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 (R2avg = 0.65) than with CO2 (R2avg = 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...