Handbook of Pollution Prevention and Cleaner Production - Best Practices in The Petroleum Industry (Handbook of Pollution Prevention and Cleaner Production, Volume 1)

259 Pages·2009·4.19 MB·English

by  Nicholas P Cheremisinoff Consulting Engineer

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Notices
Knowledgeandbestpracticeinthisfieldareconstantlychanging.Asnewresearchandexperiencebroadenour
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Cheremisinoff,NicholasP.
Handbookofpollutionpreventionandcleanerproduction:
bestpracticesinthepetroleumindustry.
1.PetroleumindustryandtradedEnvironmentalaspects.
2.Greentechnology.3.Bestmanagementpractices
(Pollutionprevention)4.Industrialecology.
I.Title
665.5’0286-dc22
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009927237
ISBN:978-0-81-552035-1
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About the authors
Nicholas P. Cheremisinoff is a chemical engineer with more than 35 years of
international business, applied research, and engineering experience across
several heavy industry sectors. He has led scores of pollution prevention and
cleaner production assessments in major industrial complexes and trained
several thousand industry professionals on best practices, waste management,
and pollution prevention. He has contributed extensively to the literature of
environmentalandchemicalengineeringpracticesasauthor,co-author,oreditor
ofnumerousbooksandmanyhundredsofarticles.HereceivedhisB.Sc.,M.Sc.,
and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from Clarkson College of
Technology.
PaulRosenfeldisanenvironmentalchemistwithover20yearsofexperience.
Hisfocusisfateandtransportofenvironmentalcontaminants,riskassessment,
and ecological restoration. His project experience ranges over monitoring and
modelingofpollutionsourcesastheyrelatetohumanandecologicalhealth.Dr
Rosenfeldhasinvestigatedanddesignedcleanupprogramsandriskassessments
for contaminated sites containing pesticides, radioactive waste, PCBs, PAHs,
dioxins, furans, volatile organics, semi-volatile organics, chlorinated solvents,
perchlorate, heavy metals, asbestos, odorants, petroleum, PFOA, unusual
polymers, and fuel oxygenates. He received a B.A. in Environmental Studies
from UC Santa Barbara, an M.S. in Environmental Science, Policy and
ManagementfromUCBerkeley,andaPh.D.fromtheUniversityofWashington.
Preface
This is the first in a series of volumes on cleaner production and pollution
prevention.Theintentoftheseriesistoprovideguidanceonbestmanagement
practices, technologies, andapproaches to managing environmental aspects.
The term environmental aspect (EA) refers to the relevant issue(s) that
management needs to address, irrespective of level of abstraction, e.g. waste
management, worker protection, compliance, public safety, property damage,
global warming, and resource extraction, lack of knowledge about process
emissions,toxicmaterialmanagement,andbiodiversity.Alistthatidentifiesthe
EAs logically leads to defining the inputs to other actions aimed at their
management, which forms thebasis for both a strategy and action plans.
CompaniesthatrelyonaformalEnvironmentalManagementSystemorEMS
apply the EA concept to managing compliance issues. In contrast, other
companies conduct their business without an explicit list of EAs. These
companies generally tend to lack transparency in the priority settings of their
environmental work even though they may have a corporate Environmental
Policy statement. All companies really should explicitly identify their EAs
because if nothing else it brings clarity and transparency to the organization’s
management of environmental issues. Among the reasons why transparency is
needed are:
(cid:2) Internaltothecompanymanagement(bothdecision-makersandlineandfunction)
requireitinordertoeffectivelyimplementcorrectiveactionsandactionplans,andto
maketheharddecisionsconcerningresourceandmoneyallocations.
(cid:2) Internaltothecompanyagain,theaccountingdivisionneedstransparencyinorder
toproperlyaccountforenvironmentalexpendituresinthebottomline.
(cid:2) External to the company, shareholders and investors demand this today, more so
thanatanyothertimeinhistory.
(cid:2) Homeland security and emergency responders need access to this information
because it can impact on emergency preparedness and responses to environmental
catastrophes.
(cid:2) Itcanserveasaformofinsuranceagainstfrivolousclaimsofwrongdoingorlegal
suits,orinbeingnamedasapotentiallyresponsibleparty(PRP)forenvironmental
damages.
(cid:2) Itcanhelpprotectthefuturevalueofassetsorproperty,especiallyatthetimeofsale
orinmergersandacquisitions.
ThetermEAisusedtoidentifytheimportantissuesintheenvironmentthatan
organizationshouldtakeintoconsiderationintheirenvironmentalwork.These
includethingsthatwecareaboutduetoindividualhumanaspects,suchasnoise,
x Preface
odor, occupational exposures to potentially harmful environments and situa-
tions, laws and regulations, being a good neighbor and responding to a com-
plaining community. EAs can also be a product’s or production process’s
environmental impact, e.g. emissions to a nearby stream, lake or river, stack
emissions, and the overuse of energy. Some other examples are emissions of
achemical,wastegeneration,productionleakage,recycling,differentmaterials,
hazardousmaterials, electromagnetic fields,and impact on flora and fauna.
There are different types of EAs according to ISO standards. The EMS, ISO
14001, and other international standards are used by companies to find
a common basis for managing the environment affected by a business’s opera-
tions. Implementation of an EMS like ISO 14001 includes defining environ-
mental policy, planning and implementing of an environmental program,
checking measures according to goals, and reviewing by management. ISO
14001ischaracterizedbydemandsforcontinuousmeasurementsandanEMSis
businessfocused.
According to ISO 14001, EAs are ‘‘elements of an organization’s activities,
products or services that can interact with the environment’’ (according to
standard ISO 14001:1996). The environment is defined as ‘‘surroundings in
which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources,
flora, fauna, humans, and theirinterrelation.’’
The term environmental impact (EI) is ‘‘any change of the environment,
whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organ-
ization’sactivities,productsorservices.’’AnnexAtoISO14001statesthatthe
process to identify the significant environmental aspects associated with the
activitiesat operatingunits should, where relevant,consider:
(cid:2) emissionstoair;
(cid:2) releasestowaterbodies;
(cid:2) wastemanagement;
(cid:2) contaminationofland;
(cid:2) useofrawmaterialsandnaturalresources;
(cid:2) otherlocalenvironmentalissues.
SignificantEAsarethemostimportantonesthatcausethehighestenvironmental
impact or are important due to legislation and other requirements (e.g. envi-
ronmental policy, customer demands). Significance equals the prioritizing (not
relative)between chosen EAs ata company.
There are many EAs in the refining sector because the petroleum industry is
among the highest generators of pollution. While it has made major strides to
reduceemissionsandhazardouswastessinceaboutthelate1980s,itcontinues
togeneratesignificantlevelsoftoxicairemissionsandpoorlymanagemanyof
its other EAs. There are numerous waste reduction case studies that have been
documented where petroleum refineries have simultaneously reduced pollution
and operating costs, but there are many more that are never implemented
because a major barrier is cost. Because environmental accounting practices
focuslargelyondirectfinancialreturns,mostpollutionreductionoptionsappear
Preface xi
nottopayforthemselves.Corporatementalityissuchthatinvestmentstypically
mustearnanadequatereturnoninvestedcapitalfortheshareholdersandsome
pollutionpreventionoptionsatsomefacilitiesmaynotmeettherequirementsset
by the companies. In addition, the equipment used in the petroleum refining
industry is very capital intensive and has very long lifetimes. This reduces the
incentivetomakeprocessmodificationsto(expensive)installedequipmentthat
isstill useful.
Whatisoftenmissedisthefactthatpollutionpreventiontechniquesareoften
more cost-effective than pollution reduction through end-of-pipe treatment.
This is best understood when consideration is given to indirect cost savings.
Indirectcostsavingsinclude:reducedhealthcarecostsfromlessexposuretoair
pollution; reduced threat from litigations for property damages, medical
monitoring, and healthclaimsby citizens who havebeenexposedtopollution;
greaterinvestorconfidence(directcorrelationbetweenstockpricesontheDow
Jones Industrials have been linked to reported reductions in emissions from
companyToxicReleaseInventoryreporting).Afurtherexampleisacasestudy
basedontheAmoco/EnvironmentalProtectionAgency(EPA)jointstudy,which
claimedthatthesamepollutionreductioncurrentlyrealizedthroughend-of-pipe
regulatoryrequirements attheAmocofacilitycouldbeachievedat15%ofthe
currentcosts usingpollution preventiontechniques.
In addition to the general discounting of indirect cost savings, today’s regu-
latoryincentivestoinvestincleanerproductiontechnologiesarepoor.Consider
thefollowing:
(cid:2) The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments intended to encourage voluntary reductions
above the regulatory requirements by allowing facilities to obtain emission credits
forvoluntaryemissionsreductions.Thesecreditsweretoserveasoffsetsagainstany
potential future facility modifications resulting in an increase in emissions. Other
regulations established by the amendments, however, require the construction of
majornewunitswithinexistingrefineriestoproducereformulatedfuels.Butthese
new operations require emission offsets in order to be permitted. This is counter-
productive because it consumes many of the credits available for existing facility
modifications.Thusashortageofcreditsforfacilitymodificationsmakesitdifficult
toreceivecreditsforemissionreductionsthroughpollutionpreventionprojects.
(cid:2) UndertheCleanWaterAct,dischargeofwater-bornepollutantsislimitedbyNPDES
permits.Refineriesthatmeettheirpermitrequirementsoftenhavetheirpermitlimits
changed to lower values. Because system upsets occur, resulting in significant
excursionsabovethenormalperformancevalues,manyrefineriesbelievetheymust
maintain a large operating margin below the permit limits in order to ensure
continuous compliance. Refineries that can significantly reduce water-borne emis-
sions are faced with the risk of having their permit limits lowered, which is
adisincentive.
(cid:2) WastesfailingaToxicityCharacteristic(TC)testareconsideredhazardousunderthe
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). There is less incentive for
arefinerytoattempttoreducethetoxicityofsuchwastebelowtheTClevelsbecause,
even though such toxicity reductions may render the waste non-hazardous, such
waste may still have to comply with new land disposal treatment standards under
xii Preface
subtitleCoftheRCRAbeforebeinglanddisposed.Thereislessincentivetoreduce
the toxicity of listed refinery hazardous wastes because, once listed, the waste is
subjecttosubtitleCregulationswithoutregardtobyhowmuchthetoxicitylevels
arereduced.
Inadditiontothesedisincentives,theUSAhashad8yearsofnationalpolicythat
has heavily favored productivity at the expense of the environment and public
safety.ThisisexemplifiedbyattemptstodismantletheToxicReleaseInventory
program,refusaltocommittointernationalreductiontargetsingreenhousegas
emissions, the absence of an energy conservation policy, refusal to invest in
renewable energy resources, and an extension of emissions monitoring
requirements overlonger periods with lessfrequent reporting.
Whilethesefactorssuggestthattheindustrywillcontinuetobesatisfiedwith
poor to marginal environmental performance, there has been an exponential
increaseinclassactionandprivatecitizensuitsagainsttheindustryandeventhe
EPA.Thisinfactissimplyhistoryrepeatingitself.InatimebeforetheUSEPAit
wascitizenactiongroupsandcivilcourtactionsonthepartofcitizensandclass
actionsthat forced corporationsto act more responsibly.
This volume is written largely for the industry. It highlights EAs, offers
alternatives to managing them with a focus on some of the more low-cost
pollution prevention practices, and it is intended to stimulate ideas and
approaches to better management ofpollution issues.
There are six chapters. The first chapter provides an overview of gas plant
operationsandrefineries,andidentifiesmajorEAs.Chapters2–4arecasestudies
of major incidents that resulted in catastrophic releases of oil and refined
products. Chapter 5 provides a critical assessment of the methodology and
calculation procedures that the industry relies on in preparing emissions
inventories. The chapter offers alternative approaches to providing more accu-
rate emissions estimates. Chapter 6 provides guidelines on cleaner production
and pollution prevention practices for improving overall environmental
performance.
The authors wish tothank Elsevier forthe fine productionof this volume.
Nicholas P. Cheremisinoff Ph.D.
Paul Rosenfeld Ph.D.
1
The petroleum industry
1.1 Introduction
The petroleum industry refines crude petroleum and processes natural gas into
amultitudeofproducts.Itisalsoinvolvedinthedistributionandmarketingof
petroleum-derived products. The primary family of pollutants emitted from
these activities is volatile organic compounds (VOCs) arising from leakage,
venting, and the evaporation of raw materials and finished products. The air
emissions comprise point, fugitive, and area sources. Other significant air
emissionsincludesulfuroxides,hydrogensulfide,particulatematter,andawide
range of toxic chemicals. The operations within a typical refinery also emit
avarietyofcriteriapollutantsandtoxicchemicalsfromfuelcombustiondevices.
Oil-andgas-fieldoperationsaswellasgasprocessingplantsarealsosignificant
sourcesof emissions.
Historically the industry sector has not acted responsibly towards environ-
mentalmanagement.Laterchaptersdocumentpoorenvironmentalmanagement
practices that have stemmed from both unintentional and intentional actions.
These actions have placed the public at risk from both chronic and acute
exposures to various toxic chemicals, including significant amounts of carcin-
ogens like benzene.
Aproblemwiththesectoristhelackofasystematicandtransparentapproach
to the quantification and reporting of air emissions. The majority of air emis-
sions from refinery operations are fugitive in nature. The literature that the
authorshavereviewedsupportthat,onthewhole,theindustrycontinuestorely
on the application of published emission factors that are not statistically
significant and calculation procedures that favor low estimations. The under-
reporting of air emissions has a significant advantage to companies because
pollution fees imposedby regulators can be minimized and regulatory enforce-
mentheldincheck.Thesectorthushasnodirectfinancialincentivestoimprove
on the accuracy of itsquantification,reporting, and control of emissions.
In a report to Congress (Waxman report, 1999) it has been noted that oil
refineries ‘‘vastly under-report leaks from valves to federal and state regulators
and that these unreported fugitive emissions from oil refineries add millions of
pounds of harmful pollutants to the atmosphere each year, including over 80
millionpoundsofvolatileorganicchemicals(VOCs)andover15millionpounds
of toxic pollutants.’’
Fugitive emissions are the emissions from equipment leaks, such as from
valves,storagetanks,andvarioussupportequipment.Over50%ofallreported
VOCandtoxicairemissionsfromrefineriesarefugitiveemissionsaccordingto
theUSEnvironmentalProtectionAgency(EPA).TheWaxmanreportgoesonto
HandbookofPollutionPreventionandCleanerProduction
Copyright(cid:2)2009byElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved
2 HandbookofPollutionPreventionandCleanerProduction
state that the ‘‘refineries fail to report large volumes of fugitive emissions. The
averageoilrefineryreports.that1.3%ofthevalvesatitsfacilitieshaveleaks.
Infact,theaverageleakratefromvalvesinrefineriesis5.0%–nearlyfourtimes
higher than the average reported leak rate.’’ This under-reporting is alarming
because it means that emissions reported under the Toxic Release Inventory
(TRI) program in the USA are unreliable and cannot be used as a basis for
assessing industryenvironmentalperformance and community risk.
As noted in the Preface, it is our intent to provide greater transparency to
the identification and quantification of emissions and waste streams from
refinery and gas processing operations. It isalso the intent of this handbook to
document best management practices, cleaner production technologies, and
pollution prevention practices that can assist in improving environmental
performance.
Thisfirst chapterprovides anoverview ofthemost widelyused technologies
employed by the industry. Many of the descriptions of refinery process opera-
tions are taken from the US OSHA standards and US EPA’s AP-42 for back-
groundpurposes.Anidentification ofmanyofthesourcesofpollutionisgiven
along withthese descriptions.
1.2 Oil- and gas-field operations
1.2.1 Field characterizations
Schlumberger World Energy Atlas lists more than 40,000 oil and gas fields of
varying sizes throughout the world. Approximately 94% of known oil is
concentrated in fewer than 1500 giant and major fields (Ivanhoe and Leckie,
1993). The largest discovered conventional oil field is the Ghawar Field in
Saudi Arabia. Approximately 65% of all Saudi oil produced between 1948
and 2000 came from the Ghawar Field. Cumulative production to the end of
2005 was about 60 billion barrels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghawar_
Field#cite_note-5). Currently it is estimated to produce over 5 million barrels
(800,000 m3) of oil a day, which is roughly equivalent to 6.25% of global
production. Ghawar also produces approximately 2 billion cubic feet
(57,000,000 m3) of natural gas per day.
Therearealsomassiveunconventionaloilfields,suchasVenezuela’sOrinoco
tarsandsandCanada’sAthabascatarsands.Thesefieldsreportedlymaycontain
even greater reserves than the Ghawar Field.
Oilandgasfieldsarecharacterizedbythegeologicalstructureofthefield,as
wellasbythequalityandcompositionoftheproductionstreams.Dependingon
the set of conditions, different and sometimes unique recovery processes are
employed. Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves generally require drilling of
very deep wells. As a consequence, the wellhead equipment must be capable
ofhandlinghigh-temperature/high-pressurehydrocarbonswithahighdegreeof
reliability.
Thepetroleumindustry 3
Oil and gas reserves are brought to the surface through piping that runs the
entiredepthofthewell,andwhichishungwithinasteelcasing.Sincethecasing
diameter is larger than that of the piping, there is a void space or ‘‘annulus’’
between thetubingand the casing.
Inmanyoilreservoirsthenaturallyoccurringpressureissufficienttoforcethe
crude oil to the surface of the well. This production process is referred to as
‘‘primaryrecovery’’andmostgenerallydoesnotrequiretheuseofacompressor.
However, the duration of the primary recovery is limited because at a certain
point in time the natural energy to lift the oil is no longer adequate. After this
point,acompressorandchokevalvecombinationisusedtorestoreorincrease
the pressure in the field. This phase of the well’s life is known as gas depletion
and isa form of secondary recovery.
In situations where the oil reservoir pressure is not sufficient to ensure the
desired level of production, pumping systems may be employed. Enhanced
recoverysystemsareinstalledtoincreaseproductionand/ortoavoidthedecline
of productionoverthe years and to increase therecoveryratio.
1.2.2 Drilling rigs
Boreholesaremade to recover oil and gasusing a machine knownasa drilling
rig.Theycanbemobileequipmentmountedontrucks,tracksortrailers,ormore
permanent land- or marine-based structures (such as oil platforms, commonly
called ‘‘offshore oil rigs’’). The term ‘‘rig’’ refers to the complex of equipment
thatisusedtopenetratethesurfaceoftheEarth’scrust.Small,portablesystems
are generally used for mineral exploration and drilling water wells, and in
environmental investigations.
Larger, more fixed installations are capable of drilling through thousands of
meters of the Earth’s crust. Large ‘‘mud pumps’’ circulate drilling mud (slurry)
through the drill bit and the casing, for cooling and removing the ‘‘cuttings’’
while a well isbeing drilled. Hoists in the rig can lift hundreds of tons of pipe.
Otherequipmentcanforceacidorsandintoreservoirstofacilitateextractionof
the oil or mineral sample. Marine rigs may operate many hundreds of miles or
kilometers offshorewith infrequentcrew rotation.
An example of an onshore rig is shown in Figure 1.1. The following list
providesdefinitionsofeachoftheequipmentcomponentsshowninthediagram.
The equipment associated with a rig depends on the type of rig, but typically
includesatleastsome of the following items:
1. Mudtank–oftencalledmudpits;providesareservestoreofdrillingfluiduntilitis
requireddownthewellbore.
2. Shaleshakers–separatedrillcuttingsfromthedrillingfluidbeforeitispumpedback
downthewellbore.
3. Suctionline(mudpump)–intakelineforthemudpumptodrawdrillingfluidfrom
themudtanks.
4. Mud pump – reciprocal type of pump used to circulate drilling fluid through the
system.