3200 EI Research Report: A review of methods for estimating annual VOC emissions from refinery effluent water systems

Overview:

Measurement of emissions from effluent water systems is difficult, expensive and has the potential for significant errors when converting concentration measurements to fluxes. These are compounded when extrapolating short term estimates to an annual average as there are considerable temporal variations in flow and oil content in refinery effluent water.

A review of methods from estimating annual VOC emissions from refinery effluent water systems was prepared by the Energy Institute’s Emissions Working Group, during the development of the Energy Institute (EI) second edition of Protocol for the estimation of VOC emissions from petroleum refineries and gasoline marketing operations (published 2010).

It reviews the methodologies available in the public domain to estimate emissions from refinery effluent water systems. There were particular concerns that the emission factor for gravity type (API) oil-water separators in the first edition of the Protocol was no longer representative of current operating conditions and could potentially be conservatively high.

For the EI Protocol, the use of emission factors is adequate for effluent water systems. This Report provides the recommended emission factors that were incorporated in the second edition of the Protocol.

This report will be of interest to refinery operators and operators of gasoline distribution terminals and service stations.

Related titles

Protocol for the estimation of VOC emissions from petroleum refineries and gasoline marketing operations

Protocol for the estimation of petroleum refinery process plant fugitive VOC emissions