The study on H2S measurement and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation in an oil and gas field

Rui LI

13:30-14:30, 26 Sept., 2014

LAPC Auditorium

Abstract:

In recent years, the fast increase in oil and gas production due to the new hydraulic fracturing techniques in the U.S. may have impact on the trace gas emissions in those areas, and therefore the atmospheric chemistry and processing. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is recognized as an air toxic that is released associated with the oil and gas production. In this work, we characterized the humidity dependence of the instrument responses to H2S of PTR-MS, and explored its application for quantitative measurements of H2S in the air over an oil and gas field. Many VOCs observed from the oil and gas field are also present in the urban air, e.g. OVOCs and aromatics. However, their roles as being secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors are not well understood. A large fraction of ambient measurements of particles cannot be explained by most atmospheric model, which does not include Intermediate volatility of organic compounds (IVOCs) as SOA precursors. The oil spill over Gulf of Mexico in 2012 provided an accidental case for studying SOA formation from precursors with different volatility basis, and more efficient formation of SOA from IVOCs were observed. A laboratory study on the SOA formation from the oil vapors with different volatility using an oxidation flow reactor (OFR) will be presented in this talk. A box model developed to understand the photochemistry in OFR will also be discussed.

Speaker's bio: Rui Li is a Ph.D. candidate in University of Colorado at Boulder. She is in Joost de Gouw's Atmospheric VOC research group and working as a research assistant at Chemical Science Division in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA/ESRL CSD7) and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) at CU-Boulder. Her current research interests are in the measurements of trace gas emissions, their atmospheric processing in the oil and gas production regions and simulating secondary organic formation using oxidation flow reactors, as well as understanding the photochemistry in the reactors. She was awarded with CIRES graduate student fellowship and travel fellowship in 2011 and 2012. She has also been awarded with AAAR graduate student travel fellowship in 2014.