AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Real-World Emission Characterization in the Canadian Oil Sands Region
XIAOLIANG WANG, Steven Kohl, Judith Chow, John Watson, Desert Research Institute
Abstract Number: 543 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract The Athabasca Oil Sands Region of northern Alberta, Canada, contains about 170 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen. Crude oil derived from this bitumen is projected to increase from 1.5 to 3.5 million barrels/day from 2010 to 2025. This large-scale oil production and processing has raised environmental concerns, including potential adverse effects on air and water quality, ecosystems, human health, and climate change. Emissions from different types of heavy haulers, major stacks at mining and upgrading facilities, and fugitive dust from roads, tailings ponds, construction, and natural surfaces were characterized in this study. Dilution sampling systems were used to measure emissions from heavy haulers and stacks. It was found that emissions from most tested trucks were within the voluntary Canadian off-road Tier 1 emission limits for carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and PM2.5. Stack emission rates of major air pollutants were found to be lower than the emission guidelines for each stack during the test period, except that one of the stacks emitted 10% higher NOx than the guideline during the winter testing period. Major components in the stack emitted PM2.5 included ammonium sulfate or sulfuric acid droplets. Geological materials were collected from potential fugitive dust generation surfaces and resuspended for chemical analysis. Compared to background soil samples, most samples near oil sands operations were enriched with sulfate, high molecular weight n-alkanes, hopanes, and steranes. Real-world emission characterization aims to improve the accuracy of emission rates and chemical compositions that can be used to improve emission inventories, model emission transport and dispersion, verify source contributions, and evaluate effectiveness of emission reduction measures.