Caleb Sykora-Bodie

Slippery Rock University

Faculty Mentor: Don Blake
Student Mentor: Josette Marrero
Methane Contributions by Dairy
Operations in the Lower Central Valley Of
California
Methane as a Greenhouse Gas
! Second most anthropogenically emitted GHG
! Higher global warming potential than CO
2
on
a per molecule basis

! Anthropogenic Sources
! Livestock and oil and natural gas infrastructure
(ONG)
! Policy issues around quantification and
identification of point sources
! Creating a methane inventory to understand
how methane emissions are changing
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases.html
www.claremackintosh.com
industrialhousingsolutions.com
Central Valley and Sample Restrictions
! High concentration of Oil and
Natural Gas (ONG) Fields and
Dairies
! Whole Air Samples of the Central
Valley from SARP 2009-2014
missions
! Focused on the lower Central
Valley below a latitude of 36.90
! Pressure altitude below 3000 feet
! How do we separate out Dairies
and ONG fields?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)
Helpful Gases
! Dairies Emit
! Methane
! Ethanol
! Methanol
! ONG Fields Emit
! Methane
! Ethane
! Alkanes
! iso-Pentane
! n-Pentane
commons.wikimedia.org
Methane
Ethanol
Concentration Enhancements
! Background Concentrations
! Long-range transport
! Unknown man-made sources
! Natural sources
! All samples of any altitude over the Central Valley
! Uninfluenced by source emissions
! Lowest 10% of each year
! Enhancements
! Difference of restricted samples and background
concentrations
Methane and Ethanol Enhancements
Dairy and ONG Locations
Google Earth images
Dairy Operations Oil and Natural Gas Operations
Google Earth Oil Fields
Methane vs. Ethanol of the Central
Valley Sample Areas
Iso-Pentane vs. n-Pentane
iso-Pentane vs. n-Pentane of the Central
Valley Sample Areas
Iso-Pentane and n-Pentane Outliers
Methane vs. Ethanol of the Central
Valley Sample Areas Comparison
Methane and Methanol Enhancements
+
Methane vs. Methanol of Central Valley
Sample Areas
% Methane Calculation
Methane to Ethanol
Ratio=26.0
Conclusions
! Ethanol emissions were best VOC indicators of Dairy
Operations
! 60% is an approximation but, seems reasonable considering
the prominence of ONG and Dairy operations in the lower
Central Valley
! Dairy Operations are a significant source of methane
contribution to Central Valley air quality and policy based on
this contribution would be a reasonable decision
Acknowledgements
! Josette Marrero
! Dr. Donald Blake
! Rowland-Blake Lab
! Dr. Emily Schaller
! Rick Shetter
! NASA, UND & NSERC
! DC-8 Flight Crew
! Whole Air Sampling Group
! Dr. Julie Snow
Questions?