(105c) Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Petrochemical Industry Emissions

As a result of the COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions in spring 2020, enormous lockdown orders were issued to prevent the spread of the pandemic. All those restrictions led to substantial interruptions in both individuals' daily life and businesses activities worldwide. Texas, which was not an exception, received stay-at-home order from April to the beginning of May 2020. To quantify the temporal impact of COVID-19 pandemic on petrochemical industries, emissions concentration fluctuations during the pandemic in Jefferson County, Texas has been studied in this work. First, various emissions in Jefferson County (including Beaumont and Port Arthur, twin cities which are home to many oil and gas companies) were tracked individually. The emissions concentrations in April 2020 were compared to those in April 2019 based on statistical methods. Second, the emission concentrations in pre-lockdown time period (January, February, and March 2020) were compared to the data set of the same three months in 2019. The public data of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), NO₂, and SO₂ was used to track the emissions changes in the lockdown. Based on our obtained results, the emission quantities in Jefferson County, Beaumont, and Port Arthur had significantly dropped by 45.71%, 54.43%, and 58.82% in April 2020 in comparison to April 2019 respectively. Alkanes, acetylene 1,3- butadiene, ethylene, benzene, and toluene were major VOC compounds in reduction. Additionally, the result showed emissions reduction in the lockdown time period was exceptional compared to January, February, and March 2020.