Measuring carbon dioxide emissions from liquefied natural gas (LNG)
terminals with imaging spectroscopy
Abstract
The rapid growth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports underscores the
importance of CO2 monitoring for LNG export terminals. This study
presents a method for measuring CO2 emissions using remote sensing
imaging spectroscopy applied to LNG terminals. The method is first
validated using 47 power plant emission events with in situ measured
data, then applied to 22 emission events in Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG
terminals. The power plant dataset shows a robust correlation between
our emission rate estimates and in situ data, with R2 0.9146 and the
average error −2%. At Sabine Pass, 8 point sources are identified with
emission rates ranging from 219.69 ± 54.95 to 1083.22 ± 308.06 t/hr. At
Cameron, 3 point sources are identified with emission rates ranging from
91.64 ± 25.81 to 265.61 ± 67.80 t/hr. This study illustrates the
potential of remote sensing to validate environmental reporting and CO2
inventories for industrial facilities.