Odour Impact On Surrounding Environment Of An Oil Refinery Plant

摘要

Odour emissions from oil refineries have always been one of the important air pollution issues, which have limited establishing new plants or expanding existing ones due to the complaints of residents who live near these sources. Odour emissions accompanied by complaints can significantly affect property values and more importantly, health of the people in adjacent areas. Considering appropriate odour impact criteria and developing suitable setback distances from the refineries according to these criteria is one of the most effective approaches to avoid oil refineries' odour nuisance complaints. However, lacking knowledge on odour emission and odour properties from refineries has made developing odour impact criteria and setback distances difficult. Oil refineries' odour properties and the relationship between them and the extent of oil refineries odour impacts on surrounding environment have not been studied in details. In this study, odour impact of a typical oil refinery plant in Canada on surrounding environment has been studied using field measurements up to 5 km downwind of the source. Various odour properties of the oil refinery include odour concentration, odour intensity, odour hedonic tone and odour character have been measured in a radius of 5 km form the refinery using the related international standards. Results show that oil refinery has a considerable odour impact on its surrounding environment up to 2.5 kilometres. Results also demonstrate good relationship between odour intensity and odour concentration for oil refinery odour. It has been also clarified that oil refinery odour falls into 5 limited categories of odour characters. In addition, the relationship between odour intensity and hedonic tone is linear. However, for different odour character, the slope of odour intensity-hedonic tone curve is different which means that different odour character of oil refinery odour has different level of unpleasantness. This is especially important in considering odour impact criteria for odour complaints management. The results of the study are useful in considering odour impact criteria for oil refineries by jurisdictions.