ENV-15-34 Validation Test for Real-Time Direct Remote Monitoring of Flare Combustion Efficiency

Description:

Industrial flares are widely used primarily as safety devices in chemical process industries (e.g., petroleum refineries, chemical plants, etc.) and oil and gas fields. Waste process gases, particularly gases released due to process upset or emergency, are vented to flares to be safely combusted over the flare tips avoiding industrial accidents and reducing air pollution. Although comprehensive emission inventories of flares and their associated emissions are not readily available, some anecdotal information is available to provide a sense of scale for the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and Greenhouse gases (GHG) from flares due to imperfect combustion. In the Fact Sheet for the Proposed Petroleum Refinery Sector Risk and Technology Review and New Source Performance Standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) states that the proposed new standards for flares will reduce VOC emissions from flares in this sector by 33,000 tons per year (USEPA, 2014). In the same Fact Sheet, the total VOC emission reductions for all affected sources in this proposed rule is projected to be 52,000 tons per year. The flare portion accounts for 63% of the total reductions.