Catalytic Heaters at Oil and Gas Sites May be a Significant yet Overlooked Seasonal Source of Methane Emissions.

ABSTRACT: Successful reduction of oil and gas sector methane emissions to meet near-zero intensity targets requires the identification and mitigation of all possible sources. One potentially important source is catalytic heaters, which have largely escaped attention in regulatory and mitigation efforts despite being ubiquitous at upstream production sites in cold climate regions. This study reports direct in situ measurements of the exhaust streams of 38 natural gas-fired catalytic heaters at upstream production sites in British Columbia, Canada. All heaters in the sample showed consistently poor methane conversion with mean destruction efficiencies of 61 ± 5% while releasing 235 [+31/-28] g of methane per cubic meter of fuel. Although individual units are generally small methane sources (mean of 0.

SUBMITTER: Festa-Bianchet SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11391573 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature