Refinery flares light up sky, release toxic chemicals

DRC Archive Environmental and Other Science Discussion
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Refinery flares light up sky, release toxic chemicals
8:17 AM, Nov. 28, 2011

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111128/NEWS/111128013/Refinery-flares-light-up-sky-release-toxic-chemicals?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

Troubles at Delaware City Refinery lit up the evening sky dramatically on Sunday, as open-air, high-level incinerator towers on both the north and south ends of the refinery activated noisily.

PBF Energy officials said an early evening power failure led to the flaring at the 210,000-barrel-per-day refinery, obvious from surrounding roadways for hours.

State officials this morning reported the flare released hazardous chemicals into the air, including more than 1,000 pounds of carbon monoxide, 10 pounds of hydrogen cyanide, 100 pounds of hydrogen sulfide and 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide.

Refineries use flares to quickly dispose of acid gases and hydrocarbons when high-temperature and high-pressure systems break down while processing, averting damage to systems that could lead to major spills or pollution releases.

Officials reported shortly after midnight that the problem was under control, with affected production units expected to come back to service over the next few days.

In an email to a citizens advisory panel, the refinery’s human resources manager, Barbara Roehl, said, “We did a tour of the surrounding community and detected odors northwest of the refinery; however, there were no detectable readings of any sulfur compounds.”

“The loss of power also resulted in the loss of the Community Information Line. We apologize for any inconvenience and have identified this issue as something we need to address in the very near future,” she said.

Although flares destroy most of the gases sent into them, they also can release huge amounts of smog compounds, soot and sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Federal regulators barred refiners from routinely using flares to manage acid gases several years ago, after determining that a single day’s heavy flaring can release as much sulfur dioxide as the entire annual output of a small factory.

PBF purchased the Delaware City plant at a deep discount from Valero Energy last year, after Valero shut the refinery and announced its intention to raze the site and take a $1.4 billion loss. Delaware officials approved more than $40 million in assistance to the $220 million purchase.

The Delaware plant processes heavy, high-sulfur crude oil.

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This compounds the massive release of SO2 last week…

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Is is funny, or sad, that the assessed fines to PBF will land not a drop of local ecological aid.

Just my :TWOCENTS , which is more than our local ecology will see.

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Look on the bright side. at least now it only happens on odd occaisions or outside forces like loss of power. rather than like the good old days when they just flaired it off open air 24/7, before flair gas scrubbers . We have made some progress.

But even today in our digital age:

                                                    [size=10pt]It Happens,,, Some Times[/size][font=Verdana][/font]
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Now Mr. Christie is getting involved… verdict_in

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111129/NEWS/111129018/NJ-officials-want-answers-about-Delaware-City-Refinery-pollution?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Local|s

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Near as I can figure, those emission flare releases of 1000 pounds of carbon Monoxide are about what 2 or 3 ten year old cars emit in an average year of driving. the standards when they were made were about 21 grams of CO per mile based on an average 22 MPG. the refineries remove almost all of the sulfur in gas now per new standards. but coal fired plants still dump mega tons of it into the air daily. even with scrubbers, because they burn 60-100 tons of coal per hour per 1000 MW unit. so even a very small percent of sulfur emissions adds up fast.

I think Christy is blowing smoke up someone’s tailpipe. besides the wind was blowing north west, away from Joyzee.

this is just one, brief, but visible incident, but in reality, practically everything we do contributes daily. I found one report that tested wharehouse propane powered forklifts. one lift, out of tune could produce 10% CO in its tailpipe emissions. that adds up to the same 1000 pounds of CO for every 80 gallons of propane it burns. In closed buildings at that.

yup, every little bit hurts.

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What I find troubling is that the same thing happened to the same unit on October 2nd, and the EPA let the plane reopen on October 7th . . . 5 days later without pending investigation. I think that people are outraged because of the recurrance, and for how old the plant is, it’s likely to happen again. The power outtage was just an excuse, there are other factors at play. I know for a fact (I’ve been in the facility), that they have battery backup for 4 hours on major systems, and that’s plenty of time to shut a process down to reduce environmental damage.

You make a good point, Ken, I’m not arguing the small effect it will have compared to other plants usual output. I think people are concerned for proper procedural enforcement of infractions, and maintaining a safe work environment. It seems that PBF is getting alot of free passes . . .

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I think that we all can agree DE is completely polluted.Other areas are far worse, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. I wonder how many GAC filters will be needed in the future to clean our water supply… ::thinking::
The refinery has been notorious for releasing noxious gases and other chemicals into the Delaware River. I specifically remember a large Chlorine gas cloud formed after a release a few years back. I also remember clearly the thousands of gallons of Sulfuric Acid dumped after a tank ruptured.

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No, De, is not so bad off. When i grew up in Ohio, the river down town was so polluted, it caught fire. in fact it burned 13 times since the late 1800s. the flats near the mouth on lake Erie, was loaded with refineries, steel smelters, chemical plants and loading docks. not to mention everyone in town dumping their oil down the sewer. the river ran a bright pumkin orange into the lake, making a big plume a mile wide. Now that was polluted.

But that fire in 69, was the last straw, and cleanup began. today the water is clean, and full of trout. so things can be fixed. I still remember Randy Newmans song, Burn on big river, burn on.

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I grew up in Youngstown Ohio, and Cleveland was the nearest “real city”. I will agree with Ken about the pollution out there, sad to say it is still much worse than over here.

Here’s my favorite punny video about my lovely childhood homeland, please feel free to laugh at our expense:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM&feature=related

Enjoy! Lol

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Well the Christina or Delaware haven’t caught on fire in recent history. But the amount of heavy industry has left a plethora of carcinogens within Delaware’s waterways. The amount of Brown sites in New Castle County is also high from my perspective. A story I like to retell, was originally relayed to me in high school: I had a teacher mention her fondness for the pretty colors of White Clay Creek. The colors were dyes from the old Paper Mill. There are also few bodies of water within our state without fish consumption warnings. Something I have always noticed considering I am an avid fisherman.

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Here we go again…

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=39255

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Sounds like a lot. But is it? I like to put things in perspective so i did a little research and math.

200 pounds of SO2 has 100 pounds of sulfur in it. The plant is set up to refine heavy sour crude. sour crude can typically contain 1% of sulfur in it. a barrel of crude weighs 275 pounds, so a barrel of crude might have ~2.75 pounds of sulfur in it. 100 pounds of sulfur is what would be in about 35 barrels of crude.

The plant has a total capacity of 210,000 barrels of crude per day . they can refine 35 barrels every 15 seconds at full throttle. therefore they can remove more than ~575,000 pounds of sulfur per day to make the gasoline we fill up with and other products they refine. I guess they use the sulfur dioxide to make sulphuric acid, which they sell to the chemical industry for big bucks. releasing it is a loss of revenue.

So a leak of 100 pounds of sulphur out of a possible ~575,000 pounds captured and removed per day, doesnt sound too bad. a small blip. they are doing more good than harm. in regards to sulphur.
did i get my math right?

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Well, that depends to which the percentages are referring . . . percent weight or volume? Just because a barrel weighs a certain amount, does not mean that 1% of something inside (if by volume) is 1% of the weight. This does not detract from your point, however. The release was a small blip of what they could have released.

This still does not make it right, Dupont (Red Lion) is set up on that site specifically to handle these emissions, and there are safety measures in place to prevent these kinds of events.

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I assumed its by elemental weight and percent of weight. if you look up crude standards anything up to 0.5% sulfer is sweet crude and sour can range from a half percent to 2 percent sulfer. this from a chart of constituent elelments by weight. carbon being the highest, then Hydrogen, oxygen nitrogen… so i just used weight. since its all in liquid compound form.

Theres a lot of sulfer in crude oils. Just look at the Giza size pyramids of solid elemental yellow sulfer syncrude is building up in Alberta, Ca. thats high sulfer oil up there in the tar sands, and they have removed a lot of it in their dirty, energy intensive extraction process. they have lots of those sulfur piles around up there. good slide show. check them out. actually that pile looks bigger than Giza. the pyramid is what 600 or 700 feet on a side? these look longer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pembina/2991035162/in/photostream/

By comparison they make our refinery look like a squeaky clean provider .

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Great point Ken; But I am curious about the other 5+ leaks within the past month. I also am skeptical about the exact figures released. Considering the substantial fines, it would make sense to possibly under estimate the numbers.

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While I can not argue the damage that the refinery is doing to the environment, or how much Red Lion has done to reduce pollution, I do have one question to ask.

How many of US have considered OUR personal impact on the environment??

[ul][li]How many of us drive cars/trucks that are not fuel efficient??[/li]
[li]What about warming up your car before you hit the road??[/li]
[li]How about carpooling??[/li]
[li]public transportation?[/li]
[li]What about our water change water??[/li][/ul]

I’m not saying to let PBF off the hook, just saying that we need to also look at what we are doing. Remember when you point a finger at someone else, there are 3 more pointed back at you.

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There is lots of info on how much GHGs we produce . like one gallon of gasoline weighs 6.1 pounds but produces 19.25 pounds of CO2. or 172 Cubic Feet of CO2 gas.

Volume calculation of one ton CO2

the hidden costs are that virtually everything we buy is transported by oil fueled cars, trucks, trains , boats and planes. Or directly made from oil/gas and refined products. Each american produces 22.82 tons of GHGs a year, on average. kids included. the equivalent of burning 2380 gallons of gasoline each. about 416,000 cubic feet or a cube of pure CO2 gas 75 feet on a side each year.

http://www.icbe.com/carbondatabase/

They dont mention fish or corals, but Delaware electric grid power produces 1.77 pounds of CO2 per KWHr. so we can figure how much each of our tanks produce from the power we use to heat, pump and light them.

Yuupp, We are all dipped, rolled and deep fried in oil and gas and coal. We substitute energy consumption for efficient organization of our way of life. we can and should do much better in the future.

But is anyone really trying?