picarro drive-by emissions testing of refineries in new orleans and paper mills in mississippi...
DESCRIPTION
Picarro Director of Research and Development Chris Rella executed drive-by beyond-the-fenceline emissions data capture at multiple locations adjacent to refineries and paper mills in New Orleans and Mississippi. The drive-bys captured significant plume evidence of methane (a proxy for VOCs) and hydrogen sulfide (a toxic gas). The environmental justice community and the air quality regulatory community is starting to use our tools to measure the air. Picarro is democratizing the environmental justice field by making it incredibly simple to capture credible and precise emissions data from beyond the fenceline.TRANSCRIPT
2
Methodology
• Picarro CRDS CH4 & H2S instrument– ppb resolution for
both gases in just a few seconds
– Accurate, robust, and easy-to-deploy
• High resolution GPS• Batteries for mobile
operation
Gas snorkelGPS antenna
batteriesPicarro CRDS
Norco Refinery Area25 Jan 2010
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Local meteorology
• Weather station near to the Valero & Shell refineries
5
Looking into the wind
• Plume visible in close, mid-distance, and long distance transects
• Most distant transect is almost 6 miles away!
• Highest peaks are 1.5 ppmv above baseline
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Leak detection near Narco
• There is a sign right here that says “buried high pressure natural gas pipeline”
• Peaks are very high (several ppm of CH4)
wind
Chalmette Refinery Area25 Jan 2010
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Chalmette area
• No nearby weather stations, used this one
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Chamette Refining
wind
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Chalmette Refining, cont’d
• Near and far transects of the Chalmette Refining plume
• Peaks are 400 ppb above baseline levels
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Murphy Oil Refinery (looking downwind)
• Peaks are 1 ppmv above baseline levels
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Old Paris Road Landfill
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Two Landfills
2 miles
Unknown source
Bogalusa Linerboard Mill26 Jan 2010
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Local Meteorology
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Temple Inland Mill, Bogalusa, LA
• Manufactures linerboard – unbleached kraft
paperboard used for the flat facing material in corrugated container board (i.e., cardboard box)
• Capacity 770,000 kg / year
• Information courtesy of www.cpbis.gatech.edu
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Hydrogen sulfide measurements in Bogalusa
• Image facing ENE (i.e., ~ downwind)
• Hydrogen sulfide peaks are about 35 ppb high
• Measurements made from 11:15 – 12:00
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methane measurements in Bogalusa
• Very sharp, very high peaks of methane– Highest peaks are 2
ppm above background level
• Unknown source(s), both inside the Temple Inland fenceline, and outside
New Augusta Market Pulp Mill26 Jan 2010
20
Local Meteorology
Georgia Pacific Pulp mill
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Georgia Pacific Market Pulp Mill
• Manufactures market pulp– Pulp produced at one location, to
be sold and used at another location to make paper or board; includes bleached paper-grade chemical pulp, deinked (recycled) market pulp, dissolving pulp, cotton linter pulp
• Capacity 550,000 kg / year• Information courtesy of
www.cpbis.gatech.edu
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Hydrogen sulfide measurements in New Augusta
• Image facing E (i.e., ~ downwind)
• Hydrogen sulfide peaks are about 20 ppb high
• Stationary data collected at arrow locations
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methane measurements in New Augusta
• Source of methane near south end of mill
• Peaks are 350 ppb above baseline
Supplemental Slide
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Stationary Plume – methane / H2S midfield plume analysis – New Augusta mill
Methane appears to have a sharp secondary spike