CGE

Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Hands-on Training Workshop

Energy Sector

1.1
 Outline of course (continued)
 Fugitives
 References
 Coal mining and handling
 Oil and natural gas systems
 Data issues

1.2
 Energy Sector –
Fugitive Emissions

1.3
 Introduction
 Fugitives: the sum of emissions from
accidental discharges, equipment leaks,
filling losses, flaring, pipeline leaks, storage
losses, venting and all other direct emissions
except those from fuel use
 Mainly methane
 Entrained CO2 can be significant in some
cases
 Minor N2O emissions from flaring

1.4
 Sources of fugitives
 Solid fuels (primarily coal)
 mining, handling, processing and
storage
 Oil and natural gas systems
 exploration, production, processing,
refining, transmission, storage and
distribution

1.5
 Coal mining and handling
 Release of trapped methane during
mining
 In-situ methane content of coal can vary
widely
 Most fugitive emissions occur at the
mine
 Some residual emissions occur from
post-mining handling / processing
activities

1.6
 Surface vs. Underground
 Two types of coal mines
 Higher emissions for underground mines
 Emissions increase with depth of mine
 Emissions also depend on gas content of
coal
 Some gas may remain in the coal
 60%–75% gas released during mining activity

1.7
 Abandoned mines
 Emissions may continue after the mines
have stopped producing coal
 Typically, emissions decline rapidly once
deep mine coal production stops
 In some cases, emissions by the surrounding
strata may be significant and continue for
years afterwards.
 Coal waste or reject piles are minor source of
emissions
 Flooding of mines can prevent emissions

1.8
 Controlling emissions
 Degasification wells
 Gas conservation
 Flaring
 Use of catalytic combustors on the outlet of
ventilation systems for underground mines

1.9
 Monitoring and activity data
 Methane content of exhausted ventilation air
(Tier 3)
 Coal production (Tier 1 or 2)
 Imports and exports by type of coal
 Post-mining emission, likely to be minor
 Information on the depth of each mine
(Tier 2)

1.10
 Tier 1 and Tier 2

 Tier 1 global average emission factors

 Tier 2 country or basin-specific emission
factors based on actual CH4 content of coal
mined

1.11
 Tier 3: Underground mines
 Underground mines generally must have ventilation
and degasification systems for safety reasons
 Often also degasification wells around mining area
 Can use data to estimate emissions or to develop
more specific emission factors
 When methane recovery from degasification wells
occurs before mining, emission should be reported in
year coal was actually extracted

1.12
 Coal mining issues…
 Initial focus can be on most “gassy” mines for Tier 3
approach, and apply Tier 1 or 2 for other mines.
 Tier 3 not likely to be feasible for surface mines or
post-mining
 Methane recovered and combusted for energy
should be included in fuel combustion emissions
 No inventory method provided for coal fires
 Significant quantities of CO2 can also be released
during mining

1.13
 Coal mining data issues (cont.)
 Coal statistics usually include primary (hard coal and
lignite) and derived fuels (patent fuel, coke oven coke,
gas coke, brown coal briquettes, coke oven gas and
blast furnace gas). Peat may also be included.
 No information is typically provided on the method of
mining (i.e. surface or underground) or the depth of the
mines. A conservative approximation is to assume that
lignite coal is surface mined and bituminous and
anthracite coal is from underground mines.
 Some useful unpublished data, including mine depth,
are available from IEA upon special request.

1.14
 Coal mining references
 Coal statistics are available for most countries
from the
 U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

<www.eia.doe.gov>
 United Nations Statistics Department (UNSD)

<http://unstats.un.org/unsd/>
 International Energy Agency (IEA)

<www.iea.org>

1.15
 Oil and natural gas systems
 Equipment leaks
 Process venting and flaring
 Evaporation losses (i.e. from product storage
and handling, particularly where flashing
losses occur)
 Accidental releases or equipment failures

1.16
 Emission rates depend on…
 Characteristics of hydrocarbons being produced,
processed or handled
 Conventional crude oil i.e.,
methane content of fuel and
 Heavy oil leakiness of equipment
 Crude bitumen
 Dry gas
 Sour gas (more than 10 ppmv of hydrogen sulphide (H2S))
 Associated gas
 Equipment numbers, type and age
 Industry design, operating and maintenance practices
 Local regulatory requirements and enforcement

1.17
 Emissions from venting and
flaring depend on…
 The amount of process activity
 Operating practices
 On-site utilization opportunities for
methane
 Economic access to gas markets
 Local regulatory requirements and
enforcement

1.18
 Accidental releases…
 Difficult to predict
 Can be a significant contributor
 Can include:
 Well blowouts
 Pipeline breaks
 Tanker accidents
 Tank explosions
 Gas migration to the surface around the outside of
wells
 Surface casing vent blows
 Leakage from abandoned wells

1.19
 Size of the facility
 Oil and gas systems tend to include many
small facilities
 Exceptions
 Petroleum refineries
 Integrated oil sands mining and upgrading
operations
 Small facilities likely to contribute most of the
fugitive emissions
 Less information available for smaller
facilities

1.20
 Oil / Gas composition
Raw natural gas and crude oil contains:
 a mixture of hydrocarbons
 various impurities including H2O, N2, argon, H2S and
CO2
 Impurities are removed by processing, treating or
refining
H2S
 Sour gas if more than 10 ppmv of H2S
 Sweet gas if less than 10 ppmv of H2S
 The concentration of H2S tends to increase with the
depth of the well

1.21
 Acid gas
 By-product of the sweetening process to
remove H2S
 May contain large amounts of raw CO2
 Regardless of how processed…
 sulphur recovery unit
 flared or vented
 …the raw CO2 is released to the atmosphere

1.22
 Patterns of emissions
 Emissions increase as you go
upstream through system
 Emissions decrease with concentration
of H2S in the produced oil and gas

1.23
 Equipment leaks
 Tend to be continuous emitters
 Low to moderate emission rates
 All equipment leaks to some extent
 Only a few per cent of the potential sources
at a site actually leak sufficiently at any time
to be in need of repair or replacement.
 If less than 2% of the total potential sources
leak, the facility is considered well-
maintained

1.24
 Sources of equipment leaks
 Valves
 Flanges and other connections
 Pumps
 Compressors
 Pressure relief devices
 Process drains
 Open-ended valves
 Pump and compressor seal system degassing
vents
 Accumulator vessel vents
 Agitator seals
 Access door seals
1.25
 Trends in equipment leaks
 Less leakage as toxic nature of
material increases
 Less leakage where gas has been
odorized (thus less leaking in sour gas
sections of systems)
 More leakage where equipment is
subjected to frequent thermal cycling,
vibrations or cryogenic service

1.26
 Storage losses
 Boiling or flashing losses of methane
occur from storage tanks
 Occurs at production and processing
facilities where hydrocarbon liquid
flows directly from a pressure vessel
where it has been in contact with
natural gas

1.27
 Methodologies
 Tier 3: Requires detailed inventories of
equipment, infrastructure and bottom-up
emission factors
 Tier 2: Based on a mass balance estimate of
the maximum amount of methane that could
be emitted
 Only for oil systems
 Based on gas to oil ratios
 Tier 1: Uses national oil and gas production
data and aggregate emission factors

1.28
 Fugitives data
 Poor quality and incomplete data about
venting and flaring is common
 Contact industry representatives for standard
practices to split venting and flaring
 Data about equipment leaks at minor
facilities is unavailable or incomplete
 Well-site facilities
 Field facilities

1.29
 Fugitives data (cont.)
 Collection of activity data for fugitives
sources is difficult and resource intensive…
 There are no real shortcuts available
 First step can be to interview experts in
industry on common practices and
processes…
 …have them compare national practices with
those of countries with a known emissions
profile (e.g. an Annex I country).

1.30
 Venting and flaring data
 Flared if gas poses an odour, health or safety
concern
 Otherwise vented
 Often inconsistencies in vented and flared
volumes reported by companies
 Problem with some vented volumes being
reported as flared

1.31
 Oil and gas system data
issues
 International production data are expressed on a
net basis (i.e. after shrinkage, losses, reinjection,
and venting and flaring)
 Crude oil normally includes hydrocarbon liquids
from oil wells and lease condensate (separator
liquids) recovered at natural gas facilities. May
also include synthetic crude oil from oil sands
and shale oil
 Infrastructure data is more difficult to obtain than
production statistics

1.32
 Oil and gas system data
issues (cont.)
 Information on the numbers and types of major facilities,
types of processes used at these facilities, numbers and
types of active wells, numbers of wells drilled, and
lengths of pipeline are typically only available from
national agencies
 Information on minor facilities (e.g. wellhead equipment,
pigging stations, field gates and pump stations) may not
be available, even from oil companies
 The only infrastructure data potentially required for the
Tier 1 method are well counts and lengths of pipeline
 Facility information only required for IPCC Tier 3

1.33
Oil and gas system references
 Other methodology manuals:
 American Petroleum Institute (API) <www.api.org>
 Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)
<www.capp.ca>
 Canadian Gas Association (CGA) <www.cga.ca>
 Gas Technology Institute (GTI) <www.gastechnology.org>
 Oil and gas statistics:
 U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
<www.eia.doe.gov/neic/historic/hinternational.htm>
 United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)
<http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/inter-
natlinks/sd_natstat.htm and
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/databases.htm>
 International Energy Agency (IEA)
<www.iea.org/statist/index.htm>

1.34
Oil and gas system references
(cont.)

 Oil and Gas Journal <www.ogjresearch.com>:

 Some infrastructure data (number of wells, gas
plant listing, major project announcements)
 Worldwide refinery, pipeline and gas processing
projects
 Historical refinery, pipeline and gas processing
projects
 Worldwide oil field production survey
 Worldwide refining survey
 Worldwide gas processing survey
 Enhanced oil recovery survey

1.35
 Documentation & reporting

 Transparency and documentation are the

most important characteristic of national
inventories!
 Unless it is documented, then there is nothing
to show that it was done or done correctly
 Electronic reporting greatly facilitates the
work of the UNFCCC Secretariat

1.36
 Final remarks…

A national inventory is not a research project…

It is a national program that works closely with
statistical and research institutions to create
high quality emissions data.

1.37
 Quiz

20 minutes

1.38
 Quiz answers
 Energy Quiz 1 (key).doc

1.39
 Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
 Indirect greenhouse gases
 Fuel combustion activities are the most
significant anthropogenic source of NOx
 Energy industries
 Mobile sources
 Two formation mechanisms:
 "fuel NOx"
 “thermal NOx"

1.40
 Carbon monoxide (CO)
 Indirect greenhouse gas
 Majority from motor vehicles, but also from
small residential and commercial combustion
 Intermediate product of the combustion
process

1.41
 Non-Methane Volatile Organic
Compounds (NMVOCs)
 Indirect greenhouse gases
 Product of incomplete combustion
 Mobile sources and residential combustion,
especially biomass combustion
 Low emissions for large-combustion plants

1.42
 Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
 Aerosol precursor
 May have a cooling effect on climate
 Concentration increases with burning of
fossil fuels that contain sulfur
 Closely related to the sulfur content of fuels

1.43
 Quiz

20 minutes

1.44
 Quiz answers
 Fugitives Quiz 1 (key).doc

1.45
1.46
 EFDB exercise
 Look up available
CH4 emission
factors for
biomass–
agricultural
wastes used for
any type of fuel
combustion…

http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/EFDB/find_ef_s1.php

1.47
EFDB search results

1.48