Assessing the Methane Emissions from Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants and Oil Refineries

Presently, there is high uncertainty in estimates of methane (CH4), emissions from natural gas-fired power plants (NGPP) and oil refineries, two major end users of natural gas. Therefore, we measured CH4 and CO2 emissions at three NGPPs and three refineries using an aircraft-based mass balance technique. Average CH4 emission rates (NGPPs: 140 +/- 70 kg/h; refineries: 580 +/- 220 kg/h, 95% CL) were larger than facility-reported estimates by factors of 21-120 (NGPPs) and 11-90 (refineries). At NGPPs, the percentage of unburned CH4 emitted from stacks (0.01-0.14%) was much lower than respective facility-scale losses (0.10-0.42%), and CH4 emissions from both NGPPs and refineries were more strongly correlated with enhanced H2O concentrations (R-avg(2) = 0.65) than with CO2 (R-avg(2) = 0.21), suggesting noncombustion-related equipment as potential CH4 sources. Additionally, calculated throughput-based emission factors (EF) derived from the NGPP measurements made in this study were, on average, a factor of 4.4 (stacks) and 42 (facility-scale) larger than industry-used EFs. Subsequently, throughput-based EFs for both the NGPPs and refineries were used to estimate total U.S. emissions from these facility-types. Results indicate that NGPPs and oil refineries may be large sources of CH4 emissions and could contribute significantly (0.61 +/- 0.18 Tg CH4/yr, 95% CL) to U.S. emissions.