Proposal of a Method for Evaluating Odour Emissions from Refinery Storage Tanks

摘要

Oil refineries are one of the greatest type of industrial plant which can lead to emission of VOC and sulphurcompounds. Such emissions often originate a problem of odour pollution in the human settlements locatedaround the refinery. In many cases, odour nuisances lead the local authorities to intervene, sometimes byclosing the whole plant. Odour emissions in refineries typically arise from the operating process: the aim ofthis work is to propose a method for the evaluation of the Odour Emission Rates from the different sources ofa refinery. More in detail, the proposed method aims to quantify the Odour Emission Rate from the fugitiveemissions relevant to storage tanks, whose evaluation is very complex due to the difficulty of determining botha representative odour concentration and an emitted air flow representative of this kind of sources. Thismethod first quantifies the mass emission from the tanks, by means of the software US EPA TANKS 4.09, andafter the so called “Hydrocarbon Odour Emission Capacity”, associated with different hydrocarbons mixtures.By coupling this information, it is finally possible to give an estimate of the Odour Emission Rate deriving froma storage tank and use it in an atmospheric dispersion model.