlap with the ones of microbial sources. The observed χ ( CH4 ) time series showed regular daily night-time accumulations, sometimes combined with irregular pollution events during the day. The isotopic signatures of each peak were obtained using the Keeling plot method and generally fall in the range of thermogenic CH4 formation – with δ13 C between − 59.3 ‰ and − 37.4 ‰ Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (V-PDB) and δ2 H between − 291 ‰ and − 137 ‰ Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (V-SMOW). They compare well with the signatures measured for gas leaks in Krakow and USCB mines. The CHIMERE transport model was used to compute the CH4 and isotopic composition time series in Krakow, based on two emission inventories. The magnitude of the pollution events is generally underestimated in the model, which suggests that emission rates in the inventories are too low. The simulated isotopic source signatures, obtained with Keeling plots on each simulated peak, indicate that a higher contribution from fuel combustion sources in the EDGAR v5.0 inventory would lead to a better agreement than when using CAMS-REG-GHG v4.2 (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service REGional inventory for Air Pollutants and GreenHouse Gases). The isotopic mismatches between model and observations are mainly caused by uncertainties in the assigned isotopic signatures for each source category and the way they are classified in the inventory. These uncertainties are larger for emissions close to the study site, which are more heterogenous than the ones advected from the USCB coal mines. Our isotope approach proves to be very sensitive in this region, thus helping to evaluate emission estimates.

Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas systems is a central component of US and international climate policy. Leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs using optical gas imaging (OGI) based surveys are routinely used to mitigate fugitive emissions or leaks. Recently, new technologies and platforms such as planes, drones, and satellites promise more cost-effective methane mitigation than existing approaches. To be approved for use in LDAR programs, new technologies must demonstrate equivalent emissions mitigation to existing approaches. In this work, we use the FEAST modeling tool to (a) identify cost vs. mitigation trade-offs that arise from the use of new technologies, and (b) provide a framework for effective design of alternative LDAR programs. We identify several critical insights. First, new technologies and tiered LDAR programs can achieve equivalent emissions reductions at lower cost as current OGI-based approaches by varying survey frequency. Second, low median detection threshold technologies can trade sensitivity for speed without sacrificing mitigation outcomes. Third, emissions mitigation from technologies with high median detection thresholds have an effective upper bound independent of the survey frequency. Finally, vented emissions play a critical role in the cost-effectiveness of tiered detection programs that direct ground crews based on site-level emissions detection. The FEAST model will enable operators and regulators to systematically evaluate the role of new technologies in next generation LDAR programs.

The article presents the results of the project carried out by GAZ-SYSTEM in cooperation with 5 other European gas Transmission System Operators (TSO) – ENAGAS, Fluxys, Gasunie, Snam and GRTgaz. The objective of the project was to investigate and identify the most useful devices for detecting and measuring methane emissions from infrastructure components typical for the TSO. The market analysis showed that methane detectors utilizing different principles of operation are available, but there are much fewer devices for measuring emission rates. 5 devices were selected for tests: 3 exclusively for detection based on the D-1 (semiconductor sensor), D-2 (infrared optical gas detection system), D-3(laser technology) principle of operation, and 2 devices that also enable emissions measurement – P-1 (ultrasound imaging) and P-2 (quantitative optical gas imaging). Laboratory tests were carried out in March 2020 at the Enagás’ Metrological & Innovation Center (M&I); according to the approved program, methane leaks were generated from deliberately unsealed valves, flanges, threaded and open-ended pipe connections. Field tests were carried out at the measuring gas station near the M&I. The main purpose of the research was to verify the accuracy of the selected measuring instruments. It was carried out at different flowrate and various methane concentrations in the gas escaping from the components. Ease of use of the devices, their speed and range of operation were assessed. The results showed both the advantages and limitations of each device, and they clearly indicated that the assessment of methane emissions from gas transmission infrastructure components requires the use of at least two different devices. The results indicate that sniffer devices, characterized by the fact that the probe must be placed in the vicinity of the source of emission, give results similar to the FID Detector, most commonly used in Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) programs, but can be used in a wider range of methane concentrations. D-3 has a fast response time and a wide measuring range, but their unit of measurement i.e. ppm-m prevents the conversion of the results into methane concentration without additional measurements of the distance between the leak and the device. The P-1 and P-2 allow to measure the emissions in real time, while the measurement errors for both devices are comparable, ranging from about 70% to 100%.

Methane, the final product of methanogenesis during anaerobic digestion is a low value product (0.1 $ per m3). Concerns over fugitive emissions from methane coupled with recent reduction in costs of solar and wind energy raise questions over the long-term sustainability of the anaerobic digestion process as a technology to produce renewable energy. The production of short chain volatile fatty acids (VFAs), a by-product of acetogenesis, represents a high value product. The projected VFA market demand for 2020 is 18 500 kilotons, increasing at an annual rate of 3% per year. Here, we review the business case for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to produce VFAs instead of biogas. Techno-economic and sensitivity studies are conducted to understand and compare economic feasibilities. Under favourable conditions, with positive government incentives, future WWTPs could produce high purity (>98%) propionic acid at 3.8 $ per kg, 35% less than the commercial selling value (6 $ per kg).

COVID-19 can cause serious respiratory complications resulting in the need for invasive ventilatory support and concurrent aerosol therapy. Aerosol therapy is considered a high risk procedure for the transmission of patient derived infectious aerosol droplets. Critical-care workers are considered to be at a high risk of inhaling such infectious droplets. The objective of this work was to use noninvasive optical methods to visualize the potential release of aerosol droplets during aerosol therapy in a model of an invasively ventilated adult patient. The noninvasive Schlieren imaging technique was used to visualize the movement of air and aerosol. Three different aerosol delivery devices: (i) a pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI), (ii) a compressed air driven jet nebulizer (JN), and (iii) a vibrating mesh nebulizer (VMN), were used to deliver an aerosolized therapeutic at two different positions: (i) on the inspiratory limb at the wye and (ii) on the patient side of the wye, between the wye and endotracheal tube, to a simulated intubated adult patient. Irrespective of position, there was a significant release of air and aerosol from the ventilator circuit during aerosol delivery with the pMDI and the compressed air driven JN. There was no such release when aerosol therapy was delivered with a closed-circuit VMN. Selection of aerosol delivery device is a major determining factor in the release of infectious patient derived bioaerosol from an invasively mechanically ventilated patient receiving aerosol therapy.

The purpose of this article is to determine the fugitive emissions in normal operations of Methane from the natural gas distribution networks in Fars Province. The methods which are used for calculating or measuring the emission coefficient are: Measuring the flow of fugitive emission gas form instruments using the Hi-Flow Sampler device, Using PHAST software in order to calculate fugitive emission gas from some of the instruments, Engineering calculations based on instruments specifications and operational conditions. With the results that came up in this project, the amount of greenhouses gasses (methane and carbon-di-oxide) that leaked from Fars Province distribution networks is equaled to 0.542 percent of incoming gas into this province. The biggest emission amount is 64.17% which is belonging to users’ instruments and also the biggest emission amount is 99% which is belonging to normal operational conditions. Fugitive emission with the amount of 90% is the most usual kind of emission. Finally, different ways of reducing the emission will be introduced.

The objective of this paper is the numerical simulation of accident consequences of natural gas release. Failure of the pipeline can lead to various outcomes, some of which can pose a significant threat of irretrievable damage to people and properties in the immediate vicinity of the failure location. To make the solution and results more similar to actual scenario, Gas Leakage Rate from Pipeline Fracture is investigated in the steady state flow (hole and Pipeline models) and transient flow modes are examined. The numerical results show that if the pressure at the fracture point is equal to the atmospheric pressure, the Mach number is smaller than one. In the pipe model, if the length of the pipe is long and the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the pipe is high, then the Mach number tends to one and the gas leak rate to the sound speed. The fugitive emission from all instruments was measured using Hi-Flow Sampler and the emission from accidents was calculated using PHAST software.

Over the past decade, sensor networks have been proven valuable to assess air quality on highly localized scales. Here we leverage innovative sensors to characterize gaseous pollutants in a complex urban environment and evaluate differences in air quality in three different Los Angeles neighborhoods where oil and gas activity is present. We deployed monitors across urban neighborhoods in South Los Angles adjacent to oil and gas facilities with varying levels of production. Using low-cost sensors built in-house, we measured methane, total non-methane hydrocarbons (TNMHCs), carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide during three deployment campaigns over four years. The multi-sensor linear regression calibration model developed to quantify methane and TNMHCs offers up to 16% improvement in coefficient of determination and up to a 22% reduction in root mean square error for the most recent dataset as compared to previous models. The deployment results demonstrate that airborne methane concentrations are higher within a 500 m radius of three urban oil and gas facilities, as well as near a natural gas distribution pipeline, likely a result of proximity to sources. While there are numerous additional sources of TNMHCs in complex urban environments, some sites appear to be larger emitters than others. Significant methane emissions were also measured at an idle site, suggesting that fugitive emissions may still occur even if production is ceased. Episodic spikes of both compounds suggested an association with oil and gas activities, demonstrating how sensor networks can be used to elucidate community-scale sources and differences in air quality moving forward.

Leak detection and repair (LDAR) plays an important role in controlling the fugitive emission of volatile organic compound (VOC) from chemical enterprises. At present, many policies and standards issued in China have set clear requirements for implementing LDAR in the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, the LDAR work of nine typical pharmaceutical enterprises was selected for analysis to allow investigation of the characteristics of VOC emissions from leaking equipment components. Some suggestions for controlling VOC are proposed to provide a reference for managing the fugitive emissions of VOC from pharmaceutical enterprises. The results showed that the number of equipment components used by the pharmaceutical enterprises ranged from several thousand to more than 20,000, which is lower than that in oil refining and coal chemical enterprises. The predominant leaky component was the flange, which accounted for 56.31% of the total, followed by connectors (21.51%) and valves (18.53%). Light liquid medium components accounted for the largest proportion of equipment (52.83%) on average, followed by gas medium components (45.52%, on average). Heavy liquid medium components, which are rarely used in pharmaceuticals, accounted for only 1.65%. The average leak ratio of the components in the pharmaceutical industry was approximately 0.99%. The leak ratio of the open-ended line was much higher than that of other types of components, reaching an average of 5.00%, while that value was only 0.92% for the flange, despite the numbers and proportion of them that were in use. The total annual VOC leakage from the nine pharmaceutical enterprises studied in this work was 20.11 tons, with an average of 2.23 tons per enterprise and an average of 0.22 kg/a per equipment component. Flanges, connectors, and valves were the top three contributors to leakage, generating 39.17%, 38.72%, and 16.79% of the total, respectively, and a total proportion of 94.68%. Although the number of pumps accounted for only 0.15% of the components, it generated 1.94% of the leakage. In terms of different production processes, the greatest unit product leakage came from the bulk production of chemicals used for pharmaceuticals, reaching 0.085 t/a. The production from traditional Chinese medicine enterprises was the lowest (0.011 t/a), which was only 12.80% of the leakage from the bulk production of chemicals for drugs. The leakage of VOC from the equipment components in the nine enterprises was reduced, to varying degrees, using LDAR. The overall reduction ratio was between 23.55% and 67.72%, with an average of 44.02%. The reduction in leakage was relatively significant after the implementation of LDAR, however, there is still room for improvement. Pharmaceutical enterprises should improve their implementation of LDAR and reduce VOC leakage by reducing the number of inaccessible components used and increasing the repair ratio of leaky components. Controlling the source of component leakage, which should be emphasized, can be realized by cutting down the number of components used, adopting low-leakage equipment, and putting anti-leakage measures in place.

In line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we estimate the percentage CO2-eq emissions by sector in Nigeria. In terms of its emissions, the percentage contribution of CO2, CH4 and N2O to each sector were considered using the 2006 IPCC emission calculation default taking 2012 as the base year projected to 2027. Results revealed that, fugitive emissions from oil and gas accounted for the highest contribution to CO2-eq emissions with about 75.27 percent when compared to other sectors. This is due to increased gas flaring employed to dispose of associated gas in major petroleum/oil producing areas in the country. This sector pollutes because of their technology, the remaining sectors were identified as important sectors because of the weight they have on the economy. The study suggests the need for Nigerian government to ensure the security of fuel source for power generation by mandating oil companies to channel their flared gases to power plant.Keywords: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sector Contributions, Anthropogenic Gases, Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Emissions, Projections, NigeriaJEL Classifications: C67; Q40; Q43; Q56DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.8905

The lack of a comprehensive, up-to-date emission inventory for the Himalayan region is a major challenge in understanding the extensive regional air pollution, including its causes, impacts and mitigation pathways. This study describes a high-resolution (1 km × 1 km) present-day emission inventory for Nepal, developed with a higher-tier approach. The complete study is divided into two parts; this paper covers technologies and combustion sources in residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural diesel-use and transport sectors as Part I (NEEMI-Tech), while emissions from the open burning of municipal waste and agricultural residue in fields and fugitive emissions from waste management, paddy fields, enteric fermentation and manure management for the period 2001–2016 will be covered in Part II (NEEMI-Open). The national total energy consumption (except hydropower, solar and wind energy) estimated in the base year 2011 was 374 PJ, with the residential sector being the largest energy consumer (79 %), followed by industry (11 %) and the transport sector (7 %). Biomass is the dominant energy source, contributing to 88 % of the national total energy consumption, while the rest is from fossil fuel. A total of 8.9 Tg of CO2, 110 Gg of CH4, 2.1 Gg of N2O, 64 Gg of NOx, 1714 Gg of CO, 407 Gg of NMVOCs, 195 Gg of PM2.5, 23 Gg of BC, 83 Gg of OC and 24 Gg of SO2 emissions were estimated in 2011 from the five energy-use sectors considered in NEEMI-Tech. The Nepal emission inventory provides, for the first time, temporal trends of fuel and energy consumption and associated emissions in Nepal for a long period, 2001–2016. The energy consumption showed an increase by a factor of 1.6 in 2016 compared to 2001, while the emissions of various species increased by a factor of 1.2–2.4. An assessment of the top polluting technologies shows particularly high emissions from traditional cookstoves and space-heating practices using biomass. In addition, high emissions were also computed from fixed-chimney Bull's trench kilns (FCBTKs) in brick production, cement kilns, two-wheeler gasoline vehicles, heavy-duty diesel freight vehicles and kerosene lamps. The monthly analysis shows December, January and February as periods of high PM2.5 emissions from the technology-based sources considered in this study. Once the full inventory including open burning and fugitive sources (Part II) is available, a more complete picture of the strength and temporal variability in the emissions and sources will be possible. Furthermore, the large spatial variation in the emissions highlights the pockets of growing urbanization, which emphasize the importance of the detailed knowledge about the emission sources that this study provides. These emissions will be of value for further studies, especially air-quality-modeling studies focused on understanding the likely effectiveness of air pollution mitigation measures in Nepal.

Fugitive emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the chemical industry are, in addition to channelled emissions, an important element of the total emission into the air. The Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) program is one of the tools to control this type of emission and is a key component of an integrated approach to environmental management. This paper presents the genesis and general assumptions of LDAR, the methodology of fugitive emissions analysis, including its quantification, an example of how to proceed with the implementation of a comprehensive LDAR system, including tools to support its functioning. The potential environmental and non-environmental benefits of implementing the LDAR program in the refining and petrochemical industry are also presented.

The UK has pledged to cut greenhouse gases 57 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, to be emisisons neutral by 2050, and to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. Much progress has been made, but fully achieving these ambitious objectives with the current policy framework will be challenging as it involves multiple and overlapping pricing schemes with significant sectoral differences in carbon prices and may be difficult to scale up on political and administrative grounds. This paper discusses an alternative framework consisting of: (i) a comprehensive carbon price (ideally a tax) rising to at least £60 (US $75) per ton by 2030; and (ii) reinforcing sectoral policies, most importantly feebates for the transport, industrial, and building sectors. This framework could implement mitigation targets, while limiting burdens on households and firms to enhance acceptability, and still raise revenues of 0.8 percent of GDP in 2030. The UK could also leverage its COP26 presidency to promote dialogue on international carbon price floors and pricing of international transport emissions.

Material handling and storage of various solids results in fugitive emission of dust. To control the same the cheapest and most common mitigation measure is to have a Green Belt around the handling and storage area. Coal used in many industries including Thermal Power Plants is one of the most common material causing fugitive emission due to its properties. Thus, coal storages are one of the biggest sources of fugitive emissions. This emission unless controlled is likely to affect the surrounding areas by way of dust deposition in the area and health issues in the exposed population. There are many ways to control fugitive emissions like having green belt, erecting physical barriers, covering the coal and closed conveying. Among various options available, green belt is the most preferred as it is easy and faster to implement option which is recommended or mandated by environmental regulatory authorities. In order to maintain its effectiveness as a fugitive dust control measure, the green belt must be maintained and rejuvenated from time to time as the fugitive emissions affect its health. While lot of research is done about the detrimental impact of particulate matter on plants, the perspective of plants being used as pollution control equipment is missing. This paper tries to create a simplified and user-friendly assessment for establishing system for monitoring of the Green Belt and Action Planning for long term perpetuation of the efficient and effective fugitive dust control using Green Belt as pollution Control Equipment.

Climate change impacts a natural and human system on the entire globe. Climate-related extreme weather such as drought, floods, and heat waves alters the ecosystems that society depends on. Climate, land, energy, and water systems (CLEWS) are a critical aspect of high importance on resource availability, distribution, and interconnection. The nexus provides a set of guidelines to South Africa that aims on creating a level playing field for all sectors while achieving the aims of the SDGs that are cross-sectoral and multilevel approaches to climate change. The nexus expressed three domains that included resources, governance, and security. It integrated a smart climate resilient with inclusion of the governance and involvement of the stakeholders. Recognition of spatial and sector interdependencies should inform policies, investment and institutional for enhancing nexus security and climate change towards making transition green carbon deals. The nexus offers an integrated approach that analyzes the trade-offs and synergies between the different sectors in order to maximize the efficiency of using the resources that adapt institutional and optimum policy arrangements. Economic transformation and creation of employment through green economy is one of the COP26 green deal agendas in curbing the carbon emissions (green house emission, industrial processes, fuel combustion, and fugitive emissions) as mitigation to climate change, which is cost-effective and economically efficient. The future climate change policy in the developing countries is likely to be both promoted by climate technology transfer and public-private cooperation (cross-sector partnership) through the technology mechanism of the nexus and inclusion of the gender.

From the agreements on climate change Colombia is committed to measuring and reporting emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and among these, the coal mining fugitive emissions. The country has been reporting emissions from international tables-Level 1 of the IPCC, but this proposal is suggesting doing so from exploration of CBM-Level 2 using canisters desorption systems. For the Colombia open pit mining (provinces of Guajira and Cesar) the analyses from international tables and from CBM studies found that emissions from tables-Level 1 (106.02 Gg of methane) exceed the content found in direct measurements-Level 2 (75.92 Gg of methane) in 40%. The levels of emissions in tons of CO2 equivalent are 2,226,420 and 1,594,320 tons respectively. These results show that since the contents of methane of Colombian coal beds are lower compared with main coal-producing countries, the fugitive emissions from the extraction of coal in Colombia should be calculated from CBM studies. Resumen De los acuerdos sobre cambio climático Colombia se comprometió a medir y reportar las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) y entre estos, las emisiones fugitivas de la minería del carbón. Las emisiones se han reportado a partir de tablas internacionales-Nivel 1 del IPCC, pero se sugiere hacerlo a partir de los estudios de exploración de CBM-Nivel 2 utilizando equipos de desorción cánisters. Para Guajira y Cesar se revisaron los contenidos a partir de tablas internacionales y a partir de estudios de CBM, se encontró que las emisiones a partir del rango del carbón-Nivel 1 (106.02 Gg de metano) exceden los contenidos encontrados en mediciones directas-Nivel 2 (75.92 Gg de metano) en 40%. Los niveles de emisiones en toneladas de CO2e son de 2,226,420 y 1,594,320 toneladas respectivamente. Se establece que las emisiones de la extracción de carbón en Colombia se deben calcular a partir de estudios de CBM.

Twenty-five years after the first look at polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in Canada, this article presents current knowledge on Canadian PAC emission sources. The analysis is based on national inventories (the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and the Air Pollutant Emissions Inventory (APEI)), an analysis of Canadian forest fires, and several air quality model-ready emissions inventories. Nationally, forest fires continue to dominate PAC emissions in Canada, however there is uncertainty in these estimates. Though forest fire data show a steady average in the total annual area burned historically, an upward trend has developed recently. Non-industrial sources (home firewood burning, mobile sources) are estimated to be the second largest contributor (∼6-8 times lower than forest fires) and show moderate decreases (25%–65%) in the last decades. Industrial point sources (aluminum production, iron/steel manufacturing) are yet a smaller contributor and have seen considerable reductions (90% +) in recent decades. Fugitive emissions from other industrial sources (e.g. disposals by the non-conventional oil extraction and wastewater sectors, respectively) remain a gap in our understanding of total PAC emissions in Canada. Emerging concerns about previously unrecognized sources such as coal tar-sealed pavement run-off, climate change are discussed elsewhere in this special issue. Results affirm that observations at the annual/national scale are not always reflective of regional/local or finer temporal scales. When determining which sources contribute most to human and ecosystem exposure in various contexts, examination at regional and local scales is needed. There is uncertainty overall in emissions data stemming in part from various accuracy issues, limitations in the scope of the various inventories, and inventory gaps, among others.

Fugitive particle emission of enclosed storage yards in iron and steel plant is a complicated and multivariable problem, which will have negative impacts on the environment and economy. Researchers have discussed methodologies of emission estimation in open storage yards, but rarely focused on enclosed ones. However, enclosed storage yards are commonly adopted in most industries in China. This paper links onsite observation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to estimate the impact of fugitive PM10 emissions from enclosed storage yards on the open air. By collecting and analyzing PM10 samples at three sites inside the yard and one site outside, The result shows that PM10 concentration is in the range of 7.3 &plusmn, 1.5~13.4 &plusmn, 4.2 mg/m3, which is extremely high in an enclosed storage yard, and significantly influences workers&rsquo, health inside and outside atmospheric aerosols. The CFD model simulation is conducted by considering particle deposition, particle emission sources of shovel loader and road dust emission, as well as different wind direction and wind speed. The result shows that PM10 discharge rate from the enclosed area to open-air is significantly influenced by wind velocity and direction, e.g., the result of northwest wind with wind speed in 12.7 m/s is eight times higher than wind speed in 2.5 m/s with the same wind direction, and are 47 and 62 times higher than the east and west wind direction with the same wind speed in 12.7 m/s, respectively. In this case, the PM10 discharge rate is about 131.7 ton/year, which contains about 38~55 ton/year iron-relating particles. This will directly contribute PM10 to open-air and may produce secondary aerosols, due to heterogeneous catalytic reaction. This work identifies the important contribution of fugitive emissions and provides an approach for fugitive emission estimation of industries to the surrounding air. The results provide a reference for material yard zoning and fugitive emission control from minimizing influence from the meteorological condition and reducing source discharge inside.

Rapid response to underground natural gas leaks could mitigate methane emissions and reduce risks to the environment, human health and safety. Identification of large, potentially hazardous leaks could have environmental and safety benefits, including improved prioritization of response efforts and enhanced understanding of relative climate impacts of emission point sources. However, quantitative estimation of underground leakage rates remains challenging, considering the complex nature of methane transport processes. We demonstrate a novel method for estimating underground leak rates based on controlled underground natural gas release experiments at the field scale. The proposed method is based on incorporation of easily measurable field parameters into a dimensionless concentration number, e , which considers soil and fluid characteristics. A series of field experiments was conducted to evaluate the relationship between the underground leakage rate and surface methane concentration data over varying soil and pipeline conditions. Peak surface methane concentrations increased with leakage rate, while surface concentrations consistently decreased exponentially with distance from the source. Deviations between the estimated and actual leakage rates ranged from 9% to 33%. A numerical modeling study was carried out by the TOUGH3 simulator to further evaluate how leak rate and subsurface methane transport processes affect the resulting methane surface profile. These findings show that the proposed leak rate estimation method may be useful for prioritizing leak repair, and warrant broader field-scale method validation studies. A method was developed to estimate fugitive emission rates from underground natural gas pipeline leaks. The method could be applied across a range of soil and surface covering conditions.

Hydraulic fracturing has become a very popular method of extracting natural gas. Even though there has been an increase in fracking activity, fugitive emissions like methane and hydrogen sulfide are escaping more frequently, creating health hazards. This application will focus on an effective method of reducing these fugitive emissions based on a very unique proposal: using molecular sieves or zeolites to capture methane and hydrogen sulfide molecules. We propose running laboratory trials with zeolites that have an affinity for methane and hydrogen sulfide molecules, to examine their effectiveness.

One of the negative technological factors that often have a significant impact on the environment is the leakage of operating media (so-called fugitive emissions), which most often occurs at different separable joints. Therefore, high demands are placed on the joints – they must have sufficient strength to maintain pressure and other loads and also be tight enough to avoid undesired leaks. For a large part of such joints, standard flanges or flanges designed according to standards are used, in the European Union in particular according to EN 1092-1, EN 1591-1 and EN 13445-3. Although the strength of such flanges is sufficient for most applications, the basic design methods do not cover the tightness of flange joints and their emissions completely. A case inspired by industrial practice with a history of insufficient tightness resulting in leaks is investigated using FEA and EN 1591. The flange joint is modelled in software ANSYS 2019 R2 with parts of adjacent shells to take their effect into account. The goal of the analyses is estimation of gasket contact pressures resulting from load history. The pressures are directly related to the seal tightness. Lastly, effect of shell shape modification on the gasket pressures is also investigated and the results are compared with those from the original configuration. Effects of resulting pressures on seal tightness are discussed.

The Canadian federal government and the Province of Alberta (the dominant oil and gas producing province) have released competing methane regulations for the oil and gas sector intended to take effect between January 2020–2023. Provisions in Canadian law could allow the provincial regulations to take precedent, but only if they are deemed to be equivalent in effect. This paper presents a comprehensive technical comparison of these upcoming regulations by considering potential site-by-site mitigation impacts on active oil and gas facilities in Alberta in 2018. This analysis was made possible by first creating a detailed inventory using recent pneumatic device count data and current production and activity data, which allowed detailed site-level calculations of regulatory impacts on a monthly basis as required by the regulations. The federal regulations are found to be stronger, achieving ~26% more methane mitigation at full implementation. Key differences are in limits on pneumatic pump emissions, vented emissions, and expected reductions in fugitive emissions through leak detection and repair surveys. The full analysis was repeated using production and inventory data for 2012 and 2017 to examine sensitivities to changing production patterns and facilitate comparisons to the 2012 baseline referenced in federal policy targets for methane reduction. The results were robust in all scenarios. Through a “Potential to Emit” threshold, the federal regulations also impact slightly fewer sites overall by exempting small sites handling limited gas volumes, while achieving greater overall methane reductions. Relative to a 2012 baseline, if fully implemented in 2018 the federal regulations would just reach the bottom of the 40–45% methane reduction target through a combination of past reductions (13%) and additional regulated mitigation (27%). However, recent trends in emissions from mined oil sands operations in particular (which are not affected by these regulations) suggests the 40–45% reduction goal for the overall sector may not be achieved by the 2025 target. Different scenarios to make the regulations equivalent are briefly discussed where the contrast in achieved mitigations for different key sources is important case study data for design of effective and efficient methane regulations.

Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the chemical formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Acute benzene exposure can cause central nervous system depression. Longterm exposure can result in depression of the blood-forming system and may increase risks associated with anemia and leukemia. The purpose of this research is to identify benzene safe concentration in crude oil processing plant in east java area due to process fugitive emission. Sample is taken from 20 workers include work duration and weight of the worker also crude oil plant air quality monitoring is measured using direct-measure benzene detectors. In the benzene measurement on the crude oil plant in east java area, 2 spot sample is taken with resulting data 0.96 mg/m3 or 0.30 ppm and 0.86 mg/m3 or 0.27 ppm, and according to final manual calculation for safe benzene concentration with the result 1.12 mg/m3 or 0.35 ppm, all of those number are still below safe concentration limit by refer to minister of man power No.13 / MEN / X / 2011 regulation and The Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) which have been adopted globally as a company standard which is 0.5 ppm as an eight hour time-weighted average (TWA8) and 1.0 ppm as a Short Term Exposure Limit (STEL) (averaged over fifteen minutes). But according to Minimum Risk Level (MRL) ATSDR 2007, those value already above threshold which is 0,009 ppm daily exposure for acute effect and 0,003 ppm daily exposure for chronic effect, Recommendation to control and reduce fugitive emission which resulting in number of benzene is by reviewing engineering design for equipment causing fugitive emission, and since this company regulation for respirator usage in benzene case are 0.5-5.0 ppm must use Half-face mask with organic vapor cartridge, 5.0-25.0 ppm use Full-face mask with organic vapor cartridge, and Greater than 25 ppm use Self-Contained Breathing Air (SCBA) then need to re asses all area which has an obligation to wear personal protective equipment (Half-full / full mask with organic vapor cartridge or Self contain breathing apparatus) by not only based on benzene level but also considering the exposure duration. © 2020, Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. All rights reserved.

Fugitive emissions from primary aluminium production is a concern both for occupational health and the environment. Current measuring equipment for in-situ measurements of such emissions is generally large and expensive or lacks the required time and spatial resolution to provide accurate information on the source of the emissions. This research is aimed at testing and evaluating distributed micro sensors for in-situ monitoring of dust intensity in the electrolysis hall. Multiple sensors are tested simultaneously in clusters at each location to study variation between individual sensors, giving a statistical average. These clusters are spread out in the relevant areas to map how the emission varies over both time and location based on operational activities such as anode changes. The sensor system yielded results that could be correlated to the process activities, and also showed clear variation in the fractions of PM10 and PM2.5 measured for different process operations.

Currently people are aware of the risk related to pollution exposure. Thus odor annoyances are considered a warning about the possible presence of toxic volatile compounds. Malodor often generates immediate alarm among citizens, and electronic noses are convenient instruments to detect mixture of odorant compounds with high monitoring frequency. In this paper we present a study on pattern recognition on ambient air composition in proximity of a gas and oil pretreatment plant by elaboration of data from an electronic nose implementing 10 metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) sensors and positioned outdoor continuously during three months. A total of 80,017 e-nose vectors have been elaborated applying the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm and then k-means clustering on SOM outputs on the whole data set evidencing an anomalous data cluster. Retaining data characterized by dynamic responses of the multisensory system, a SOM with 264 recurrent sensor responses to air mixture sampled at the site and four main air type profiles (clusters) have been identified. One of this sensor profiles has been related to the odor fugitive emissions of the plant, by using ancillary data from a total volatile organic compound (VOC) detector and wind speed and direction data. The overall and daily cluster frequencies have been evaluated, allowing us to identify the daily duration of presence at the monitoring site of air related to industrial emissions. The refined model allowed us to confirm the anomaly detection of the sensor responses.

The iron and steel industry is a notable particulate matter emitter. In source apportionment of particulate matter, it is important to identify the characteristics of particulate matter originating from steel sites. However, previous studies mostly focus on stack emission sources, while few reports on fugitive emission sources are available. Aiming to fill this gap, the physical and chemical characteristics of fugitive emission sources in the whole iron and steel production process were explored. The emission factor, particle size distribution (PSD), and morphological and chemical profiles of fugitive particulate matter (FPM) originating from fugitive emission sources at the observed site were analyzed through on-site sampling and in-lab testing. The emission factors in descending sequence are those of steelmaking plants, sinter plants, ironmaking plants and coking plants. The particle size of FPM mainly ranges from 0.1 to 716 μm, while distribution forms with both unimodal and bimodal peaks occur. The microscopic morphology of FPM is mainly divided into: irregular Fe-, Si-, Ca- and Mg-rich mineral particles formed by physical means, layered carbonaceous particles formed by mechanical crushing and combustion cracking, spherical Si-, Al- and Fe-rich particles in a high-temperature molten state, and chain and agglomerate particles formed by the polymerization of high-temperature flue gas and volatile minerals. The mass fraction of Fe ranks first in the sintering, ironmaking, and steelmaking processes, with values ranging from 1.40% to 57.79%. C attains the highest mass fraction, 69.80%, in the PFM originating from crushing mills.

Hydrogen produced using fossil fuel feedstocks causes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, even when carbon capture and storage (CCS) is used. By contrast, hydrogen produced using electrolysis and zero-emissions electricity does not create GHG emissions. Several countries advocating the use of ‘clean’ hydrogen put both technologies in the same category. Recent studies and strategies have compared these technologies, typically assuming high carbon capture rates, but have not assessed the impact of fugitive emissions and lower capture rates on total emissions and costs. We find that emissions from gas or coal based hydrogen production systems could be substantial even with CCS, and the cost of CCS is higher than often assumed. Carbon avoidance costs for high capture rates are notable. Carbon prices of $22–46/tCO2e would be required to make hydrogen from fossil fuels with CCS competitive with hydrogen produced from fossil fuels without CCS. At the same time there are indications that electrolysis with renewable energy could become cheaper than fossil fuel with CCS options, possibly in the near-term future. Establishing hydrogen supply chains on the basis of fossil fuels, as many national strategies foresee, may be incompatible with decarbonisation objectives and raise the risk of stranded assets.

Physical, Regulatory and Brand value risks due to climate change challenges are foreseen by businesses globally. This paper is oriented towards these challenges and prepared a comprehensive Greenhouse gases (GHG) footprint plan and identification of mitigation opportunities for ONGC, a fortune 500 and national oil company of India. Internationally recognized standards and guidelines like Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO-14064, and American Petroleum Institute compendium have been referred for quantifying carbon emissions in nearly real 400 + operation control facilities. The GHG inventory is based on Operational Control approach to identify the boundary for which emissions are to be quantified and two significant scopes of emissions viz Direct Emissions and Indirect Emissions are identified and quantified. The quantification concluded that GHG emission footprint for the year 2016–17 is in the range of 9 million tons of CO2equivalent. GHG emissions mainly account due to stationary combustion, fugitive emissions and wastewater treatment, which share the around 56% of total emissions. Another 24–26% of emissions are contributed due to flaring, processes by glycol dehydrator, acid gas removal units, and by electricity purchased from the grid. As a result, it has been found that ONGC emits 187 kg CO2e emissions per tonne throughput and also compared with its global peer organizations. At the organization level, “Key Industrial Sites” have been identified as contributing higher GHG emissions and accordingly key “hot-spots,” a list of 15 GHG mitigation opportunities have been proposed in the paper. Two GHG mitigation initiatives based on solar energy and bioenergy application undertaken at ONGC has also been briefed on case studies.

For the same amount of power generated, natural gas has approximately 50 to 60 percent less emissions relative to coal. However, methane (the main constituent of natural gas) has a greenhouse warming potential approximately 30 times higher than CO2. In the transition to lower emissions for energy generation, the contribution to overall greenhouse gas emissions is expected to increase for natural gas as its demand increases when coal is replaced. However, given the potency of methane as a greenhouses gas, fugitive emissions monitoring and an accurate assessment is very important. Agriculture, bushfires, wetlands and termites are also significant contributors to methane emissions and have significant seasonal and spatial variations. In recent surveys either conducted or supported in Australia by CSIRO, a variety of approaches (e.g. vehicle-based survey, fixed-site monitoring stations) and technologies (e.g. near-IR cavity ring down spectroscopy) for fugitive emissions monitoring have been tested and implemented. In general, to be suitable for field work in the Australian context, sensors need to be very stable and robust under very harsh conditions as well as being able to selectively detect ppb or even sub-ppb variations in gas concentrations. More recently, alternatives to the older cavity ring down spectroscopy approach have been developed which use mid-IR region of the spectra. These have improved sensor cost, robustness and performance as well as lowering size and power requirements. These new commercially available technologies based on mid-IR lasers provide an opportunity to deploy these sensors at fixed stations on a much wider scale. This paper will examine the different approaches used in different survey scenarios comparing their effectiveness within the Australian context. This includes new approaches that have recently become possible with these new advances in technology. Based on the survey work that has been conducted, some of the common findings that have been found through surveys in Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory will be presented to demonstrate the capabilities of these sensors.

Natural gas pipelines are an important source of fugitive methane emissions in lifecycle greenhouse gas assessments but limited monitoring has taken place of UK pipelines to quantify fugitive emissions. This study investigated methane emissions from the UK high-pressure pipeline system (National Transmission System - NTS) for natural gas pipelines. Mobile surveys of CH4 emissions were conducted across four areas in the UK, with routes bisecting high-pressure pipelines (with a maximum operating pressure of 85 bar) and separate control routes away from the pipelines. A manual survey of soil gas measurements was also conducted along one of the high-pressure pipelines using a tunable diode laser. For the pipeline routes, there were 26 peaks above 2.1 ppmv CH4 at 0.23 peaks/km, compared with 12 peaks at 0.11 peaks/km on control routes. Three distinct thermogenic emissions were identified on the basis of the isotopic signal from these elevated concentrations with a peak rate of 0.03 peaks/km. A further three thermogenic emissions on pipeline routes were associated with pipeline infrastructure. Methane fluxes from control routes were statistically significantly lower than the fluxes measured on pipeline routes, with an overall pipeline flux of 627 (241–1123 interquartile range) tonnes CH4/km/yr. Soil gas CH4 measurements indicated a total flux of 62.6 kt CH4/yr, which equates to 2.9% of total annual greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. We recommend further monitoring of the UK natural gas pipeline network, with assessments of transmission and distribution stations, and distribution pipelines necessary.

This paper presents the first inventory and environmental impact study of the life cycle of coal obtained from a surface mine in Brazil. Significant reserves of coal in Brazil have attracted the attention of investors interested in building chemical and power generation plants. This inventory was developed to serve as a database for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies, considering especially the impact of greenhouse gases, since there is no such information in the literature. The inventory collected data in situ, regarding the main pieces of equipment, inputs to the plant, and the direct emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), covering different stages of the coal mining and processing, as well as the indirect emissions of GHG from the production and transportation of inputs. The coal life cycle emissions were equal to 3.29 × 10−2 kg CO2eq per kg of coal, of which direct emissions accounted for 98.3% of GHG, in which the major part was due to fugitive methane emissions from surface mining and post-mining coal crushing and handling operations. Additionally, the results of a sensitivity analysis showed that the diesel oil consumption was the most influential parameter of life cycle emission in terms of the inputs regarded.

Coal seam gas (CSG) has the potential to be a low-carbon transition fuel, but CSG fields may be a source of fugitive emissions of methane (CH4). We use mobile cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) m...

Aircraft-based measurements of methane (CH4) and other air pollutants in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) were made during a summer intensive field campaign between 13 August and 7 September 2013 in support of the Joint Canada–Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring. Chemical signatures were used to identify CH4 sources from tailings ponds (BTEX VOCs), open pit surface mines (NOy and rBC) and elevated plumes from bitumen upgrading facilities (SO2 and NOy). Emission rates of CH4 were determined for the five primary surface mining facilities in the region using two mass-balance methods. Emission rates from source categories within each facility were estimated when plumes from the sources were spatially separable. Tailings ponds accounted for 45 % of total CH4 emissions measured from the major surface mining facilities in the region, while emissions from operations in the open pit mines accounted for ∼ 50 %. The average open pit surface mining emission rates ranged from 1.2 to 2.8 t of CH4 h−1 for different facilities in the AOSR. Amongst the 19 tailings ponds, Mildred Lake Settling Basin, the oldest pond in the region, was found to be responsible for the majority of tailings ponds emissions of CH4 ( > 70 %). The sum of measured emission rates of CH4 from the five major facilities, 19.2 ± 1.1 t CH4 h−1, was similar to a single mass-balance determination of CH4 from all major sources in the AOSR determined from a single flight downwind of the facilities, 23.7 ± 3.7 t CH4 h−1. The measured hourly CH4 emission rate from all facilities in the AOSR is 48 ± 8 % higher than that extracted for 2013 from the Canadian Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, a legislated facility-reported emissions inventory, converted to hourly units. The measured emissions correspond to an emissions rate of 0.17 ± 0.01 Tg CH4 yr−1 if the emissions are assumed as temporally constant, which is an uncertain assumption. The emission rates reported here are relevant for the summer season. In the future, effort should be devoted to measurements in different seasons to further our understanding of the seasonal parameters impacting fugitive emissions of CH4 and to allow for better estimates of annual emissions and year-to-year variability.

Mexico has a strong commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The electrical and the industrial sectors have been the second and third largest contributors to GHG emissions–excluding fugitive emissions-. This paper analyzes the potential contributions of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems on the electrical sector, as well as the participation of the cement, metal and chemical industries. This study was carried out using a computational mathematical model, the MEM70, which is a partial equilibrium model that represents the Mexican energy system. It was found that, even considering energy efficiency measures, a high penetration of electric vehicles and the electrical sector with high participation of low carbon emission technologies such as renewable and nuclear sources. Further, it is necessary to implement CCS to achieve the goal for reducing national greenhouse gas emissions.

Advances in natural gas extraction technology have led to increased activity in the production and transport sectors in the United States and, as a consequence, an increased need for reliable monitoring of methane leaks to the atmosphere. We present a statistical methodology in combination with an observing system for the detection and attribution of fugitive emissions of methane from distributed potential source location landscapes such as natural gas production sites. We measure long (> 500 m), integrated open-path concentrations of atmospheric methane using a dual frequency comb spectrometer and combine measurements with an atmospheric transport model to infer leak locations and strengths using a novel statistical method, the non-zero minimum bootstrap (NZMB). The new statistical method allows us to determine whether the empirical distribution of possible source strengths for a given location excludes zero. Using this information, we identify leaking source locations (i.e., natural gas wells) through rejection of the null hypothesis that the source is not leaking. The method is tested with a series of synthetic data inversions with varying measurement density and varying levels of model–data mismatch. It is also tested with field observations of (1) a non-leaking source location and (2) a source location where a controlled emission of 3.1 × 10−5 kg s−1 of methane gas is released over a period of several hours. This series of synthetic data tests and outdoor field observations using a controlled methane release demonstrates the viability of the approach for the detection and sizing of very small leaks of methane across large distances (4+ km2 in synthetic tests). The field tests demonstrate the ability to attribute small atmospheric enhancements of 17 ppb to the emitting source location against a background of combined atmospheric (e.g., background methane variability) and measurement uncertainty of 5 ppb (1σ), when measurements are averaged over 2 min. The results of the synthetic and field data testing show that the new observing system and statistical approach greatly decreases the incidence of false alarms (that is, wrongly identifying a well site to be leaking) compared with the same tests that do not use the NZMB approach and therefore offers increased leak detection and sizing capabilities.

Ensuring water and energy security and lowering the emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are now priority areas for urban planners. However, most studies considered different components of urban wastewater infrastructure in isolation. This paper calculates the total energy and GHG footprints of wastewater infrastructure, including the energy consumption of, and GHG emissions from, the transport and treatment of wastewater, taking Delhi as a case study. The net energy consumed by wastewater infrastructure was conservatively estimated at 0.26 kWh/m3 (σ = 0.101 kWh/m3). Operating the infrastructure claimed 70% of the total energy, and electricity accounted for about 55% of the total energy. Nearly two-third of the total energy was used for treating the wastewater. The infrastructure for transporting wastewater claimed a greater share of the embodied energy of materials. Net GHG emissions from the wastewater infrastructure were estimated at 1.426 kg CO2-eq/m3 (σ = 0.41 kg CO2-eq/m3). Fugitive emissions contributed 53% of the total daily GHG emissions. The study revealed a trade-off between energy savings and environmental and GHG implications of wastewater infrastructure. Unlined open drains had lower GHG emissions and negligible energy use but an adverse impact on the environment and public health. Decentralized wastewater infrastructure is energy efficient in terms of the amount of pollutants removed but consumes more energy per unit volume of wastewater treated. Producing energy from the biogas generated in the process lowered the energy and GHG footprints of wastewater infrastructure by 0.10 kWh/m3 (σ = 0.01 kWh/m3) and 0.08 kg CO2-eq/m3 (σ = 0.01 kg CO2-eq/m3) respectively.

The emission of the traditional energy chemical industry accounts for 20% of the total manmade VOC emission in China, of which coal chemical and petrochemical plants are one of the most important VOC emission sources. VOC emission sources mainly include the leakage of oil refinery units and equipment, pipes and valves, respiration and leakage of various types of storage tanks, effusion of oils during loading and unloading, effusion of sewage treatment systems, all kinds of process tail gas, etc. In this paper, the current management status of VOC emission in China’s coal chemical industry and petrochemical industry are analyzed, which divides VOC management into intentional and fugitive emission. The Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) management method and technology for equipment, pipes and valves implemented in the United States are studied to propose self-inspection management methods and measures for VOC emissions in the energy chemical industry, providing strategies and recommendations for energy conservation, emission reduction and cleaner production in the traditional energy chemical industry.

A large population does not have access to modern household energy and relies on solid fuels such as coal and biomass fuels. Burning of these solid fuels in low-efficiency home stoves produces high amounts of multiple air pollutants, causing severe air pollution and adverse health outcomes. In evaluating impacts on human health and climate, it is critical to understand the formation and emission processes of air pollutants from these combustion sources. Air pollutant emission factors (EFs) from indoor solid fuel combustion usually highly vary among different testing protocols, fuel-stove systems, sampling and analysis instruments, and environmental conditions. In this critical review, we focus on the latest developments in pollutant emission factor studies, with emphases on the difference between lab and field studies, fugitive emission quantification, and factors that contribute to variabilities in EFs. Field studies are expected to provide more realistic EFs for emission inventories since lab studies typically do not simulate real-world burning conditions well. However, the latter has considerable advantages in evaluating formation mechanisms and variational influencing factors in observed pollutant EFs. One main challenge in field emission measurement is the suitable emission sampling system. Reasons for the field and lab differences have yet to be fully elucidated, and operator behavior can have a significant impact on such differences. Fuel properties and stove designs affect emissions, and the variations are complexly affected by several factors. Stove classification is a challenge in the comparison of EF results from different studies. Lab- and field-based methods for quantifying fugitive emissions, as an important contributor to indoor air pollution, have been developed, and priority work is to develop a database covering different fuel-stove combinations. Studies on the dynamics of the combustion process and evolution of air pollutant formation and emissions are scarce, and these factors should be an important aspect of future work.

In this study an innovative sensing network consisting of eight photoionization detectors, meteorological sensors, a video camera and a telephonic system able to systematize the population complaints was developed for the monitoring of odor emissions. The development of monitoring approaches with high temporal and spatial resolution and actively involving citizens, is strategic in areas where relevant and also short-term emissive events frequently occur and the conventional approaches fail due to the high variability of fugitive emissions. Moreover, even if unpleasant odors are not necessarily direct triggers of health effects, they could be associated with the release of other harmful compounds. Monitoring approaches also involving citizens are thus strategic tools because odors annoyance perceived by population may be a potential health risk warning. Therefore, the developed sensing network was set up in Val d'Agri (Basilicata, Italy) where a petroleum pre-treatment plant (COVA) rises in a rural and inhabited area. The data collected during the monitoring campaign from the 16th February to the 30th July 2017, showed Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) concentrations decreasing moving away from the plant and up to five times higher than levels registered in the closest municipality (Viggiano). Moreover, recurrent short-term critical events characterized by concentration values far above the average of the period and with maximum values ranging from 0.92 to 1.89 ppm, were registered in correspondence with high levels of benzene (up to 23.9 μg/m3) and anemometric conditions able to transport pollutants from COVA to each receptor site. The spatial and temporal distribution of TVOC concentrations proved to be affected by the distance from COVA, wind direction and industrial activities verified using video reportage and citizen claims. Therefore, the developed approach has proven to be a useful tool to credit people's perception of odors and also to quantify citizen exposure to VOCs during short-term events.

Airborne LiDAR measurements, parallel controlled releases, and on-site optical gas imaging (OGI) survey and pneumatic device count data from 1 year prior, were combined to derive a new measurement-based methane inventory for oil and gas facilities in British Columbia, Canada. Results reveal a surprising distinction in the higher magnitudes, different types, and smaller number of sources seen by the plane versus OGI. Combined data suggest methane emissions are 1.6-2.2 times current federal inventory estimates. More importantly, analysis of high-resolution geo-located aerial imagery, facility schematics, and equipment counts allowed attribution to major source types revealing key drivers of this difference. More than half of emissions were attributed to three main sources: tanks (24%), reciprocating compressors (15%), and unlit flares (13%). These are the sources driving upstream oil and gas methane emissions, and specifically, where emerging regulations must focus to achieve meaningful reductions. Pneumatics accounted for 20%, but this contribution is lower than recent Canadian and U.S. inventory estimates, possibly reflecting a growing shift toward more low- and zero-emitting devices. The stark difference in the aerial and OGI results indicates key gaps in current inventories and suggests that policy and regulations relying on OGI surveys alone may risk missing a significant portion of emissions.

Controlled, fully-blinded methane releases and ancillary on-site wind measurements were performed during a separate airborne survey of active oil and gas facilities to quantitatively evaluate the capabilities and potential utility of the Bridger Photonics LiDAR-based airborne Gas Mapping LiDAR™ (GML) methane measurement technology under realistic field conditions. Importantly, although Bridger Photonics knew there was a ground team working in the area to deploy wind sensors as part of the broader survey of facilities, they had no knowledge whatsoever that controlled releases were taking place and were not informed of this until all data processing was complete. Thus, the presented data allow a true, fully-blinded assessment of the airborne technology's ability to both detect and locate unknown methane sources within active oil and gas facilities, as well as to quantify their release rates. Results were used to derive a lower-sensitivity limit threshold as a function of wind speed, which matches well with the broader field survey results. Comparison of measurement results with and without the benefit of on-site wind data reveal that uncertainty in the GML source quantification is a direct linear function of the uncertainty in the wind speed. Quantification uncertainties (1σ) of ±31–68% can be expected for sources near the sensitivity limit. The derived sensitivity limit function was incorporated into exploratory simulations using the Fugitive Emissions Abatement Simulation Toolkit (FEAST), which suggest that the Bridger GML technology has comparable performance to optical gas imaging (OGI) camera surveys both in terms of fraction of total emissions detected and anticipated net mitigation. The relative performance of the Bridger GML technology would be expected to improve or worsen as the assumed underlying distribution of source magnitudes becomes more or less positively skewed (i.e. more or less dominated by larger sources such as tank vents). Overall, the Bridger GML technology is shown to be capable of detecting, locating, and quantifying individual sources at or below the magnitudes of recent regulated venting limits. The presented detection sensitivity function will be useful for modelling potential alternate leak detection and repair strategies and interpreting future airborne measurement data.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the market-based mechanism introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) during various activities. Enormous literature has been available on the GHG mitigation activities in energy, transport, agriculture, construction, waste handling activities, afforestation and reforestation sectors using CDM. However, no single study has been carried out for reduction of fugitive emissions or leakages which releases during the industrial activities. Therefore, this paper presents a critical assessment of CDM projects implemented to reduce fugitive emissions during industrial activities. Out of entire 7749 registered CDM projects (in all sectors of CDM), only 154 (1.98%) fugitive emission reduction projects were implemented up to 2016. These 154 projects contribute up to 147,563,247 MTCO2e (8.87%) estimated emission reduction out of total 1,663,533,108 MTCO2e estimated emission reduction in all sectors of CDM ( https://cdm.unfccc.int/about/index.html ). Out of these 154 registered fugitive projects, 125 projects were assessed for fuel emissions, 19 for halocarbons (HCF) emissions and 10 for sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions. The details of the projects were gathered from Project Design Document (PDDs) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) project cycle search and further verified by monitoring the reports of each project. These projects were studied to examine estimated emission reductions with special emphasis on the achieved emission reductions in terms of Certified Emissions Reduction (CERs) to calculate financial benefits. Available CDM methodologies to reduce fugitive emissions were also studied. Further, the distribution of these projects across India was mapped using Arc-GIS. Findings show India is second most country after China in registration of CDM projects. Westerns and northern part of India covers maximum CDM activities. Amongst various methodologies, abatement of methane from coalmines (ACM0008), approved methods decomposition of fluoroform (HFC-23) and point of use abatement device to reduce SF6 emissions (AM0078) were used extensively for reduction of fuel, HFC and fluoride gas emissions. 260,064,195 MTCO2e of CERs (14.5%), i.e. emission reduction was achieved from these projects till 2016 ( https://cdm.unfccc.int/about/index.html ). Therefore, some key challenges or barriers are discussed for development and disclosure of carbon strategies to get transparency in entire CER trading processes.

Natural hydrocarbon (oil and gas) seeps are widespread in Los Angeles, California, due to gas migration, along faults, from numerous subsurface petroleum fields. These seeps may represent important natural contributors of methane (CH4) and heavier alkanes (C2-C4) to the atmosphere, in addition to anthropogenic fossil fuel and biogenic sources. We measured the CH4 flux by closed-chamber method from the La Brea Tar Pits park (0.1 km2), one of the largest seepage sites in Los Angeles. The gas seepage occurs throughout the park, not only from visible oil-asphalt seeps but also diffusely from the soil, affecting grass physiology. About 500 kg CH4 d−1 is emitted from the park, especially along a belt of enhanced degassing that corresponds to the 6th Street Fault. Additional emissions are from bubble plumes in the lake within the park (order of 102–103 kg d−1) and at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Curson Avenue (>130 kg d−1), along the same fault. The investigated area has the highest natural gas flux measured thus far for any onshore seepage zone in the USA. Gas migration, oil biodegradation, and secondary methanogenesis altered the molecular composition of the original gas accumulated in the Salt Lake Oil Field (>300 m deep), leading to high C1/C2+ and i-butane/n-butane ratios. These molecular alterations can be important tracers of natural seepage and should be considered in the atmospheric modeling of the relative contribution of fossil fuel (anthropogenic fugitive emission and natural geologic sources) versus biogenic sources of methane, on local and global scales.

This study answers a critical question facing the energy sector in the United States: how does natural gas compare to coal as a climate change mitigation technique? Although natural gas burns cleaner than coal, methane leakage potentially undermines the climate benefits of fuel switching. This study investigates the impact of methane leakage using a novel plant-level lifecycle emissions inventory of greenhouse gas emissions associated with coal mining, transportation, and combustion at 337 existing coal power plants in the United States. Individual plant emissions rates ranged from 901 to more than 2200 kgCO2e/MWh (100-yr GWP); generation-weighted average was 1046 kgCO2e/MWh. Our study finds that the “breakeven” leakage rates for natural gas to have short and long term climate benefits over coal range from 4.4 to 20.9%, depending on the timeframe, plant efficiency, and upstream coal emissions. Emissions benefits can be maximized by replacing highest emitting coal plants with new natural gas plants. Finally, we find fugitive methane emissions can limit carbon reductions from natural gas carbon capture; above 2% leakage, methane leakage reduces CCS benefits by up to half for 20-yr GWP.

Climate change has been identified as one of the today's great challenges, and mitigation likely requires policy intervention. As such, in 2015 the United States introduced the Clean Power Plan (CPP) which aims to reduce CO 2 emissions from electricity production 32% from 2005 levels by 2030 and the Paris Agreement, which seeks to reduce national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measured by global warming potential (GWP), 28% from 2005 levels by 2025. However, it remains unknown how the more narrowly-scoped CPP might affect the ability to achieve wider-scoped national GHG targets like the Paris Agreement. In our current state-of-world, characterized by inexpensive natural gas, the CPP will be met through large shifts from high-emitting coal power to less-emitting natural gas power, which translates to a 9.6% reduction in total US 100-year GWP without accounting for the fugitive methane. Spillover from fugitive methane could cut this reduction modestly by 0.2–1.4% or as much as 4.4% if evaluated using 20-year GWP – elucidating how different assumptions leads to different perspectives of natural gas as a "bridge fuel". The results here demonstrate the need to coordinate policies – either through additional policy (e.g. regulation of fugitive methane) or a larger-scoped CPP that includes upstream activities.

Air pollution, be it indoors or outdoors, is a major environmental health concern as it can lead to serious health effects, such as respiratory diseases, including asthma and lung cancer. Much progress has been made in Europe in improving outdoor air quality and limit values have been set for several pollutants. However, indoor air quality also requires attention because this is where we spend most of our time. Measurements at appropriate spatial and temporal scales are essential for understanding and monitoring heterogeneous environments with complex and highly variable emission sources, such as in urban areas. However, the costs and complexity of conventional air quality measurements methods means that measurement networks are generally extremely sparse. Low-cost, easy-to-use sensors to monitor air quality are exploded in recent years. They can be considered the “next-generation air monitors”. The data collected might be used to improve communities and, eventually, affect how air quality is monitored and regulated. They are marketed as tools to empower citizen to learn about the air they breathe and to use their findings to take actions. Therefore, the development of low-cost air quality sensors, an increasingly aware and engaged public, and a government more willing to accept and help citizen collect data could mark a turning point in how air pollution is monitored and addressed in the country. In this study, measures of reducing gases were taken in indoor and outdoor unconventional environments, poorly investigated in the past. The levels of these gases were investigated by means of a Sensordrone™ low-cost multi-sensor in a household kitchen and in three different gas stations. The results highlight that these sensors well interpret the qualitative behavior of the oxide - reduction reactions. Future technologies could link reducing gas’ concentrations with value of electrical resistance. These developments will allow a better control of human exposure to air pollution also in other sectors as biological treatments of waste and industrial sectors where fugitive emissions are still a problem.