IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v251y2022ics0360544222007538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian oil sands supply chains to China

Author

Listed:
  • Sapkota, Krishna
  • Gemechu, Eskinder
  • Oni, Abayomi Olufemi
  • Ma, Linwei
  • Kumar, Amit

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to develop a bottom-up life cycle assessment model to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the Canadian oil sands supply to China. Two pathways were considered. In pathway I, extracted bitumen is sent to Edmonton for upgrading and pipelined to the Westridge terminal near Vancouver, then shipped to a port in China. In pathway II, extracted bitumen is mixed with diluent, directly pipelined to the Westridge terminal, and shipped to China. The results from both the pipeline and the shipping models suggest that pathway I has better GHG emissions than pathway II on a per-barrel basis. GHG emissions are 2.4–3.5 times lower in pipelining synthetic crude oil (SCO) to Westridge than in pipelining dilbit, without and with a diluent return. The emissions range from 826−401+701 g CO2 eq/bbl for SCO, 1819−719+1172 for dilbit without diluent return, and 2684−1065+1374 g CO2 eq/bbl for dilbit with a diluent return. Shipping SCO has 15% fewer emissions than shipping dilbit. The shipping emissions are due to fuel use in the main engine. The emissions for shipping are 5536−914+966 g CO2/bbl for dilbit and 4034−822+899 g CO2/bbl for SCO.

Suggested Citation

  • Sapkota, Krishna & Gemechu, Eskinder & Oni, Abayomi Olufemi & Ma, Linwei & Kumar, Amit, 2022. "Greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian oil sands supply chains to China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:251:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222007538
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123850
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544222007538
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2022.123850?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kelly Sims Gallagher & Fang Zhang & Robbie Orvis & Jeffrey Rissman & Qiang Liu, 2019. "Assessing the Policy gaps for achieving China’s climate targets in the Paris Agreement," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Nimana, Balwinder & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in upgrading and refining of Canada's oil sands products," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 65-79.
    3. Fergus Green & Nicholas Stern, 2017. "China's changing economy: implications for its carbon dioxide emissions," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 423-442, May.
    4. Yan, Xiaoyu & Crookes, Roy J., 2009. "Life cycle analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for road transportation fuels in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2505-2514, December.
    5. Tarnoczi, Tyler, 2013. "Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation of Canadian oil sands to future markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 107-117.
    6. Elzen, Michel den & Fekete, Hanna & Höhne, Niklas & Admiraal, Annemiek & Forsell, Nicklas & Hof, Andries F. & Olivier, Jos G.J. & Roelfsema, Mark & van Soest, Heleen, 2016. "Greenhouse gas emissions from current and enhanced policies of China until 2030: Can emissions peak before 2030?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 224-236.
    7. Joeri Rogelj & Michel den Elzen & Niklas Höhne & Taryn Fransen & Hanna Fekete & Harald Winkler & Roberto Schaeffer & Fu Sha & Keywan Riahi & Malte Meinshausen, 2016. "Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7609), pages 631-639, June.
    8. Wang, Qiang & Li, Shuyu & Li, Rongrong, 2018. "China's dependency on foreign oil will exceed 80% by 2030: Developing a novel NMGM-ARIMA to forecast China's foreign oil dependence from two dimensions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 151-167.
    9. Nimana, Balwinder & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the recovery and extraction of crude bitumen from Canada’s oil sands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 189-199.
    10. Mohammad S. Masnadi & Hassan M. El-Houjeiri & Dominik Schunack & Yunpo Li & Samori O. Roberts & Steven Przesmitzki & Adam R. Brandt & Michael Wang, 2018. "Well-to-refinery emissions and net-energy analysis of China’s crude-oil supply," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(3), pages 220-226, March.
    11. Nimana, Balwinder & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's oil sands-derived transportation fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 544-554.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mei Bai & Wen Li & Jin Xu, 2023. "Research on Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Methods of SBR and Anoxic Oxic Urban Sewage Treatment System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Ashton, Lisa, 2022. "A framework for promoting natural climate solutions in the agriculture sector," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rahman, Md. Mustafizur & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Well-to-wheel life cycle assessment of transportation fuels derived from different North American conventional crudes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 159-173.
    2. Sapkota, Krishna & Oni, Abayomi Olufemi & Kumar, Amit & Linwei, Ma, 2018. "The development of a techno-economic model for the extraction, transportation, upgrading, and shipping of Canadian oil sands products to the Asia-Pacific region," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 273-292.
    3. Di Lullo, Giovanni & Zhang, Hao & Kumar, Amit, 2017. "Uncertainty in well-to-tank with combustion greenhouse gas emissions of transportation fuels derived from North American crudes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 475-486.
    4. Guo, John & Orellana, Andrea & Sleep, Sylvia & Laurenzi, Ian J. & MacLean, Heather L. & Bergerson, Joule A., 2020. "Statistically enhanced model of oil sands operations: Well-to-wheel comparison of in situ oil sands pathways," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    5. Dai, Zhenxue & Zhang, Ye & Bielicki, Jeffrey & Amooie, Mohammad Amin & Zhang, Mingkan & Yang, Changbing & Zou, Youqin & Ampomah, William & Xiao, Ting & Jia, Wei & Middleton, Richard & Zhang, Wen & Sun, 2018. "Heterogeneity-assisted carbon dioxide storage in marine sediments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 876-883.
    6. Jiang, Jingjing & Ye, Bin & Liu, Junguo, 2019. "Peak of CO2 emissions in various sectors and provinces of China: Recent progress and avenues for further research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 813-833.
    7. Cui, Lianbiao & Li, Rongjing & Song, Malin & Zhu, Lei, 2019. "Can China achieve its 2030 energy development targets by fulfilling carbon intensity reduction commitments?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 61-73.
    8. Guo, Jianxin & Zhu, Kaiwei & Cheng, Yonglong, 2024. "Deployment of clean energy technologies towards carbon neutrality under resource constraints," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    9. Xu, Guangyue & Schwarz, Peter & Yang, Hualiu, 2020. "Adjusting energy consumption structure to achieve China's CO2 emissions peak," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Guo, Xuepeng & Pang, Jun, 2023. "Analysis of provincial CO2 emission peaking in China: Insights from production and consumption," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    11. Xue-Ting Jiang & Min Su & Rongrong Li, 2018. "Decomposition Analysis in Electricity Sector Output from Carbon Emissions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Radpour, Saeidreza & Gemechu, Eskinder & Ahiduzzaman, Md & Kumar, Amit, 2021. "Development of a framework for the assessment of the market penetration of novel in situ bitumen extraction technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    13. Hannouf, Marwa & Assefa, Getachew & Gates, Ian, 2021. "Carbon intensity threshold for Canadian oil sands industry using planetary boundaries: Is a sustainable carbon-negative industry possible?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    14. Rui Xing & Diego V. Chiappori & Evan J. Arbuckle & Matthew T. Binsted & Evan G. R. Davies, 2021. "Canadian Oil Sands Extraction and Upgrading: A Synthesis of the Data on Energy Consumption, CO 2 Emissions, and Supply Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, October.
    15. Hepburn, Cameron & Mealy, Penny, 2017. "Transformational Change: Parallels for addressing climate and development goals," INET Oxford Working Papers 2019-02, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, revised May 2019.
    16. Xu, Guangyue & Schwarz, Peter & Yang, Hualiu, 2019. "Determining China's CO2 emissions peak with a dynamic nonlinear artificial neural network approach and scenario analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 752-762.
    17. Nimana, Balwinder & Canter, Christina & Kumar, Amit, 2015. "Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's oil sands-derived transportation fuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 544-554.
    18. Duomin Wang & Yubin Huangfu & Zuoji Dong & Yiqi Dong, 2022. "Research Hotspots and Evolution Trends of Carbon Neutrality—Visual Analysis of Bibliometrics Based on CiteSpace," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-27, January.
    19. Yuan, Yongna & Duan, Hongbo & Tsvetanov, Tsvetan G., 2020. "Synergizing China's energy and carbon mitigation goals: General equilibrium modeling and policy assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Yu, Shiwei & Zheng, Shuhong & Li, Xia, 2018. "The achievement of the carbon emissions peak in China: The role of energy consumption structure optimization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 693-707.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:251:y:2022:i:c:s0360544222007538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.