Abstract
Improved technologies and approaches to reliably measure and quantify fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands operations are needed to accurately assess emissions and develop mitigation strategies that minimize the cost-impact of future production. While several methods have been explored, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of emissions from oil sand mines and tailings ponds suggests an ideal approach would continuously sample an area of interest with spatial and temporal resolution high enough to identify and apportion emissions to specific areas/locations within the measurement footprint. In this work we demonstrate a novel approach to estimating greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands tailings ponds and open-pit mines. The approach utilizes the GreenLITE™ gas concentration measurement system, which employs a laser absorption spectroscopy-based, open-path, integrated column measurement in conjunction with an inverse dispersion model to estimate methane (CH4) emission rates from an oil sands facility located in the Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada. The system was deployed for extended periods of time in the summer of 2019 and spring of 2020. CH4 emissions from a tailings pond were estimated to be 7.2 t/day for Jul–Oct 2019, and 5.1 t/day for Mar–Jul 2020. CH4 emissions from an open-pit mine were estimated to be 24.6 t/day for Sep–Oct 2019. Descriptions of the measurement system, measurement campaigns, emission retrieval scheme, and emission results are provided.
Highlights
Oils sands are a natural combination of sand, water, clay, and bitumen – a viscous hydrocarbon mixture – that are a source of unconventional petroleum and can be refined to produce crude oil
While all three regions are suitable for production using in situ “drilling in place” methods, such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) or steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), the Athabasca region is suited to surface mining due to the relatively shallow depth of bitumen deposits
In this work we demonstrate a novel approach to estimating greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands tailings ponds and open-pit mines with potential for broader applicability to both wide-area, diffuse emission sources and applications requiring leak source identification and quantification
Summary
Oils sands are a natural combination of sand, water, clay, and bitumen – a viscous hydrocarbon mixture – that are a source of unconventional petroleum and can be refined to produce crude oil. The largest known deposits of oil sands exist in Canada and Venezuela, with lesser deposits in Kazakhstan and Russia (Tong et al, 2018). Significant deposits of bitumen exist in the Canadian province of Alberta to include the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River regions (Vigrass, 1968; Mossop, 1980; Hubbard et al, 1999). After oil sands have been mined, the ore is mixed with hot water and chemical solvents to separate bitumen for extraction. Several factors can influence their emission rates, which include pond size; tailings discharge method, flow rate ,and location; tailings type and age; and local climatic conditions that include air temperature, wind, rain, and ice cover (Small et al, 2015). A similar set of factors can influence mine emission rates, including mine size, local climactic conditions, and mining activities
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