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posted by martyb on Friday May 17 2019, @11:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the cow-abunga!? dept.

Phys.org:

Natural gas production in the United States has increased 46 percent since 2006, but there has been no significant increase of total US methane emissions and only a modest increase from oil and gas activity, according to a new NOAA study.

The finding is important because it's based on highly accurate measurements of methane collected over 10 years at 20 long-term sampling sites around the country in NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said lead author Xin Lan, a CIRES scientist working at NOAA.

"We analyzed a decade's worth of data and while we do find some increase in methane downwind of oil and gas activity, we do not find a statistically significant trend in the US for total methane emissions," said Lan. The study was published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters.

[...] Methane is a component of natural gas, but it can also be generated by biological sources, such as decaying wetland vegetation, as a byproduct of ruminant digestion, or even by termites. Ethane is a hydrocarbon emitted during oil and natural gas production and is sometimes used as a tracer for oil and gas activity. By measuring ethane, which is not generated by biologic processes, scientists had hoped to produce an accurate estimate of petroleum-derived .

A bit of good news.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Global Methane Emissions Soar to Record High 55 comments

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Global emissions of methane have reached the highest levels on record. Increases are being driven primarily by growth of emissions from coal mining, oil and natural gas production, cattle and sheep ranching, and landfills.

Between 2000 and 2017, levels of the potent greenhouse gas barreled up toward pathways that climate models suggest will lead to 3-4 degrees Celsius of warming before the end of this century. This is a dangerous temperature threshold at which scientists warn that natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts and floods, and social disruptions such as famines and mass migrations become almost commonplace. The findings are outlined in two papers published July 14 in Earth System Science Data and Environmental Research Letters by researchers with the Global Carbon Project, an initiative led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson.

In 2017, the last year when complete global methane data are available, Earth's atmosphere absorbed nearly 600 million tons of the colorless, odorless gas that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year span. More than half of all methane emissions now come from human activities. Annual methane emissions are up 9 percent, or 50 million tons per year, from the early 2000s, when methane concentrations in the atmosphere were relatively stable.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Friday May 17 2019, @11:54AM (9 children)

    by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 17 2019, @11:54AM (#844669)

    A bit of good news.

    I'd rather have the emissions go down. That would qualify as good news.

    The fact is that the emissions, seen as a whole, are too high for any sustainable future, whether it are methane or other problematic gasses. Therefore, having a flat emissions profile does not solve our problems. It may be a start, but that would require us to foresee a steep downward trend very soon now. However, I am not holding my breath for that to happen.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by pkrasimirov on Friday May 17 2019, @12:27PM

      by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 17 2019, @12:27PM (#844675)

      It's a downward trend because the other things like population and GDP rose. See here on Figure 3. https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions [epa.gov]

      Compare to Figure 3. here: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions [epa.gov]

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 17 2019, @12:37PM (6 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Friday May 17 2019, @12:37PM (#844678)

      Well, it does suggest that leakage per unit natural gas mined has fallen almost 32%, that's a pretty good sign. Especially in the face of worries that the move from coal to much lower carbon natural gas would actually worsen total greenhouse gas emissions due to the high leakage levels.

      On the other hand, it might just be a sign that oil fields are getting better at burning off the natural gas plumes, which I guess would be than nothing, but not nearly so heartening.

      • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday May 17 2019, @01:28PM (1 child)

        by BsAtHome (889) on Friday May 17 2019, @01:28PM (#844689)

        Well, it does suggest that leakage per unit natural gas mined has fallen almost 32%, that's a pretty good sign.

        That may be a good sign per unit mined, but is also says that we are using more gas resources, rather than fewer! They say, every cloud has a silver lining, but as it goes for our resource usage, it is pretty much a doomsday scenario even if some light ray passes on the edge.

        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 17 2019, @06:27PM

          by Immerman (3985) on Friday May 17 2019, @06:27PM (#844802)

          Yes it does. What makes it optimistic though is that natural gas usage is replacing coal, which produces roughly twice as much CO2 per kWh. (Not to mention the fly ash, radiation, and other really nasty coal emissions).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @01:34PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @01:34PM (#844691)

        > ... oil fields are getting better at burning off the natural gas plumes,...

        A friend who started out as a motor racing engineer has moved into an academic research position at one of the Ivy league schools. One of his projects is an IC engine designed to run on the natural gas that is normally flared (burned) in the gas & oil well fields. Turns out that gas straight from the well is pretty nasty, would normally get some treatment before it could be turned into normal natural gas fuel. The other reason it is normally flared off is there usually are no pipelines near new wells.

        The hope is that by burning this gas (otherwise wasted) in a genset, they can generate enough electricity to be useful--and it's a lot easier to add electricity to the grid with some temporary wires, than to add pipelines into the natural gas system.

        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 17 2019, @06:34PM (2 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Friday May 17 2019, @06:34PM (#844803)

          That's a good idea!

          Personally I'd love to see a huge carbon tax on flaring (and a much larger tax on venting without flaring) to shut the process down completely, rather than just throwing away valuable resources at a huge environmental impact, but I imagine that would be hard to bill effectively. If they can make converting it to electricity on-site cost effective that would at least help considerably.

          I wonder though just how cheap it would have to be to be cost effective - my impression is that most of the worst offenders are far from any electrical demand remotely on the same scale as the energy being wasted, so it wouldn't just be "some temporary power lines", but massive, long-range power lines, with the substantial costs and energy losses that incurs.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @10:50PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @10:50PM (#844866)

            From memory, they were thinking about something based on a small block Chevy V-8. Say a conservative 200 shaft horsepower or something in the range of 150 KW out of the generator. P = VA, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_distribution#Rural_services [wikipedia.org] says that a common rural distribution voltage is 34.5 kV in USA. That's something just over 4 amps, not a lot of current, but you do need high wires on decent insulators.

            I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to get a local power company to string wires for this, more difficult might be getting the electric company to pay you for your contribution to their grid--and taking away some of their revenue from their generating station(s).

            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 18 2019, @12:41AM

              by Immerman (3985) on Saturday May 18 2019, @12:41AM (#844892)

              >I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to get a local power company to string wires for this,
              Oh, I'm sure. Provided you're willing to pay for them. High-tension lines, which is what you'd want for moving large amounts of power, apparently cost about $400,000 per mile. Low-voltage residential lines apparently run about $125,000-$250,000 per mile (e.g. if you want your new ranch house connected to the grid). Probably not going to pay for itself very quickly...

              On the other hand, it sounds sounds like 100-150kW is roughly what it takes to operate a typical well pad, so that might actually be very handy, no power lines required - just use the gas to power the well to pump the oil. The real question is how much natural gas is flared off from a typical well? I couldn't find that directly, but some estimates:

              North Dakota:
              527 million cubic feet flared per day -- https://www.grandforksherald.com/business/energy-and-mining/4548181-north-dakota-natural-gas-flaring-hits-record-high-improvement [grandforksherald.com]
              North Dakota has 15,000 oil wells -- https://www.americanexperiment.org/2018/09/gusher-north-dakota-four-times-oil-estimated/ [americanexperiment.org]

              So, 527e6/15e3 = 35,000 cubic feet per day, per well. And 1 cubic foot of natural gas contains about 0.3kWh of energy.
              So, an average ND well is flaring gas at a rate of 440 kW of chemical energy. Figure 33% efficiency, and that would be just about 150kW. That could actually work out quite nicely, have each well mostly power itself with only a trickle of power needed between them to balance out the imperfections.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday May 18 2019, @12:15AM

      by bob_super (1357) on Saturday May 18 2019, @12:15AM (#844887)

      > However, I am not holding my breath for that to happen.

      Unless you're a ruminant, that doesn't actually help much, but thanks for the effort.

  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday May 17 2019, @12:53PM (2 children)

    by Alfred (4006) on Friday May 17 2019, @12:53PM (#844681) Journal
    Will anyone think of the cows (and the cute baby calves) that have been slaughtered to bring this number down?
  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday May 17 2019, @01:41PM (1 child)

    by RS3 (6367) on Friday May 17 2019, @01:41PM (#844694)

    In other news, sales at Taco Bell and Chipotle have been declining.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:17PM (#844707)

      Taco Bell isn't nearly as bad as McD's and Chipotle. When I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy I eat at McD's instead of taking the drain cleaner the doctor prescribes... Cleans me out just fine. Chipotle on the other hand causes severe backflow, then an uncontrolled explosive blowout.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 17 2019, @04:17PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday May 17 2019, @04:17PM (#844760) Journal

    Cows don't fart! Their methane emissions are from burping.

    John Oliver begged for that to NOT be the only thing I remember from last week's episode but I FAILED!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 18 2019, @05:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 18 2019, @05:41AM (#844943)

    There was basically the exact opposite article about how Canada's tar sands were emitting more methane than expected. I pointed out a bunch of reasons why the observation shouldn't be considered gospel just yet.

    Unfortunately, that's at least partially true here as well. On the one hand, this is still a wide open area where the data has to interact with the natural environment. On the other hand, the Canadian study was just one set of aerial observations. This is done over a long period of time, so it is more credible in some ways.

  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday May 18 2019, @10:33AM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday May 18 2019, @10:33AM (#844975) Homepage Journal

    America's Oil & Gas Industry, at one time, was the envy of the entire World. The absolute envy. Until Cheatin' Obama took office. Bringing the Deepwater Horizon fiasco. So horrible, many people & many beautiful birds & eagles dieing (RIP!!). And, so much of our precious Oil & Gas wasted in that one.

    I talked to American Petroleum Institute. And asked, what can we do to make American Oil & Gas Great Again? They said, "Sir, the Regulatory Burden has become so horrible. So horrible because Cheatin' Obama has us looking at our blowout preventers all the time. When we could be producing!" We listened, folks. And did MASSIVE REFORM. To take away the burden. And make our Industry the smartest, and safest anywhere. bsee.gov/newsroom/latest-news/statements-and-releases/press-releases/BSEE-sustains-safety-and-environmental [bsee.gov]

    Tuesday, it was my great honor and pleasure to visit Hackberry, Louisiana. For the opening of the magnificent new Sempra Energy facility. Known as Cameron LNG. Liquid Natural Gas. They take the Natural Gas. That Mother Nature gives us. And -- this is very special -- they make it Liquid. Turn it into a Liquid Asset. It's called the Liquefy. And they're going to be selling that LNG all over the World. I made a tremendous deal with Germany, they're going to be buying our LNG. Instead of bringing the Natural Gas from Russia. Great deal for U.S.A. But, not so great for Russia, right? Believe me, the Russians hate me for that one!

    Sempra, this is a company that came from High Tax, High Crime California. From San Diego where immigrants are flooding into our Country. And invested $10 BILLION in Louisiana. With incredible grit, skill, and pride, the 7,000 workers at Sempra Energy -- men, women & children -- are helping lead the American Energy Revolution. They are not only making our nation WEALTHIER but they are making America SAFER by building a future of American Energy INDEPENDENCE! Making America into the energy superpower of the world! MAGA!!!! pscp.tv/w/b6sdtjFvTlFsTFJub1dwUXd8MXJtR1BlQnJ5TmJKTmdXt1K4uoQ-a30yuXIlrj6Eg8kNT7V333RGl2cEEox- [www.pscp.tv]

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