Title: Air Quality Impacts of Oil and Gas | American Geosciences Institute
Headings: Air Quality Impacts of Oil and Gas
Air Quality Impacts of Oil and Gas
Emissions from production, processing, refining, and use
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Introduction
Major Air Pollutants and the Regulatory Framework
Ozone and Oil & Gas Production
Air Pollution from Oil Refineries and Gas Processing Plants
Combustion and U.S. Air Quality Over Time
More Resources
References
Petroleum and the Environment
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Content: 23
Air Pollution from Oil Refineries and Gas Processing Plants
Oil refineries convert crude oil into a vast array of products, requiring a range of operations that emit a variety of pollutants, both through normal operations and in accidents. The EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Air Act at petroleum refineries has led to dozens of settlements in which companies have agreed to invest billions of dollars in control technologies and supplemental environmental projects. 12 Due largely to this enforcement, from 2000 to 2011, combined SO x and NO x emissions from refineries decreased by 75%. 13 Other regulations control VOC and benzene emissions from equipment at refineries and petroleum product distribution systems. 14
Natural gas processing has fewer air pollution risks, but some plants that process natural gas containing hydrogen sulfide – a poisonous, corrosive, and flammable gas – are regulated as toxic release sites. 15 The range of refinery and processing plant operations and their related emissions are summarized in the EPA’s Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors. 16
Refinery emissions can be reduced by many means, including improved furnace efficiency, leak detection and control, gas recycling, reduced flaring and venting, scrubbers, and catalytic reactors. 17,18,19,20 From 1990 to 2013, refinery emissions of air toxics decreased by 66% and VOC emissions decreased by 69%, despite a 14% increase in the amount of crude oil being processed. 21 For communities near refineries, such as Galena Park near Houston, Texas (see figure), sustained future decreases in emissions from refineries and fuel storage facilities are an important part of mitigating the local public health impacts of oil and gas activity. 22
Changes in the average U.S. concentrations of the EPA’s six target air pollutants from 1990-2016.