Reducing Gas Emission Mechanisms for Hydrocarbon Storage Tanks

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) which are emitted from tank farms of petroleum refineries are considered to cause harmful impacts to the environment and people. This paper presents the methodology of assessing potential targets for reduction of emissions, as well as proposed control mechanisms and their reductions, for hydrocarbon storage tanks at Jebel Al Dhanna Terminal. Some of the emissions reduction opportunities which are covered include aluminum dome retrofits, seal integrity improvement and guide pole treatments. The objective is to find significant reduction opportunities (from between 50% to 90% of current tank configurations) using passive technologies which prevent or inhibit emissions without the use of additional operational energy or active systems that would otherwise require significant maintenance or operational expense.

Estimation of Emission Factors for Hazardous Air Pollutants from Petroleum Refineries

The hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) group is composed of 187 chemicals that are known to be potentially carcinogenic and dangerous for human health. Due to their toxicological impact, HAPs are an increasingly studied class of compounds. Of the different HAPs sources, refineries are one of the major sources. In order to obtain a preliminary assessment of the impact of a refinery in terms of emissions, a useful instrument is the determination of the emission factor (EF). For this reason, this work, focusing on the USA refining scenario, aims to provide evidence for a generic trend in refinery emissions to evaluate a correlation between the plant size and the amount of its emissions, in particular the HAPs emissions. Based on the analysis of the data collected from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), a general trend in the emissions from refinery plants was established, showing a positive correlation between the HAPs emissions and the refinery size, represented by a value of the Pearson correlation coefficient r close to 1. Once this correlation was highlighted, a purpose of this work became the estimation of an organic HAPs emission factor (EF): from a whole refining plant, the EF of the total organic HAPs is equal to 10 g emitted for each ton of crude oil processed. Moreover, it was also possible to undertake the same evaluation for two specific HAP molecules: benzene and formaldehyde. The benzene and formaldehyde EFs are equal to, respectively, 0.8 g and 0.2 g for each ton of processed crude oil. This work provides a simple rule of thumb for the estimation of hazardous substances emitted from petroleum refineries in their mean operating conditions.

Effect of Adding Chelating Ligands on the Catalytic Performance of Rh-Promoted MoS2 in the Hydrodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is a widely used process currently employed in petroleum refineries to eliminate organosulfur compounds in fuels. The current hydrotreating process struggles to remove organosulfur compounds with a steric hindrance due to the electronic nature of the current catalysts employed. In this work, the effects of adding chelating ligands such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), citric acid (CA) and acetic acid (AA) to rhodium (Rh) and active molybdenum (Mo) species for dibenzothiophene (DBT) HDS catalytic activity was evaluated. HDS activities followed the order of RhMo/ɣ-Al2O3 (88%) > RhMo-AA/ɣ-Al2O3 (73%) > RhMo-CA/ɣ-Al2O3 (72%) > RhMo-EDTA/ɣ-Al2O3 (68%). The observed trend was attributed to the different chelating ligands with varying electronic properties, thus influencing the metal–support interaction and the favorable reduction of the Mo species. RhMo/ɣ-Al2O3 offered the highest HDS activity due to its (i) lower metal–support interaction energy, as observed from the RhMo/ɣ-Al2O3 band gap of 3.779 eV and the slight shift toward the lower BE of Mo 3d, (ii) increased Mo-O-Mo species (NMo-O-Mo ~1.975) and (iii) better sulfidation of Rh and MoO in RhMo/ɣ-Al2O3 compared to the chelated catalysts. The obtained data provides that HDS catalytic activity was mainly driven by the structural nature of the RhMo-based catalyst, which influences the formation of more active sites that can enhance the HDS activity.

Copolymerization of palm oil with sulfur using inverse vulcanization to boost the palm oil industry

Nowadays, most of the world’s palm oil is being produced in Malaysia and Indonesia; however, the demand for this vegetable oil as an edible oil is declining in many countries since consuming palm oil in excess can result in serious health problems. Consequently, finding new applications such as the production of bio-based polymers to make use of this cheap and abundant vegetable oil seems necessary. Herein, we report the copolymerization of palm oil with sulfur with different feed ratios via inverse vulcanization. The copolymers are then characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results confirmed the formation of the polymers and their stability against depolymerization. Altogether, the obtained sulfur-palm oil copolymers showed great properties such as thermal stability up to 230°C under a nitrogen atmosphere and rubbery properties at room temperature. Although the Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) thermograms had previously confirmed the high conversion of elemental sulfur into the polymeric structure by comparing the initial sulfur content and the final polysulfide content in the polymer, some unreacted elemental sulfur was also observed in the final product. Sulfur-palm oil (S-Palm oil) is a new green polymer that helps to find a new use for palm oil as a big industry as well as sulfur which is underutilized and left in stockpile as a byproduct in gas and petroleum refineries.

Model-Based Quality, Exergy, and Economic Analysis of Fluidized Bed Membrane Reactors

In petroleum refineries, naphtha reforming units produce reformate streams and as a by-product, hydrogen (H2). Naphtha reforming units traditionally deployed are designed as packed bed reactors (PBR). However, they are restrained by a high-pressure drop, diffusion limitations in the catalyst, and radial and axial gradients of temperature and concentration. A new design using the fluidized bed reactor (FBR) surpasses the issues of the PBR, whereby the incorporation of the membrane can improve the yield of products by selectively removing hydrogen from the reaction side. In this work, a sequential modular simulation (SMS) approach is adopted to simulate the hydrodynamics of a fluidized bed membrane reactor (FBMR) for catalytic reforming of naphtha in Aspen Plus. The reformer reactor is divided into five sections of plug flow reactors and a continuous stirrer tank reactor with the membrane module to simulate the overall FBMR process. Similarly, a fluidized bed reactor (FBR), without membrane permeation phenomenon, is also modelled in the Aspen Plus environment for a comparative study with FBMR. In FBMR, the continuous elimination of permeated hydrogen enhanced the production of aromatics compound in the reformate stream. Moreover, the exergy and economic analyses were carried out for both FBR and FBMR.

Water Contamination in Petroleum Refinery Processes

<p>This study was conducted to assessment the environmental impacts in petroleum refineries due to the different processes. The paper presents the data obtained during a case study was achieved in Tobruk petroleum refinery. The main petroleum products of the refinery represented by diesel, light naphtha, heavy naphtha and kerosene with maximum production capacity concerning 21,500 bbl/day. The results of the study revealed that the waste water affected by high concentration of hydrocarbons. The heavy metals are also determined and represented by V, Fe, Ni and Cu with low contents in crude oil. Also the pollutants parameters in the disposal water e.g. biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, suspended solids, phenols, ammonia and sulphides are determined, and the results are compared with other refinery types. The concentration of these parameters are higher than the standard values that recommended by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at the same time these values are less if they are compared with the other refinery types.</p>

EFFECTIVENESS OF INTEGRATED CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY IN WASTE TO ENERGY PLANTS AND IMPLEMENTATION PROSPECTS

The population in ASEAN is projected to increase to 722 million by 2030. This massive population increase had an impact not only on population quantity but also on the environment. This is reflected in the increasing number of pollution results such as waste products and carbon pollution. Waste to Energy Plants has been successful in converting waste to electrical energy by incineration, but there are still carbon emissions that has to be dealt with and on the other hand carbon pollution has been a major problem for ASEAN this past 10 years, with the data from Global Carbon Atlas showing 1671.7 MtCO2 are emitted from the combined 10 countries in 2019. The industry categories of petroleum refineries, chemicals and others are responsible for contributing the most greenhouse gases. Analysis from the International Energy Agency shows comparison between few of the most promising solutions for carbon emission, one of them being Carbon Capture Storage (CCS). This technology captures CO2 that has been emitted to the atmosphere. Indonesia, the biggest country in ASEAN is also the region’s most contributing country in terms of carbon emission where the CCS technology should be developed more. In this paper, the author uses a descriptive qualitative method and data reference from previous research. The results indicate that the usage of CCS is very effective to reduce the CO2 emissions emitted from Waste-to- Energy Plants with 95% accuracy. This, in effect, will ensure effective expert knowledge communication to the general public and foster social acceptance of this technology. Keywords: Carbon dioxide, Carbon Capture and Storage, WtE Plants, and Process Integration