A general model for estimating air emissions in petroleum refineries using emission factors technique

Estimating the quantities of certain substances discharged into the atmosphere by several industrial activities is a necessary and fundamental stage in any environmental protection policy to tackle the present problems, e.g., acid rain, the degradation of air quality, global warming and climate change, and the depletion of the ozone layer. A general model for filling part of the information gap with respect to air emissions estimation from petroleum refineries is proposed. A pollution-estimation model that draws from published sources of information and allows analysts to obtain order-of-magnitude estimates of the air pollution generated by refineries is presented. A case study is provided, to illustrate the application of the model. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2013 AIChE Spring Meeting & 9th Global Congress on Process Safety (San Antonio, TX 4/28-5/2/2013).