Sources of variation in dC of fossil fuel emissions in Salt Lake City, USA

نویسندگان

  • S. E. Bush
  • D. E. Pataki
  • J. R. Ehleringer
چکیده

The isotopic composition of fossil fuels is an important component of many studies of C sources and sinks based on atmospheric measurements of CO2. In C budget studies, the isotopic composition of crude petroleum and CH4 are often used as a proxy for the isotopic composition of CO2 emissions from combustion. In this study, the C isotope composition (dC) of exhaust from the major fossil fuel emission sources in Salt Lake City, USA, was characterized with 159 measurements of vehicle exhaust of various types and eight measurements of residential furnace exhaust. These two sources were found to be isotopically distinct, and differed from global-scale estimates based on average values for crude petroleum and CH4. Vehicle-specific factors such as engine load and operation time had no effect on d C of vehicle exhaust. A small difference was found between the mean dC of vehicle exhaust collected randomly from different vehicles and the mean dC of gasoline collected from multiple fueling stations representing major gasoline distributors in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area. However, a paired comparison of dC of exhaust and gasoline for six different vehicles did not show any consistent C isotope fractionation during vehicle combustion. The mean dC of crude petroleum processed for local distribution differed slightly from refined gasoline collected at multiple fueling stations, but time lags between processing and transportation cannot be ruled out as an uncontrollable contributing factor. Measured isotope ratios were then combined with fuel consumption statistics to predict the annual cycle of dC of fossil fuel emissions for the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The results showed that the isotopic composition of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion varied by almost 3& over the course of the 2002 calendar year. This study illustrates that on a regional scale, the isotopic composition of fossil fuel emissions shows a high degree of both spatial and temporal variability that may influence characterization of C sources and sinks with atmospheric measurements. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 0883-2927/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2006.11.001 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (S.E. Bush).

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

High resolution atmospheric monitoring of urban carbon dioxide sources

[1] Estimates of fossil fuel emissions on local to regional spatial scales and hourly to weekly temporal scales are increasingly useful in studies of the carbon cycle and mass and energy flow in cities. We used a tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer (TDL) to measure CO2 mixing ratios and carbon isotope composition of CO2 in order to estimate the contribution of gasoline versus natural ga...

متن کامل

Early anthropogenic CH4 emissions and the variation of CH4 and CH4 over the last millennium

[1] This study presents a new hypothesis to explain the observed variation of CH4 and dC-CH4 over the last millennium. It was originally proposed that the observed minimum of dC-CH4 prior to the start of industrialization is caused by a large shift in biomass burning emissions between 1400 and 1700 A.D. According to our new hypothesis, however, the dC-CH4 minimum is the first sign of the global...

متن کامل

Local Research Catalyzes National Surgical Planning; Comment on “Global Surgery – Informing National Strategies for Scaling Up Surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa”

In 2015 the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS) argued that surgical care is important to national health systems along with the economic viability of countries. Gajewski and colleagues outlined how the Commission’s blueprint has been implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, including two funded research projects that were integrated into national surgical plans. Here...

متن کامل

Spatial and temporal disaggregation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the City of Cape Town

HOW TO CITE: Nickless A, Scholes RJ, Filby E. Spatial and temporal disaggregation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the City of Cape Town. S Afr J Sci. 2015;111(11/12), Art. #2014-0387, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/ sajs.2015/20140387 This paper describes the methodology used to spatially and temporally disaggregate carbon dioxide emission estimates for the City of Cape Town, to be use...

متن کامل

Sulfur dioxide emissions in Iran and environmental impacts of sulfur recovery plant in Tabriz Oil Refinery

Background: Combustion of fossil fuels contributes to sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. To deal with this issue, the government of Iran has appointed the oil refineries to upgrade their installations and produce high quality fuels. Thus, this study investigated the status of SO2 emissions in Iran and the capability of advanced technologies to control SO2 emissions. Methods: The status of SO2 em...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2007