Open AccessAssessment of air pollution control technologies to reduce SOx emission from thermal oxidizer for oil and gas industry
Author(s) -
N H B Haji Nawawi,
Mohammad Nazri Mohd. Jaafar
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/1195/1/012046
Subject(s) - flue gas , pollutant , nox , environmental science , waste management , thermal power station , air pollution , pollution , sulfur dioxide , environmental engineering , engineering , combustion , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , ecology , organic chemistry , biology
Many countries have put in place, various legislations that govern air emission limits/pollutants from the industries. The common pollutants being monitored are Sulphur Oxides (SO x ), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC s ), particulate matters and dioxins. In Malaysia, the regulatory requirement aims to regulate emissions of air pollutants from industrial activities including oil and gas, power plants, waste fuel plants and asphalt mixing plants. One of the emission limits under Clean Air Regulation (CAR2014) is emission level for SO x should be less than 600 mg/m 3 (reference condition at 3 % of O 2 , 273 K, 101.3 kPa) whereby sum of SO 2 and SO 3 expressed as SO x . Excessive SO x emission can affect both health and the environment. Aligning with the regulation requirement, Group Technical Solution (GTS) under PETRONAS has embarked on assessment of technology solutions to meet the emission limit on SO x emission limit for thermal oxidizers which cover new and existing facilities. This paper describes on the work methodology and approach adopted during the assessment. The objective of the assessment is to determine the suitable process technology to reduce SO x emission in order to achieve the desired emission limit for flue gas at outlet stream of thermal oxidizer. Thorough evaluation was carried out based on proposal submission from various technology providers and Vendors. The selection criteria was developed and established. For existing thermal oxidizers, the assessment is more complex taking into consideration the nature of brownfield project and to ensure the proposed modification has minor impact to operability and maintainability of existing facilities. This study has successfully enabled identification of feasible process technologies such as Caustic Scrubber, Seawater Flue Gas Desulfurization and Ammonia based Desulfurization to meet the desired emission limit at thermal oxidizer outlet for Oil and Gas Industry and supporting environmental protection. The selected technology is varies based on plant/project specific requirement. Among main considerations are the by-product management, consumable and utility consumption as well as compatibility of the technology with existing plant on shutdown requirement.