3516 Research report: Modelling toxic hazards of sour water releases – consolidated knowledge of sour water releases physics and chemistry

Overview:

The EI's Process Safety Committee (PSC) has identified that many petroleum refinery and gas separation plant process operations generate aqueous solutions of H2S and ammonia (NH3) – 'sour water' – that require further processing before the water may be safely discharged to the environment. In some processes, the solutions may be sufficiently concentrated that they are potentially toxic.

This Research Report provides the findings of a literature review of knowledge regarding vapour liquid equilibrium (VLE) behaviour of sour water mixtures, relating to equilibrium, kinetic and mass transport properties. The purpose of the study was to enable better modelling of the toxicity risks
(mainly from hydrogen sulfide (H2S)), associated with major losses of containment of sour water from pipework or above ground storage tanks (ASTs).