Source profiles, emission factors and associated contributions to secondary pollution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a local petroleum refinery in Shandong

Source profiles, emission factors and associated contributions to secondary pollution of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a local petroleum refinery in Shandong

Emission factor

Emission inventory

Petroleum refinery

Secondary pollution

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

An in-depth study was conducted to quantify and characterize VOC emissions from a petroleum refinery located in Shandong, China. The VOC emission inventory established in this study showed that storage tanks were the largest emission source, accounting for 56.4% of total emissions, followed by loading operations, wastewater collection and treatment system, process vents, and equipment leaks. Meanwhile, the localization factors for refining, storage tanks and loading operations were calculated, which were 1.33, 0.75 and 0.31g VOCs/kg crude oil refined. Furthermore, the characteristics of fugitive and organized emissions were determined for various processes and emission sources using a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry/flame ionization detection (GC-MS/FID) system. Most samples contained mainly alkanes, but the total VOC concentrations and key species varied greatly among processes. The source profile of the refinery, synthesized using the weighted average method, indicated that cis-2-butene (14.5%), n-pentane (10.2%), n-butane (7.4%), isopentane (6.5%) and MTBE (5.9%) were the major species released by this refinery. Assessment of O3 and secondary organic aerosol formation potentials were completed, and the results indicated that cis-2-butene, m/p-xylene, toluene, n-pentane, isopentane, benzene, o-xylene and ethylbenzene were the active species for which treatment should be prioritized.

116589

274

Lv, Daqi

Lu, Sihua

Tan, Xin

Shao, Min

Xie, Shaodong

Wang, Lingfeng

Environmental Pollution

2021

journalArticle

0269-7491

10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116589