Evaluating net life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions intensities from gas and coal at varying methane leakage rates

Dados Bibliográficos

ID15545871
AutoresDeborah Gordon (0000-0001-7767-1740, Brown University, autor correspondente), Frances Reuland (0000-0001-9463-7931, Rocky Mountain Institute), Daniel J Jacob (0000-0002-6373-3100, Harvard University), John R Worden (0000-0003-0257-9549, Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Drew Shindell (0000-0003-1552-4715, Duke University), Mark Dyson (Rocky Mountain Institute)
Ano2023
Volume18
Fascículo8
Páginas084008-084008
Data de publicação2023-07-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
EditoraIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ace3db
OpenAlexW4383065805
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas27

The net climate impact of gas and coal life-cycle emissions are highly dependent on methane leakage. Every molecule of methane leaked alters the climate advantage because methane warms the planet significantly more than CO 2 over its decade-long lifetime. We find that global gas systems that leak over 4.7% of their methane (when considering a 20-year timeframe) or 7.6% (when considering a 100 year timeframe) are on par with life-cycle coal emissions from methane leaking coal mines. The net climate impact from coal is also influenced by SO 2 emissions, which react to form sulfate aerosols that mask warming. We run scenarios that combine varying methane leakage rates from coal and gas with low to high SO 2 emissions based on coal sulfur content, flue gas scrubber efficiency, and sulfate aerosol global warming potentials. The methane and SO 2 co-emitted with CO 2 alter the emissions parity between gas and coal. We estimate that a gas system leakage rate as low as 0.2% is on par with coal, assuming 1.5% sulfur coal that is scrubbed at a 90% efficiency with no coal mine methane when considering climate effects over a 20 year timeframe. Recent aerial measurement surveys of US oil and gas production basins find wide-ranging natural gas leak rates 0.65% to 66.2%, with similar leakage rates detected worldwide. These numerous super-emitting gas systems being detected globally underscore the need to accelerate methane emissions detection, accounting, and management practices to certify that gas assets are less emissions intensive than coal

Coal · Coal mining · Enhanced coal bed methane recovery · Fossil fuel · Greenhouse gas · Methane · Natural gas · Waste management · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols · Chemistry · Coal Properties and Utilization · Engineering · Environmental Science · Environmental Engineering · Geology