Emissions of Organic Compounds from Produced Water Ponds

Creators

Seth Lyman, Utah State UniversityFollow

Description

We measured fluxes of methane, a suite of non-methane hydrocarbons (C2-C11), light alcohols, and carbon dioxide from oil and gas produced water storage and disposal ponds in Utah (Uinta Basin) and Wyoming (Upper Green River Basin) United States during 2013-2016. In this paper, we discuss the characteristics of produced water composition and air-water fluxes, with a focus on flux chamber measurements. In companion papers, we will (1) report on inverse modeling methods used to estimate emissions from produced water ponds, including comparisons with flux chamber measurements, and (2) discuss the development of mass transfer coefficients to estimate emissions and place emissions from produced water ponds in the context of all regional oil and gas-related emissions.

Alcohols (made up mostly of methanol) were the most abundant organic compound group in produced water (91% of total volatile organic concentration, with upper and lower 95% confidence levels of 89 and 93%) but accounted for only 34% (28 to 41%) of total organic compound fluxes from produced water ponds. Non-methane hydrocarbons, which are much less water-soluble than methanol and less abundant in produced water, accounted for the majority of emitted organics. C6-C9 alkanes and aromatics dominated hydrocarbon fluxes, perhaps because lighter hydrocarbons had already volatilized from produced water prior to its arrival in storage or disposal ponds, while heavier hydrocarbons are less water soluble and less volatile. Fluxes of formaldehyde and other carbonyls were low (1% (1 to 2%) of total organic compound flux). The speciation and magnitude of fluxes varied strongly across the facilities measured and with the amount of time water had been exposed to the atmosphere. The presence or absence of ice also impacted fluxes.

Author ORCID Identifier

Seth Lyman https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8493-9522

OCLC

1078403750

Document Type

Dataset

DCMI Type

Dataset

File Format

.csv, .txt

Publication Date

12-18-2017

Funder

US Dept. of Energy

Publisher

Utah State University

Award Number

US Dept. of Energy 12122-15

Related Content

Lyman, S. N., Mansfield, M. L., Tran, H. N., Evans, J. D., Jones, C., O'Neil, T., ... & Keslar, C. (2018). Emissions of organic compounds from produced water ponds I: Characteristics and speciation. Sci. Total Environ., 619, 896-905.

Mansfield, M. L., Tran, H. N. Q., Lyman, S. N., Bowers, R. L., Smith, A. P., & Keslar, C. (2018). Emissions of organic compounds from produced water ponds III: Mass-transfer coefficients, composition-emission correlations, and contributions to regional emissions. Science of The Total Environment, 627, 860–868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.242

Tran, H. N. Q., Lyman, S. N., Mansfield, M. L., O’Neil, T., Bowers, R. L., Smith, A. P., & Keslar, C. (2018). Emissions of organic compounds from produced water ponds II: Evaluation of flux chamber measurements with inverse-modeling techniques. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 68(7), 713–724. https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2018.1426654

Language

eng

Code Lists

See attached ReadMe.txt for descriptions of parameters/variables.

Comments

This work was funded by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America and the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (Contract No. 12122-15)

Disciplines

Chemistry

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Lyman, S. (2017). Emissions of Organic Compounds from Produced Water Ponds. Utah State University. https://doi.org/10.15142/T3HK98

Checksum

7c70969b5759527e6ee314323428534b