Airborne Measurements of the Atmospheric Emissions from a Fuel Ethanol Refinery
Joost A de Gouw1,2, Stuart A McKeen3,4, Kenneth C. Aikin5,6, Charles A Brock4, Steven S Brown7, Jessica Gilman4,8, Martin Graus9, Thomas F Hanisco10, John S Holloway4,8, Brian M Lerner4,8, Jennifer Kaiser11, Frank N Keutsch12, Jin Liao4,8, Milos Z Markovic13, Ann Middlebrook14, Kyung-Eun Min4,8, J A Neuman4,15, John B Nowak16, Jeff Peischl4,17, Ilana B Pollack18,19, Dr. James Roberts, PhD20, Thomas B Ryerson21, Michael Trainer4, Patrick R Veres4,8, Carsten Warneke5,8, Andre Welti22 and Glenn Wolfe10, (1)University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Chemistry, Boulder, United States, (2)University of Colorado Boulder - CIRES, Boulder, United States, (3)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, United States, (7)NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, (9)Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Meteorologie und Geophysik, Innsbruck, Austria, (10)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (11)Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atlanta, GA, United States, (12)University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (13)Environment Canada Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, (14)NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (15)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Boulder, United States, (16)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (17)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States, (18)NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (19)University of Colorado at Boulder, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences - CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (20)NOAA ESRL, Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (21)NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (22)ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract:
Ethanol made from corn now constitutes approximately 10% of the fuel used in gasoline vehicles in the United States. The ethanol is produced in over 200 fuel ethanol refineries across the country. In this work, we report measurements of the atmospheric emissions from the third largest fuel ethanol refinery in the U.S. located in Decatur, Illinois. Measurements were made from the NOAA WP-3D research aircraft during the NOAA Southeast Nexus (SENEX) campaign in the summer of 2013, which was part of the larger Southeast Atmosphere Study (SAS). Emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) agreed with reported emissions in the 2011 National Emissions Inventory (NEI-2011). In contrast, emissions of several volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including ethanol, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, were underestimated by an order of magnitude in the NEI-2011. By combining data from the NEI-2011 and fuel ethanol production numbers from the Renewable Fuels Association, we calculate emission intensities for SO2, NOx and VOCs, defined as the emissions per volume of fuel produced. These emission intensities can be readily compared to fuel-based emission factors from gasoline vehicles and the relative contributions made by fuel refining and fuel use to overall emissions will be quantified. Emission intensities of SO2 and NOx are particularly high for those fuel ethanol refineries that use coal as an energy source, including the plant in Decatur studied in this work. Finally, by comparing the measurements at different distances downwind, chemical transformation of the emissions could be observed, including the formation of new particles, peroxyacyl nitrates, ozone and sulfate aerosol.
