In western Texas, the oil boom in the past several years has been associated with some...

 

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In western Texas, the oil boom in the past several years has been associated with some natural gas extraction from the same wells. However, for most of that time, the retrieved natural gas had no infrastructure to be delivered to power plants or consumers. Because it could not be collected and delivered without this infrastructure (like pipelines), the natural gas was flared (combusted) to release it as CO₂ instead of CH4. Estimates are that 985 billion ft3 of natural gas (CH4) has been retrieved and sent through flares in this region since 2013. However, a study showed that at least 7% of this methane was not actually combusted due to either unlit flares or malfunctioning flares. Taking into account that 44 kg CO₂ results from the combustion of 16 kg CH4 and the density of natural gas at 20.2 g/ft3, how many total Tg CO₂ would have been released from the combustion of the 7% of natural gas that was not flared since 2013? Another way to put it: how much CO₂ would have been released from flaring the volume of methane that was directly released instead since 2013? [Useful conversions: 1 Tg = 1 Teragram = 10 kg = 10¹2 grams] In western Texas, the oil boom in the past several years has been associated with some natural gas extraction from the same wells. However, for most of that time, the retrieved natural gas had no infrastructure to be delivered to power plants or consumers. Because it could not be collected and delivered without this infrastructure (like pipelines), the natural gas was flared (combusted) to release it as CO₂ instead of CH4. Estimates are that 985 billion ft3 of natural gas (CH4) has been retrieved and sent through flares in this region since 2013. However, a study showed that at least 7% of this methane was not actually combusted due to either unlit flares or malfunctioning flares. Taking into account that 44 kg CO₂ results from the combustion of 16 kg CH4 and the density of natural gas at 20.2 g/ft3, how many total Tg CO₂ would have been released from the combustion of the 7% of natural gas that was not flared since 2013? Another way to put it: how much CO₂ would have been released from flaring the volume of methane that was directly released instead since 2013? [Useful conversions: 1 Tg = 1 Teragram = 10 kg = 10¹2 grams]

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To calculate the total amount of CO2 released from the combustion of the 7 of natural gas that was n... View the full answer