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PhD Defense

ESE Ph.D. Defense | Jeff Rutherford - Characterizing the Greenhouse-Gas Impacts of Natural Gas Resources

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Event Details:

Energy Science & Engineering Dissertation Defense

 

Ph.D. Candidate
Jeff Rutherford

Date & TIme
Thursday, September 22, 10am PST

Dissertation Title
Characterizing the Greenhouse-Gas Impacts of Natural Gas Resources: A life-cycle assessment and evaluation of new and aerial technologies

Abstract
Greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas production will need to be reduced as society transitions to a renewable energy economy and production declines. However, the energy system has significant inertia: even in a world meeting 1.5 ºC of warming targets, natural gas consumption is estimated to be 50% of 2020 levels in 2050. Significant differences can exist in production emissions, both methane and carbon dioxide, between fossil fuel resources, and thus it is critical to develop metrics to minimize emissions during the energy transition. In this dissertation, we develop a new inventory-based model for methane emissions that agrees within error with recent field studies and allows for isolation of equipment-level contributions. Using this methane model, combined with a life-cycle emissions calculator, we estimate life-cycle emissions for natural gas production in the United States at the producing-county level. Results are aggregated and reported by basin. Future work should incorporate the results of new aerial remote sensing surveys into emission metrics. To this end, we perform a single-blind evaluation of the quantification capabilities of three airplane-based technologies.

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