Criteria and hazardous air pollutant emissions from petroleum refineries in the US have decreased over the last 20 yr despite increasing crude density, changes in sulfur concentrations, increasingly stringent product specifications, and overall increase of refinery production of major fuel types. Refinery emissions of criteria air pollutants have decreased as much as 80% from 1990 to 2010. Emissions of hazardous air pollutants and their associated toxicity hazard potential have decreased nearly 70%. Furthermore, the emissions are not correlated with changes in crude oil sulfur content or density. Trends in annual criteria and hazardous air pollutant emissions and in crude oil density and sulfur content are compared to assess potential relationships between crude quality and refinery emissions. The potential toxicity of hazardous air pollutant emissions is evaluated using USEPAderived toxicity criteria and then trended to demonstrate the overall reduction in toxicity hazard potential that has occurred.
Interest in regulations to control solvent emissions from automotive painting systems is increasing, especially in ozone nonattainment areas. Therefore, an accurate measurement method for VOC emissions from paint spray booths used in the automotive industry is needed to ascertain the efficiency of the spray booth capture and the total emissions. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study evaluating potential VOC sampling and analytical methods used in estimating paint spray booth emissions, and discusses these results relative to other published data. Eight test methods were selected for evaluation. The accuracy of each sampling and analytical method was determined using test atmospheres of known concentration and composition that closely matched the actual exhaust air from paint spray booths. The solvent mixture to generate the test atmospheres contained a large proportion of polar, oxygenated hydrocarbons such as ketones and alcohols. A series of identical tests was performed IMPLICATIONSPolar and nonpolar organic compounds are widely used in industry and are ubiquitous in urban ambient air. From an analytical chemistry standpoint, polar organic compounds are among the most difficult organic compounds to accurately monitor. This paper presents precision and accuracy data for several commonly used measurement approaches under laboratory conditions. The data were collected at organic concentrations and relative humidity levels similar to the atmosphere expected in paint spray booths in automobile assembly plants. The data indicate that the standard reference method for measuring total hydrocarbons in process streams (i.e., EPA Method 25) exhibits poor accuracy and precision compared with several other measurement approaches. This standard method also was found to compare unfavorably in terms of complexity, cost, and data turnaround time. The other measurement approaches had surprisingly poor accuracy, indicating that calibration with a single compound may be inadequate when quantifying emissions of mixtures of polar compounds. The precision of the measurement approaches tended to be much better than the accuracy, implying that the methods, when calibrated with a single component, would be better suited for measuring changes in emission levels over time, rather than for measuring the absolute magnitude of emissions.for each sampling/analytical method with each test atmosphere to assess the precision of the methods. The study identified significant differences among the test methods in terms of accuracy, precision, cost, and complexity. INTRODUCTIONInterest in regulations to control solvent emissions from automotive painting systems is increasing, especially in ozone nonattainment areas. Emissions data are being used by state and regulatory agencies to assess and rank regulatory actions for Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emission sources. Therefore, an accurate measurement method for VOC emissions from paint spray booths used in the automotive industry is needed to ascertain the efficiency of t...
Long Range Plan. Sterling needed an overall waste management program that would focus on waste reduction, recycling, and recovery to respond to regulatory requirements and to reduce the costs associated with managing wastes generated at its Texas City petrochemical plant.The Texas'City plant is the only site owned and operated by Sterling. Located on a 250-acre site bordering Galveston Bay, approximately 45 miles southeast of Houston, the facility employs about 950 people and produces acrylonitrile, styrene, ethylbenzene, acetic acid, plastizers, tertiary butyl amine, sodium cyanide, and lactic acid. To support the manufacturing operations, the site has utility boilers, raw water treatment, wastewater treatment, laboratories and maintenance functions. Up till now, Sterling has managed its wastes using both on-site and off-site treatment and disposal methods.manufacturing and service groups and that would address the air, waste, and solid (multi-media) waste categories. Sterling first assembled an in-house team to begin developing the methodologies for waste minimization. At different times in the process, members of the team represented manufacturing, technical services, engineering, accounting, environmental &airs, and quality facilitation. The Environmental Mairs Department, having direct responsibility for meeting federal and state permitting and reporting requirements, developed the agenda and plan to implement the waste minimization program. The initial outline of the agenda covered project identification, ranking, approval, execution, feasibility, tracking, and reporting.Sterling's goal was to develop a waste minimization program that would apply to all plant
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