Comparative Human Toxicity Impact of Electricity Produced from Shale

Oct 10, 2017 - Two different impact assessment methods estimate the HTI of shale gas electricity to be 1–2 orders of magnitude less than the HTI of ...
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Comparative Human Toxicity Impact of Electricity Produced from Shale Gas and Coal Lu Chen, Shelie A. Miller, and Brian R. Ellis Environ. Sci. Technol., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b03546 • Publication Date (Web): 10 Oct 2017 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on October 12, 2017

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Environmental Science & Technology

Shale Gas

Coal

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Comparative Human Toxicity Impact of Electricity Produced from Shale Gas and Coal

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Authors: Lu Chen1,2, Shelie A. Miller1,2*, Brian R. Ellis2

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Affiliations: 1

Center for Sustainable Systems, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor MI 48109 2

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor MI 48109 *Corresponding author: Shelie A. Miller, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor MI 48109; 734-7638645; [email protected] Keywords: hydraulic fracturing, risk assessment, life cycle assessment

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The human toxicity impact (HTI) of electricity produced from shale gas is lower than the HTI of

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electricity produced from coal, with 90% confidence using a Monte Carlo Analysis.

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different impact assessment methods estimate the HTI of shale gas electricity to be one-to-two

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orders of magnitude less than the HTI of coal electricity (0.016-0.024 DALY/GWh versus 0.69-

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1.7 DALY/GWh). Further, an implausible shale gas scenario where all fracturing fluid and

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untreated produced water is discharged directly to surface water throughout the lifetime of a well

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also has a lower HTI than coal electricity. Particulate matter dominates the HTI for both

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systems, representing a much larger contribution to the overall toxicity burden than VOCs or any

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aquatic emission. Aquatic emissions can become larger contributors to the HTI when waste

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products are inadequately disposed or there are significant infrastructure or equipment failures.

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Large uncertainty and lack of exposure data prevent a full risk assessment; however, the results

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of this analysis provide a comparison of relative toxicity, which can be used to identify target

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areas for improvement and assess potential tradeoffs with other environmental impacts.

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Introduction

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operations. Recent studies quantify water quality issues associated with shale gas,1-3 although the

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magnitude and frequency of contamination events are still not well documented. While concerns

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of water contamination and VOC emissions associated with shale gas production may be

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warranted, it is also important to contextualize the potential human toxicity impacts of shale gas

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relative to other sources of electricity.

Potential contamination of drinking water is a major concern surrounding hydraulic fracturing

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A growing number of studies investigate the potential environmental impacts related to

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hydraulic fracturing. A recent analysis suggests that spills of fracturing fluid could impact soil

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health due to the ionic strength of flowback water, although the study found that human health

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concerns were minimal.4 A variety of studies have highlighted concerns regarding major water

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withdrawals and contamination events due to stray gas leakage, accidental spills, and wastewater

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disposal.3,

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fracturing, although some localized analyses are being conducted.8 VOC signatures from winter

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haze events have been linked to the Bakken,9 although it is difficult to differentiate between

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activities associated with hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas extraction activities. Other

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analyses suggest the contribution of VOCs to changes in air quality is minimal,8, 10 indicating the

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need for further investigations into VOC emissions associated with hydraulic fracturing.

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Additional studies have begun to assess the toxicity of components of fracturing fluids and

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flowback water.11

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on a variety of environmental concerns, including greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and

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criteria air emissions;1,

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analysis comparing electricity produced from shale gas and coal.

5-7

Data are scarce regarding changes to air quality associated with hydraulic

Life cycle assessments of electricity produced from shale gas have focused 12-16

however, there does not appear to be a comprehensive toxicity

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The relative human toxicity impact (HTI) of electricity produced from shale gas and coal

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are compared to better understand how increased penetration of shale gas will affect overall toxic

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releases associated with the power sector. HTI is commonly used within life cycle assessment to

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quantify the inherent toxicity burden associated with emissions from a product or process.17 The

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HTI is measured as disability-adjusted life years per unit of electricity generation (DALY/GWh)

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and is calculated by means of generic fate and exposure assumptions applied consistently across

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all systems. The HTI serves as a useful screening metric and an initial step toward a full risk

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assessment. Characterization factors (CFs), sometimes referred to as human toxicity potentials

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(HTP), estimate human health damage for a wide range of chemicals and are expressed as

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DALY/kg emission. The results of life cycle impact assessment are subject to a great deal of

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variability and uncertainty. Therefore, this analysis uses a variety of approaches to test the

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robustness of the results. Two scenarios, representing a baseline case and an accidental release

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scenario, are used to examine different sets of potential assumptions. Both the USEtox 2.0 and

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ReCiPe 2016 impact assessment methods are used to demonstrate how different sets of CFs may

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influence the results.18, 19 Local sensitivity analysis in the form of one-at-a-time perturbation is

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used to assess the degree of influence associated with individual parameters. Finally, Monte

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Carlo Analysis is used as a global sensitivity method to simulate how both variability and

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uncertainty across parameter ranges affect the outcome of the analysis.

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This study conducts a comparative analysis of the toxicological human health effects of

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electricity produced from shale gas and coal. Human toxicity is a single life cycle impact

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assessment indicator and is not a comprehensive analysis of environmental factors. A complete

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life cycle assessment (LCA) should include a broader suite of impacts, including climate change,

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ecosystem quality, resource depletion, land use, and water use. The evolving nature of research

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on the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing is characterized by data limitations and lack

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of consensus on individual indicators such as climate change.20 Focused, in-depth analyses on

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discrete indicators are still needed to be able to compile the necessary information to complete a

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comprehensive LCA. Therefore, the results of this analysis on human toxicity must be used

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alongside compatible studies focusing on other indicators in order to understand the overall

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environmental context.

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Methods The scope of this analysis is a human toxicity impact assessment of direct chemical

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emissions associated with shale gas and coal electricity.

The inventory includes chemical

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emissions that occur during resource extraction and electricity generation, the stages with the

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greatest associated toxicity. Baseline case and accidental release scenarios are constructed for

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both energy systems. The baseline scenario approximates normal operating conditions, while the

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accidental release scenario simulates major unintended releases of emissions for each system to 3

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calculate an upper toxicity limit. For the shale gas system, the study includes aquatic emissions

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of fracturing fluid chemicals and produced water associated with shale gas extraction, air

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emissions of NOx, PM, and VOCs during shale gas extraction, and emissions of PM, VOCs, NOx

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and SOx during electricity generation. To compensate for data scarcity associated with shale gas

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production and improve confidence in the robustness of the results, the toxicity of the shale gas

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system is overestimated whenever there is insufficient or missing data. For the coal system, the

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study estimates the toxicity associated with effluent loadings from coal mine outfalls, air

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emissions of PM, Hg, VOCs, NOx, and SOx during electricity generation, and aqueous emissions

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from coal ash impoundments. For the coal accidental release scenario, emissions of metals

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associated with a coal ash spill are also included.

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transportation, infrastructure, and cooling water are not included in the analysis, due to minor

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contributions to overall toxicity.1, 21 Figure 1 depicts the shale gas and coal systems.

Chemical emissions associated with

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.

106 107 108

a)

b)

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Figure 1. a) Sketch of shale gas electricity system, including hydraulic fracturing operations and electricity generation; b) Sketch of coal electricity system, including coal mining and electricity generation.

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Pennsylvania is used as the point of origin for both shale gas and coal, given the

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abundance of both sources of energy within the region. When Pennsylvania specific data are not

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available, alternate datasets are used that can be reasonably assumed to be consistent with coal 4

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and shale gas resources originating from the region. National averages are used for efficiency

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and air emissions associated with natural gas and coal electricity generation, as the resources

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produced within the region are distributed nationally.22

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Human Toxicity Calculations

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Chemical emissions that have a direct toxicological effect on human health are included in the

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analysis. Factors that are non-toxicity related (e.g., noise, light, stress), have an indirect effect on

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human health (e.g., ozone depletion, climate change), or cause environmental damage not related

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to human health (e.g., salinity, pH, turbidity) are outside the scope of the analysis. Toxic releases

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are measured using disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per GWh of electricity produced. A

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DALY is a common metric to measure impact on human health and corresponds to the number

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of years lost due to poor health, disability, or premature death. 18, 19

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To calculate HTI of electricity produced from coal and shale gas, the USEtox 2.0 (released in

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2015) and ReCiPe 2016 characterization factors are used.18, 19 USEtox and ReCiPe are impact

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assessment methods that estimate the toxicity of a given quantity of emissions by providing CFs

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that estimate human health damage for a wide range of chemicals. Human toxicity CFs are

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averages for North America. Both USEtox and ReCiPe are long-term exposure assessment

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methods and consider the impact on the general population. The time horizon is 100 years for

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USEtox and infinite for ReCiPe’s Egalitarian assumptions. Human health impacts due to acute

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workplace exposures are not taken into account. USEtox 2.0 is a scientific consensus model

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recommended as the preferred database for calculating HTI by the United Nations Environment

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Programme and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s Life Cycle Initiative.

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ReCiPe was developed by a consortium of life cycle assessment practitioners. The two methods

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were developed independently and both provide endpoint level CFs for carcinogenic and non-

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carcinogenic toxicity. Life cycle impact assessment is an accepted method to quantify the

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relative hazard and importance of pollutants when data for a full-scale risk assessment are not

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available.23

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CFs from both models are reported due to the large degree of uncertainty in developing

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appropriate CFs and differences in CFs for key constituents of this analysis. The sensitivity 5

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analysis addresses concerns regarding CF uncertainty in greater detail. Eqn. 1 is the generic form

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for calculating HTI for an individual emission.

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 =  × 

Eqn. 1.

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Where i represents each unique chemical,  is the human toxicity impact for each emission

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(DALY/GWh),  is the characterization factor for each chemical (DALY/kg emission),  is

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the emissions of each chemical associated with a given amount of electricity generation

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(kg/GWh). Total HTI ( ) for life cycle electricity generation is the sum of the individual

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chemical impacts (Eqn. 2).

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 = ∑ 

Eqn 2.

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The HTI of PM reported in this analysis is the aggregate human health damages resulting

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from both PM2.5 and PM10 formed from both primary (directly emitted to the atmosphere) and

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secondary (generated by chemical reactions associated with emissions such as NOx and SOx)

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sources.

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PM has a different mechanism for impacting human health than other chemicals in the

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inventory and the CF for PM is derived via a different approach. The ReCiPe model contains a

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CF for PM2.5, as well as for NH3, NOx, and SO2, which contribute to secondary PM aerosol

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formation. USEtox does not include a CF for PM, so the USEtox method is supplemented with a

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method described by Gronlund et al.

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and thirteen coal-fired power plants within Pennsylvania are used to calculate the HTI of PM,

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using production-weighted averages of electricity generation for each plant.25 The Supporting

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Information contains relevant assumptions and calculations for the HTI of PM.24, 25

24

Emission data collected from twenty-three natural gas

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Shale Gas

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In an effort to be conservative due to uncertainty and lack of data, assumptions are made to

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overestimate the potential toxic emissions for the shale gas baseline whenever limited data

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inhibit the analysis. A number of pathways exist for chemicals within fracturing fluid and 6

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produced water to enter the environment. Potential emission pathways include storage failures of

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fracturing fluids and produced water at the surface, produced water migration through the

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subsurface into groundwater, contamination from faulty casings, and as effluent from wastewater

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treatment plants.26

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To estimate potential releases of fracturing fluid chemicals, baseline and accidental

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release scenarios are constructed. Data from 2990 wells from FracFocus within Pennsylvania are

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used, containing a total of 368 chemicals. FracFocus 3.0 is a machine-readable database that

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includes self-reported chemicals used in fracturing fluid formulations from over 62,000 wells

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throughout the United States.27 The ID number, total fracturing fluids volume, purpose of each

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chemical (corrosion inhibitor, proppant, etc.), and the concentration of each component were

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recorded for each well. To account for differences in chemical compositions due to geographic

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and operational variations, average well information for each Pennsylvania County represented

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in FracFocus as of October 2015 was used. Not all wells use the same chemicals, so the average

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concentration was used for the 100 most frequently used chemicals from 2010 to 2015 (Table

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S1). Most of the fracturing formulations surveyed within FracFocus include less than 40

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chemicals, so using the average concentration of the 100 most frequently used chemicals

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overestimates the HTI for shale gas.

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Table 1. Assumptions used for baseline and accidental release shale gas scenarios and parameter ranges found

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within the literature for comparison.

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Information.

Calculations and further justifications are found within the Supporting

201 Parameter

Unit

Average fracturing fluid volume

m3/well

Flowback water percentage share of injected fluid Produced water percentage share of injected fluid Shale gas electricity generation efficiency Shale gas well lifetime span Shale gas production volume Barium removal efficiency Fracturing fluid release rate

Baseline case 13000

Accidental release 13000

Literature Range 3500-26000

Reference 27

%

15

15

10-15

%

5

5

1-7

Mcf / kWh year MMcf %

0.0101

0.0101

28-30

15 4300 90

15 4300 0

0.009640.0134 5-30 1600-9000 0 – 99

% released

1

100

See details in text

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Currently, no database exists that systematically records spills and other releases.35 The baseline

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case is conservative to compensate for data gaps in toxicity and chemical composition. The

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baseline case assumes that 1% of fracturing fluids are emitted to surface water without any

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treatment, although the discharge could occur via any of the potential emissions release

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mechanisms. A recent study estimated the total known spill volume of fracturing fluid from 6000

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wells to be 174 m3 from 2008 to 2013,35 averaging 0.03 m3 per well during that period. The

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assessment report from the EPA lists the median spill volume as 1.6 m3 per well that reports a

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spill (range 0.19-72 m3), with 0.4-12.2 spills per 100 wells, which is similar to data reported

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elsewhere.36, 37, although it does not necessarily account for spills that go unreported. Of the

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spills that are reported, the EPA estimates that only 9% of spills reach surface water. Assuming

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13000 m3 of fracturing fluid for each well (Table 1),27 a more reasonable spill rate is 0.001% of

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injected fluids, as opposed to the 1% assumed in the baseline scenario.

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In addition to fracturing fluids injected into the wells, produced water has the potential to

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contaminate drinking water sources. The chemical composition of flowback and produced water

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are different, with larger concentrations of naturally dissolved materials in produced water than

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flowback water. Some of the chemicals in produced water, especially organic compounds,

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originate from the injected fracturing fluids. It is difficult to differentiate naturally-occurring

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organic compounds from those that derive from fracturing fluid formulations. Because of the

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difficulty distinguishing between the sources of chemicals, all chemicals within produced water

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are treated as a separate source of emissions, effectively double-counting the fracturing fluid

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chemicals contained in produced water. The volume of flowback and produced water is assumed

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to be 20% of the injected water volume and have the average chemical composition of a

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compilation of 35,000 data entries for the Marcellus shale gas region reported by Abualfaraj et

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al.38 (Table S2).

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Produced water from hydraulic fracturing operations is assumed to be sent to a dedicated

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water treatment plant, which is the most common method of disposal in Pennsylvania.39

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Alternative methods of disposal include injection into Class II disposal wells and recycling for

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additional shale gas extraction operations.

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Chemical constituents of produced water can enter surface water via the same

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mechanisms as fracturing fluids, and also as effluent from wastewater treatment due to 8

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incomplete removal. For the baseline shale gas case, 10% of the chemicals within produced

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water are assumed to be discharged to surface water. For context, a recent study estimated the

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total known spill volume of produced water from 6000 wells to be 473 m3 from 2008 to 2013,35

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averaging 0.079m3 per well. The assessment report from the EPA lists the median spill volume

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of produced water as 37.5 m3 per well that reports a spill, with 0.4-12.2 spills per 100 wells.

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Assuming 2700 m3 of produced water per well (Table 1), then the spill rate of produced water is

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likely less than 1%. In addition, some fraction of the constituents of produced water are

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discharged as effluent from the wastewater treatment facility, so the overall estimate of 10%

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discharge is assumed to be reasonable and likely an overestimate for the baseline case.

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The accidental release scenario for shale gas assumes 100% of injected fracturing fluid

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and 100% of produced water is directly discharged to surface water over the entire lifetime of the

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well. While this scenario is highly improbable, it provides a maximum threshold for possible

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toxicity loads associated with shale gas.

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For air emissions from shale gas fields, values are obtained from a comprehensive study

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by Roy et. al, which quantifies total load of NOx, PM2.5, and VOC emissions per well associated

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with hydraulic fracturing operations.40 Their study estimates total load, but does not provide

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compositional analysis of VOCs. In the absence of compositional data from this study, the CF

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for benzene was used for all VOCs in this analysis. VOC composition from oil and gas sites tend

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to have significant proportions of alkanes and alkenes that have lower toxicity than aromatics.

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Therefore, the use of the benzene CF is considered an overestimation of VOC contribution to

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HTI.

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Coal

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An EPA study on coal mine discharge41 was used in conjunction with annual

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Pennsylvania coal production estimates42 to estimate toxicity associated with coal mining.41 The

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study calculated loading of aluminum, iron, manganese, and total suspended solids in

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Pennsylvania streams impacted by acid mine drainage.

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To estimate human toxicity of mercury air emissions from coal-fired power plants, data

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was collected from the 100 largest power producers in the United Sates in 2013.43 Combustion

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residuals, also known as coal ash or fly ash, are assumed to be stored in surface impoundments. 9

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Some of the chemicals within the coal ash leach out of the disposal site and are released to the

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environment (Table S3).44 The coal ash effluent values are assumed to be representative of coal

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originating in Pennsylvania, given the locations of the power plants where data were obtained.

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An EPA study on power plant effluent, which sampled coal-fired power plants in the

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Appalachian region45, reported similar values. It is assumed that, in addition to ash, the coal ash

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impoundment also receives discharges of flue gas desulfurization waste water and transport

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water for fly and bottom ash. These waste streams appear to be included in reported outflow

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values and are therefore not calculated as separate emissions.

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Electricity generation was calculated using nameplate capacities of each power plant,

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assuming continual operation of all plants, 365 days/year, which overestimates the generation

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capacity of each plant, underestimating the HTI associated with electricity production. Wet

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disposal of coal ash is not the only possible method of disposal. Coal ash can also be reused in

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engineering applications or landfilled in a dry state. This choice is further addressed in the

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sensitivity analysis and discussion.

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The accidental release scenario for coal uses the same assumptions for all parameters of

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the baseline case, and also includes unintentional release of coal ash into surface water, similar to

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the impoundment failures that occurred in Kingston, TN in 2008 and Eden, NC in 2014.

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Although major releases of coal ash spills are infrequent, they have historical precedent and their

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inclusion provides an analogous system to compare with the accidental release scenario for shale

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gas.

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For the coal accidental release scenario, post-remediation data from the Kingston coal ash

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spill were used.46 Remediation efforts took place in 2009 and 2010 leaving 0.18 million m3 of

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ash in the Emory River. The density of ash is assumed to be 1500 kg/m3 and the HTI is

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calculated based on the volume of the ash left in the Emory River post-remediation. Babbit et al.

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calculated the average coal ash generation from four power plants in Florida as 0.0568 kg/kWh.21

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates the average coal ash generation rate as 0.1

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kg/kWh

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more conservative HTI estimate.

47

. The smaller coal ash generation value is used in this analysis in order to provide a

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Data Limitations

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The scope of this study is intended to address the full life cycles of shale gas and coal

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electricity; however, data limitations necessitated a number of choices to be made regarding the

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life cycle inventory of both shale gas and coal. Because of these limitations, systematic choices

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were made to overestimate the coal inventory while underestimating the shale gas inventory.

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Most studies that report VOCs or non-methane hydrocarbons report total load but do not

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provide compositional analysis. Benzene is used as the CF for all VOCs in this analysis, which

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likely overestimates VOC contributions to total HTI for all scenarios.

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Data relevant to calculating the HTI of coal mining is rarely reported in a format that is

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conducive to translation into inventory data.

Mining emissions tend to be reported as

304

concentrations, without sufficient data to relate concentrations to mass emission/mass coal

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extracted needed for the inventory (e.g. stream flow, time since coal extraction, overall amount

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of coal extracted from site). Although other studies have found that coal mining may have

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significant human health impacts on nearby communities,48-50 lack of appropriate data inhibit

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inclusion of several aspects of the coal system into this analysis. Potential toxicity impacts are

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associated with cadmium and selenium in mine drainage; however, limited data prevented

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quantification of loading data from either element.41 Similarly, calculation of HTI associated

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with coal mining does not include particulate matter or other air emissions associated with

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mining that are analogous for the data obtained for the shale gas baseline case. Fugitive coal

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dust emissions along transportation routes has been linked to chronic community-level exposures

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of particulate matter and metals,51 but the format of data available inhibits translation into

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inventory metrics useful for this analysis.

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In addition to limitations associated with life cycle inventory collection, ReCiPe and

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USEtox do not contain a uniform list of chemicals, so a given chemical may be associated with a

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CF in one database and not in another. Characterization factors are also highly uncertain and a

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standard operating assumption is that a CF may vary by three orders of magnitude in either

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direction. 18, 19

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Different oxidation states of metals have different toxicities; however, oxidation states

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are not available from the datasets used in this analysis. To be consistent with the systematic

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overestimation of the shale gas HTI, the more toxic oxidation state is assigned for shale gas

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emissions whenever available. Similarly, mercury in the coal system is assumed to be present in

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its inorganic form, even though it has the potential to form organic mercury, such as 11

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methylmercury and dimethylmercury, which are more toxic than inorganic mercury.52 CFs for

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radionuclides are included in ReCiPe but not in USEtox. The effects on results of these issues

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are further discussed in the Results and Discussion.

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Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis

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A Monte Carlo Analysis (MCA) is used to determine the range of possible results and the

332

extent of overlap between the shale gas and coal cases. Triangular distributions are assigned to

333

each of the parameters within the model, using the most likely value and upper and lower range

334

boundaries (see Tables 1, S10-S12). For the CFs, which span six orders of magnitude, triangular

335

distributions are assigned to the exponent of each parameter to reduce positive bias in sampling.

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The results of 10,000 trials are reported.

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A one-at-a-time perturbation method is used to assess the sensitivity of the results to each

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input parameter. The effect of each parameter on the HTI is determined by changing its value to

339

the extreme ends of its range while keeping all other parameters at their initial model value (see

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Tables 1, S10-S12). CFs from USEtox are used as the default for both the sensitivity analysis and

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the MCA, unless a CF was available only in ReCiPe.

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In addition to the sensitivity analysis, two alternate operating scenarios are explored for

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coal. The scenarios are disposal of coal ash via a dry storage method and implementation of the

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Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) regulation.53

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Results and Discussion

PM

VOC

As

Others

Ba

DMF

Hg (air)

Hg (coal ash)

100

HTI (DALY/GWH)

10

1

0.1

0.01 USEtox

ReCiPe

USEtox

Shale Gas

ReCiPe

Coal

USEtox

ReCiPe

Shale Gas

Baseline Scenario

USEtox

ReCiPe

Coal

Accidental Release Scenario

350 351 352 353 354 355 356

Figure 2. Baseline and accidental release scenarios for electricity produced from shale gas and coal using the USEtox and ReCiPe2016 methods to quantify HTI. Data is depicted on a log scale. Major components of HTI include particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOC), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), N, N’-dimethylformamide (DMF), and mercury (Hg). Constituents that appear in both systems are depicted in gray scale, whereas those only found in coal system are in orange and those only found in shale gas system are in blue.

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Figure 2 shows that the baseline scenario for coal-fired electricity has a greater HTI than

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both the baseline and accidental release scenarios for shale gas, by at least an order of magnitude.

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The HTI baseline values are 0.016 DALY/GWh (USEtox) and 0.024 DALY/GWh (ReCiPe) for

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shale gas and 0.69 DALY/GWh (USEtox) and 1.7 DALY/GWh (ReCiPe) for coal. A prior study

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on coal toxicity using CML2001, another popular impact assessment method, estimated an HTI

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of coal electricity to be between 0.24 DALY/GWh to 2.2 DALY/GWh,54 which aligns with the

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results of this analysis.

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Particulate matter is the dominant toxicity contributor for both shale gas (86% USEtox,

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93% ReCiPe) and coal (92% USEtox, 98% ReCiPe), and includes calculation of primary

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emissions of particulate as well as secondary aerosol formation (see Tables S6-S9). Other

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contributors to the HTI of the coal baseline are air emissions of mercury (5.6% USEtox,