Using

Non-Methane Hydrocarbons (NMHC) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) ratios to separate air parcels and identify their sources
Victoria A. Walker Embry-Riddle Aeronau8cal University Mentors: Dr. Don Blake, JoseBe Marrero

Background - Alkanes
Fossil Fuel Combus,on Ethane Propane Butane Pentane X X X Liqueed Petroleum Gas (LPG) X X X X Natural Gas Biomass Burning X X X X X X X Ocean Vegeta,on X X X

i-/n- butane ra8o approximates if the source is natural gas, vehicular exhaust, or LPG i-/n- pentane ra8o determines if there is natural gas in the source
Alkane source informa8on: (Choi et al., 2003)

Propane v. CO for various locations

Parcel No. 1 Location

Parcel No. 2 Location

Parcel No. 3 Location

Why use Alkanes v. CO?

C2 - C4 (lighter) alkanes are associated with natural gas and LPG (Baker et al., 2008) C5 - C8 (heavier) alkanes are associated with tailpipe emissions and evaporated fuels (Baker et al., 2008) Alkane v. CO trends show if a parcel is predominant in the lighter or heavier alkanes

Ethane v. CO
Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3

Propane v. CO
Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3

n-Butane v. CO
Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3

n-Pentane v. CO
Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3

n-Hexane v. CO
Parcel 1 Parcel 2 Parcel 3

Parcel No. 1: i-/n-Pentane

Parcel No. 2: LPG

Parcel No. 3: Ethyne v. CO

Conclusions
Propane v. CO used to visually separate parcels Alkanes (C2-C6) v. CO used to asses poten8al sources i-/n- pentane used to iden8fy Parcel No. 1 Poten8al sources of LPG used to assess Parcel No. 2 Ethyne v. CO used to illustrate Parcel No. 3

Parcel No. 1: Oil Fields- evapora8ve processes/ natural gas Parcel No. 2: LPG Parcel No. 3: Biomass Burning

Future Research
Ground samples should be collected at or near the Port of Los Angeles and the Rancho LPG railroad
Determine the i-/n- butane ra8o for LPG in L.A. area

Acknowledgements
JoseBe Marrero Dr. Don Blake WAS Group Rowland-Blake Lab Dr. Emily Schaller Rick SheBer DC-8 Flight Crew UND NSERC NASA

References
Baker, A. K., A. J. Beyersdorf, L. A. Dozema, A. Katzenstein, S. Meinardi, I. J. Simpson, D. R. Blake, and F. S. Rowland (2008)., Measurements of nonmethane hydrocarbons in 28 United States ci8es, Atmos. Environ., Vol. 42, 170-182 Choi, Y., S. EllioB, I. J. Simpson, D. R. Blake, J. J. Colman, M. K. Dubey, S. Meinardi, F. S. Rowland, T. Shirai, and F. A. Smith (2003)., Survey of whole air data from the second airborne Biomass Burning and Lightning Experiment using principal component analysis, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 108, No. D5, 4163, doi: 10.1029/2002JD002841 Gilman, J. B., B. M. Lerner, W. C. Kuster, and J. de Gouw (2013)., Source signature of vola8le organic compounds (VOCs) from oil and natural gas opera8ons in northeastern Colorado, Environ. Sci. Technol., doi: 10.1021/ es304119a Simpson, I. J. , N. J. Blake, B. BarleBa, G. S. Diskin, H. E. Fuelberg, K. Gorham, L. G. Huey, S. Meinardi, F. S. Rowland, S. A. Vay, A. J. Weinheimer, M. Yang, and D. R. Blake (2010)., Characteriza8on of trace gases measured over Alberta oil sands mining opera8ons: 76 speciated C2C10 vola8le organic compounds (VOCs), CO2, CH4, CO, NO, NO2, NOy, O3 and SO2, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11931 11954.

Questions?