Reliability of petroleum emission factors towards carboneutrality

past

Master project
2023

Context and problem

Oil consumption is responsible for around one third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is at least the current estimate, because these emissions could be greatly underestimated, due to the limits of carbon footprinting models for oil extraction, which should ideally represent each of the current practices and technologies of the extracting countries. Thus, global GHG emissions may also be currently underestimated, with serious consequences on carbon neutrality planning. The objective of the internship is to audit oil extraction data and GHG quantification models to guide future research to make these models more reliable.

Description of the project and tasks

To reach the objective of the project, the following tasks will be conducted:

  1. Critical literature review
    • Mapping oil extraction emission factors in databases (ecoinvent, potentially GaBi), scientific articles (Masnadi et al. 2018, etc.) and national inventories.
    • Mapping oil extraction emission data published by petroleum companies.
    • Analysing critically their respective quantification models.
  2. Assessment and robustness:
    • Assessing the quality of oil extraction’s emission factors, for example using the Pedigree Matrix.
    • Performing a comparison of their carbon footprints.
  3. Case study
    • Assessing the geographical extractions of petroleum in volume.
    • Scaling up the emissions of oil extraction at the global scale with different major sources of data from step 1.
    • Comparing the results and assessing their implication for decarbonation plans at global/national/company level.
  4. Recommendations and perspectives
    • Providing recommendations on future research developments and their importance to carbon neutrality planning.
    • Actively looking and reaching out for institutional partners to develop this research.

Deliverables

  • A descriptive report on the tasks conducted;
  • A presentation of the study at CIRAIG and potentially to industrial partner(s);
  • Modeling files if applicable;
  • Participation to the preparation of a scientific article, with co-authorship of the intern, if applicable.

Skills

Qualification implies having taken an EPFL LCA course or equivalent, as well as a good level in English.

Desired skills of the applicants are as follows:

  • Rigor
  • Analytic skills and ability to summarize
  • Data analysis

Following knowledge is an asset:

  • Oil and gas industry

Administrative

Supervision: the project is supervised by:

  • Manuele Margni, Ph.D., M.Sc. A., B. Ing. : Professor at Polytechnique Montreal, Professor HES-SO Valais Wallis, invited fellow at EPFL at IPESE with Pr. François Maréchal, EPFL-Energypolis, Sion. manuele.margni@hevs.ch.
  • Anne de Bortoli, Ph.D., M.Sc., B. Ing. : postdoctoral researcher at CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montréal, invited researcher at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech. anne.debortoli@polymtl.ca

Location: CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montréal, 3333 Queen Mary Road, Montreal, Canada.

Compensation: budget for the round-trip Europe-Montreal and accommodation in Montreal during the internship.

Application: Interested students must send an application file including a CV, a transcript (bachelor and master) and a cover letter to anne.debortoli@polymtl.ca and manuele.margni@hevs.ch. Applications will be reviewed in chronological order and positions remain open until suitable candidates are found.