LIDAR Studies of Evaporative Losses from Above Ground StorageTanks

摘要

Losses from storage tanks have both economic and environmental consequences. An extensive study ofover 220 storage tank emissions under operational conditions has been undertaken in several NW Europeanrefineries using a scanning LIDAR system. This comprehensive database has enabled several conclusions to bedrawn which have a direct consequence for the operation of oil facilities:1. In general calculations based on API underestimate emissions by factors of between 2 and 4 for the real facilitiesin this sample. In some cases the discrepancy may be even higher.2. 58 % of the external floating roof tank emissions result from only 10 % of the tanks and these can be readilyidentified by LIDARThe consequences of this are that it now becomes possible to use real data to prioritise maintenance and investmentand that the direct economic benefit of reducing losses becomes achievable while simultaneously improvingenvironmental performance and minimising unnecessary Capex.Based on this experience new methods of continuously monitoring the performance of facilities are being developed