DOWNSTREAM RECENT AND PENDING REGULATIONS PUSH REFINERS TO THE LIMIT

Anne K. Rhodes
Refining/Petrochemical Editor

With new and stricter regulations and emission standards continually being established, the refining and petrochemical industries are under the gun to develop more-efficient, lower cost solutions to compliance issues.

Developing new processes and technologies to meet current and pending standards is becoming an increasingly difficult and costly problem for refiners in particular.

At the same time, the deadlines for the production of reformulated gasoline are staring them in the face. The combination may well prove fatal for some smaller refineries.

RCRA

The 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) mandated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish Land Disposal Restrictions (LDRs), or "landbans," for RCRA characteristic and listed hazardous wastes.

The treatment standards that these wastes must meet prior to landfilling are based on the performance of a Best Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT).

There are four categories of RCRA characteristic hazardous wastes: ignitable, corrosive, reactive, and toxic. Toxicity, initially measured by the Extraction Procedure (EP) leachability test, has been measured by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) since Mar. 29, 1990. These characteristics are described in more detail in the article in this report on p. 46.

HSWA also required land treatment facilities to demonstrate that hazardous constituents in their waste material are confined to their particular facility and that these constituents cannot leak into the groundwater or surface water. In addition, the degradation of organic components has to occur at an appropriate rate.

There are several RCRA issues-both recently implemented and pending-that are of concern to the refining and petrochemical industries.

REVISED TC RULE

The Toxicity Characteristic (TC) rule was revised to include 26 organic chemicals, including benzene and cresols. The presence of benzene, for example, renders a waste water stream hazardous when benzene concentrations are greater than 0.5 PPM.

When this rule went into effect in September of 1990, it broadened the definition of a characteristically toxic hazardous waste to include a large number of wastes that were previously not included.

EPA has set landban standards for wastes identified as hazardous under the HSWA, but landban BDAT standards for wastes defined as hazardous since the law's enactment, including these 26 organics, have not yet been set.

Because of the June 1991 consent decree between the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and EPA resulting from a lawsuit brought against EPA by EDF, the agency has agreed to promulgate these BDAT standards by Apr. 30, 1993.

The definition of these wastes as hazardous will essentially eliminate landfarming. And because they are now hazardous, they must be managed in an RCRA Subtitle C facility, such as an incinerator, solvent extraction unit, or landfill. When LDRs are established for these wastes, waste streams covered by this rule will require treatment or recovery before they can even be placed in a Subtitle C facility.

It is no longer true that liquid wastes are considered hazardous only if the hazardous constituents can be leached from the solid phase. Liquid wastes that contain less than 0.5% filterable solids can now be characteristically hazardous.

This means that waste water containing 0.5 ppm benzene-except for a few exemptions-is now a hazardous waste. Many refineries are building new waste water conveyance and treatment systems to segregate waste streams affected by this listing.

Eco Dynamics Inc., an environmental engineering company, estimates cost of compliance with this rule to be $130-400 million per refinery, depending on how many surface impoundments a facility has.

PRIMARY SLUDGE LISTING

EPA estimates that 90% of operating refineries will be affected by a rule listing primary petroleum refinery sludges, designated F037 and F038, as hazardous wastes. This rule, effective May 2, 1991, classifies most sludges generated in petroleum refineries as hazardous waste.

The primary sludge rule governs all sludges generated from the separation of oil/water/solids during the storage or primary treatment of process waste waters and oily cooling waters.

It is estimated that up to 800,000 metric tons/year of sludge will be affected by this listing. Capital investment costs will vary depending on the number of affected storage vessels at a refinery.

Surface impoundments that receive or generate these wastes must comply with Minimum Technology Requirements (MTRs) within 4 years of the promulgation date. Examples of these MTRs are double liners, leachate collection, and groundwater monitoring.

Most refiners are choosing to reconfigure their waste water collection and treatment systems by building segregated stormwater systems, by replacing impoundments with tanks, and by lining or enclosing process waste water conveyance ditches, according to Michael Norman, vice-president of national accounts, energy industry for ENSR Consulting & Engineering.

One Gulf Coast refinery treats all of its waste water in conventional aboveground steel tanks. Another has installed one 10 million gal tank for this purpose, and plans to build three more.

And 25 U.S. refineries practice sludge coking to dispose of oily, indigenous sludges. In this process, the sludge is injected into coke drums during the quench cycle.

Because of the EDF-EPA consent decree previously mentioned, EPA has agreed to promulgate treatment standards for primary sludges in May 1992, although there is still considerable concern about whether adequate treatment capacity exists.

The decree also requires EPA to fully characterize 15 additional petroleum refinery wastes and how they should be managed by June 30, 1996, and to determine final listings for 14 petroleum refining wastes by Oct. 31, 1996. Table 1 contains a complete list of these wastes.

RCRA CORRECTIVE ACTION

The proposed RCRA Corrective Action Rule, issued in July 1990, established regulatory requirements for corrective action at any hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facility (TSDF) receiving an RCRA operating or expansion permit. The rule acts to remediate TSDF sites.

This process begins with EPA performing an RCRA facility assessment. Then the facility performs an RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI), then a corrective measures plan.

Although the program is still in its infancy, it is beginning to have a tremendous impact on the industry. Of the 204 U.S. refineries, 109 are undertaking corrective action.

Norman says RCRA Corrective Action will eventually be approximately equal in order of magnitude to Superfund, in terms of costs. Facilities may be required to combine units to be remediated into Corrective Action Management Units, or CAMUs.

These CAMUs will, as a general rule, not require permitting, with the possible exceptions of units like incinerators or tanks. This means that operators will be able to move material back and forth between remediation sites without having to meet landban standards.

In addition, corrective action may allow for the negotiation of more-achievable cleanup levels, i.e., risk-based levels as opposed to background levels.

RCRA REAUTHORIZATION

Several RCRA reauthorization bills are being debated in Congress. The new act is likely to have the following effects:

• Broaden the definition of hazardous waste characteristics to include acute toxicity, aquatic toxicology, carcinogenicity, and bioaccumulation

• List additional wastes as hazardous

• Require waste minimization and set specific standards for reduction

• Tighten regulations on recycling

• Require new standards for industrial solid waste and eliminate the RCRA exemptions for some portions of industrial waste water treatment systems.

Subtitle D landfills are expected to be more strictly controlled, making them essentially similar to Subtitle C disposal facilities, in terms of regulatory control.

Currently, waste water systems permitted by National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (Npdes)-such as tanks, process units, and sewer lines-are exempt from meeting RCRA standards. It is possible that this exemption will be eliminated or restricted under RCRA reauthorization.

The used oil issue under reauthorization may require that a certain percentage of a refiner's capacity be used to reprocess oil. This might turn refineries into recycling facilities, requiring an RCRA permit.

RCRA reauthorization is not, however, likely to affect other portions of the permitting process, says Norman, although more facilities may be subject to it.

Any facility treating, disposing, or storing a hazardous waste for more than 90 days is required to file for an RCRA Part A permit. Part B of the RCRA permitting process is designed to identify all hazardous waste facilities and solid waste management units (SWMUs).

When a facility files for a Part B permit, EPA usually grants that facility interim status. Although most refiners have filed a Part B, very few have been issued.

This is because the number of stipulations required to obtain a Part B permit increases each time a new waste is listed, and because many additional standards must be met.

BIF RULE

Effective Aug. 21, 1991, the boiler and industrial furnaces (BIF) rule will have a strong influence on the operating procedures and costs associated with boilers and industrial furnaces. A great number of petrochemical facilities, but few refineries, will be affected by the BIF rule.

Facilities intending to burn hazardous waste in their BIF units will have to demonstrate that their systems are technically sound, functionally intact, and fully integrated, in terms of waste handling, combustion processes, pollution control, and residue processing and disposal.

These facilities should have either stopped burning these wastes or submitted for precompliance certification in August of this year.

CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS

One of the most complex environmental legislations ever passed is the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990. Roughly 20 times larger than the entire 1970 Clean Air Act, CAAA is far reaching in its effects.

It will change the way a broad range of facilities do business. And though it will take almost a decade for all of the regulations to be implemented, industry must be proactive in its preparation to meet the requirements in a cost-effective manner.

Section 301 of CAAA Title III completely revises and greatly expands on the 1970 Clean Air Act's Section 112 on National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (Neshaps).

Section 301 adds 190 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including benzene, to the Neshaps list, and directs EPA to categorize the industrial sources that emit them. It also requires, over a period of time, the institution of stringent standards, called Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) to reduce HAP emissions.

A major source of HAPs is defined as any stationary source that emits, or can emit, 10,000 kg (or 10 metric tons)/year of any HAP, or 25 tons/year of any combination of HAPS.

EPA's criteria for listing materials as HAPs are:

• Substances that may threaten human health through inhalation or other exposure routes, including substances known or reasonably anticipated to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, neurotoxic, or which cause reproductive dysfunction or are acutely or chronically toxic.

• Substances that may adversely affect the environment through ambient concentrations, bioaccumulation, deposition, or otherwise.

• Substances that are not criteria" pollutants regulated by Section 108(a).

• Substances that are not regulated under Title VI (CFCs, HCFCs, etc.).

Elemental lead is precluded from being listed as an HAP.

A compliance schedule for HAPs as well as sources scheduled for MACT regulation by November 1992 have been previously published (OGJ, June 10, p. 36, 37).

MACT standards will be established for specific source categories in such forms as pollution control equipment, process changes, product substitutions, production control procedures, work practices, operational standards, or some combination of these,

MACT standards will, in most cases, be expressed in terms of emissions limits. A 6-year compliance extension may be granted to sources that demonstrate a 90% voluntary reduction in emissions for 1987 levels (95% for particulates) before an MACT standard is proposed. As is often the case, according to an expert on air toxics, regulation will be "technology forcing" when it comes to MACT standards.

The CAAA provisions affect, among other things, transfer operations, pumps, flanges, valves, some tank drainage systems, sewer conveyances, surface impoundments, waste handling operations, and oil/water separators.

Vapor recovery systems at gas pumps may also be mandated by CAAA, and California is certain to do so.

FUGITIVE EMISSIONS

Fugitive emissions of these HAPS, often called air toxics, must be controlled.

Emissions come from such sources as valves, pumps, and flanges. As an example of the scope of these standards, Exxon Chemical Co. says it has 150,000 valves in its Baytown, Tex., chemical complex, all of which will have to be checked.

The standards on fugitive emissions from equipment leaks were reduced from 10,000 to 500 ppm as a result of the negotiated rulemaking process. The process also increased the components affected by the rule by reducing the applicable concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the process stream from 10% to 5%.

When the rule is promulgated as MACT technology, it will apply to essentially the entire Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturing Industry (Socmi), thus hitting petrochemical facilities very hard. This is likely to be another area in which regulation will be technology-forcing.

Promulgation is expected to occur within a year of proposal of the MACT rule, which should occur in late 1991 or early 1992. It is projected that all facilities will have to be in compliance with these provisions some time in 1996.

The proposed rules for National Emission Standards for Equipment Leaks are to be implemented in three phases. These will be explained, as they apply to valves.

Phases I and II comprise a Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) program. The LDAR requires periodic checks for equipment VOC leaks. Leaks greater than 10,000 ppm must be repaired within a certain time period (first attempt within 5 days, final repair within 15 days).

In Phase III, the monitoring frequency is based on the percentage of valves with leaks greater than 500 ppm (Fig. 1). Poor performance could require the implementation of a Quality Improvement Program, or QIP. The QIP requirements are quite stringent, and most operators will be well-advised to avoid them by implementing their own QIP programs in advance.

As can be seen in Table 2, 90% of refinery emissions come from a small percentage of the equipment.

Valves can be repaired by tightening the packing, or by repacking or replacing the valve.

Flanges and pumps will also require monitoring in the coming years. The valve-to-flange ratio at Exxon's Baytown plant is 1.5, but it can be as high as 3 for older facilities. The monitoring processes for flanges and pumps will be similar to those for valves.

BENZENE NESHAPS

Benzene Neshaps is one of the most important of the recent environmental legislations. It affects not only equipment leaks but also emissions of benzene into waste water streams.

Facilities with greater than 10 metric tons/year benzene in waste water streams are affected, They must identify waste water streams containing greater than 10 ppm benzene and divert them to units that will reduce benzene to acceptable levels, i.e., below 10 ppm or by 95%. Practically every refinery will be involved, as well as most olefins plants.

The compliance date for these provisions is May 1992-also issued as a result of a law suit. A recent American Petroleum institute (API) study estimated that more than 50% of refiners will not be in compliance with Benzene Neshaps by the May deadline.

API is in negotiations with EPA regarding the benzene Neshaps compliance date. EPA has expressed its willingness to have the deadline remanded. It is generally thought that API will be successful in its efforts, and that the rule will be reproposed in 1992 and repromulgated in 1993.

EPA may also be able to grant a conditional 2-year stay for this regulation on a facility-by-facility basis.

Mobil Corp. is spending $10 million on a benzene recovery project at its Chalmette, La., refinery. The project uses vacuum steam stripping to decrease benzene emissions by about 10 metric tons/year (Fig. 2).

One Gulf Coast petrochemical plant has also spent $10 million on a waste water stripping facility which reduced benzene levels from several thousand ppm to less than 5 ppm. Another estimates that its steam stripper has reduced benzene emissions by 70 tons/year (OGJ, May 27, p. 62).

PERMITTING

Under the permitting provisions of CAAA Title V, states must propose permitting programs by November 1993. EPA then has 1 year to approve the state submittals. Industry must submit permits by late 1995.

Permitting fees will be a minimum of $25 per ton of emissions per year. States are expected to move more quickly than required to take advantage of these significantly higher permitting fees.

A schedule for compliance with the new permitting program has been published previously (OGJ, June 10, p. 38.). Permits must be renewed every 5 years under the new program. The renewal period is currently 15 years in Texas.

OTHER AIR REGULATIONS

About one third of the states have fairly sophisticated air toxics regulations on the books. Another third either have some regulations or deals with the issues on a case-by-case basis. And the final third have apparently adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding what will be required, according to one industry source.

As far as the individual states are concerned:

• California has taken the lead

• Wisconsin is very forward-thinking with regard to environmental issues

• Texas has sophisticated air regs

• New Jersey and a number of others have strong air programs.

A California refiner says that a 90% decrease in acceptable emissions of NOx, SOx, and particulates is expected from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (Scaqmd). That refinery is studying such technologies as NOx scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators for removal of fluid catalytic cracking particulate matter.

In addition, it is engineering and designing SOx scrubbers to meet a refinery fuel-gas sulfur specification of 40 ppm by May 1993. These projects are expected to cost $10-50 million.

RCRA air regulations address hazardous waste TSDF emissions from process vents. Processes that treat hazardous waste with 10% total organics-such as solvent extraction, air stripping, and steam stripping-will have to be controlled by using carbon filters or other technologies.

And Louisiana has imposed rather stringent marine-loading air regulations, causing one refinery in that state to install a $5.5 million closed collection system.

DEVELOPING REGULATIONS

There are currently several bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and a proposed Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act of 1991 in the Senate. These bills could be finalized into law some time next year as the Clean Water Act Reauthorization.

These laws are likely to include self-monitoring, public right-to-know, and more-stringent enforcement provisions. Tighter controls on discharges to Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) are in the works. Existing controls have already prompted projects in the refining and petrochemical industry.

Union Carbide reports that it launched and completed a fast-paced cleanup program at its giant Texas City, Tex., complex that utilized point-of-source control to allow it to send waste water to a Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority treatment plant.

Charles R. Kline, a vice-president of Union Carbide, described the project at a recent Houston environmental briefing. He believes that the entire industry will eventually stop emphasizing "end of pipe treatment" and focus on source control in the units and maintenance shops.

Additional provisions could possibly involve effluent standards and flow reductions. And if contaminated sediments become regulated, a whole new group of Superfund sites could be opened.

Waste water Neshaps rules are now being developed for Socmi. They will be similar in structure to Benzene Neshaps, but will not affect refineries initially. There are, however, some synthetic organic chemical processes at refineries that would be required to meet these standards.

Waste water treatment units are listed as a source category for defining MACT standards (OGJ, June 10, p. 37). The proposed draft does not allow for control by using a controlled sewer, as does Benzene Neshaps. It would require that the waste water be treated at the unit, rather than by conveying it to one central treatment unit.

VOLUNTARY REDUCTIONS

Many facilities are voluntarily reducing both emissions and hazardous waste volumes. One California refiner has reduced its volume of hazardous wastes by about 60% since 1987. And a Gulf Coast refiner has voluntarily discontinued the use of injection wells by installing a $25 million sour water stripper, as well as reduced S02 emissions by 75% from 1980 to 1990.

About 20 U.S. refiners were asked by EPA's administrator to join the Industrial Toxics Program-a voluntary program designed to reduce emissions of 17 priority chemicals. These chemicals include benzene, toluene, xylene, chromium, lead, and chlorinated solvents.

The program is often referred to as "33/50" because the goal is to reduce emissions of the targeted chemicals by 33% by year-end 1993, and by 50% by yearend 1995. About 90% of the U.S. refiners invited to join this program did so, and many have already made significant gains.

These reductions will qualify as CAAA voluntary emissions reductions in exchange for compliance extensions.

REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES

Many refineries worldwide are sitting atop of much recoverable product that has been lost during transfer operations, pipeline movements, and storage. Depending upon the age of a refinery, the volume of this product can be anywhere from a few hundred thousand barrels to a few million.

One West Coast refinery estimates that it is sitting on top of 2 million bbl of recoverable product, and a relatively new Gulf Coast refinery has discovered about 100,000 bbl.

The most common type of remediation project is product recovery operations. Other types include groundwater containment and treatment operations (or "pump and treat") and contaminated-soil treatment operations.

There are two "workhorse" pump and treat technologies: one uses granulated activated carbon filters to remove organics, and the other uses an air stripper. Carbon filters can be quite expensive, while air stripping is dependable and inexpensive if the vapors do not require treatment, either by thermal means or catalytic oxidation.

Another technology uses either fixed film or suspension bioreactors (Fig. 3). Fixed film provides a higher surface area, and therefore a smaller volume reactor, than does suspended bacteria.

An oily groundwater filtration system using diatomaceous earth as the filter aid media has been fully operational at Chevron U.S.A.'s El Segundo, Calif., refinery since April 1990 (OGJ, Jan. 14, p. 59). The system is completely automated, requiring no operator attention, and complete system redundancy eliminates the need for maintenance shutdowns.

An emerging technology is advanced oxidation-ultraviolet light plus an oxidizer. This is suited to small-scale situations, and has moderate capital costs and high operating costs.

Treatment of contaminated soil has historically been done by landfarming-a biological treatment method. "Managed landfarming" is the newer, more secure, controlled version of the original technology.

But regulations in many areas make managed landfarming too expensive.

An emerging technology in this area is engineered soil treatment, which is a similar process to composting. All of these soil treatment methods are for treating excavated soil.

Soil remediation technologies under development include:

• Soil washing, using surfactant or solvents

• Slurry reactor for biological treatment

• Chemical treatment, such as ozonation.

Soil can also be treated in situ by aerobic biological treatment. This is a system of aeration and nutrient application, the drawback being lack of product recovery. In addition, fungal, rather than bacterial, treatment systems are almost at the commercial stage.

OUTLOOK

A representative of a West Coast refinery estimated its waste management costs to be about 10% of operating costs-a staggering figure. He also stresses that source reduction is the preferred method of waste reduction, and that it is the only way to affect "Superfund" (or remediation) liability.

Emphasis must be placed on waste minimization in order to meet all of the standards being imposed on our industries.

Methods of waste reduction should be considered over the total process, from beginning to end, and not just at "end of pipe."

An expert on air regulations strongly suggests that operators take time to find out what is really going on, not by attending seminars but by being proactive in the rulemaking process on the federal, state, and local levels.

He suggests gathering a listing of all the resources necessary to satisfy the regulatory requirements, starting with the list of 190 HAPS, a summary of the rules, and the pertinent information, including the relevant inventories, data bases, and clearinghouses.

And as a last word, many share the opinion that it is wise to look now for a consultant. Consultants will be swamped with work as these regulations affect other industries, and at some point, a shortage of consultants may occur, primarily in the area of air regulations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ENSR Consulting & Engineering, "Special Report: Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Title III-Air Toxics," Acton, Mass., 1991.

Valve Manufacturers Association of America Technical Conference on Valve Fugitive Emissions, Sept. 25-26, Houston.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.