Since 2007, the government of Alberta has required oil sands companies that emit over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 annually to measure and report emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from their operations. For an oil sands company, Barr is providing annual fugitive GHG emissions measurement with flux chambers at more than 250 locations across the site, including mine faces, sand disposal areas, reclaimed areas, and tailings basins.
After a quality review by our data analysis team, the field and lab data are used to develop emission factors for each of the site's distinct areas of activity. To delineate zones with different ore characteristics, we use GIS mapping of the mine’s elevation data, along with geographic coordinates of advancing mine extraction work. The material-specific emission factors are applied to the total area of each delineated zone of material in which mining activity took place the previous calendar year, which enables us to calculate the total annual fugitive emissions from mining. Mining emissions are combined with tailings-pond and point-source emissions from upgrader operations to determine the total annual GHG emissions reported by the facility to the province. Barr continues to assist this company and others in the oil sands and coal-mining sectors with air emissions monitoring and reporting.