CONCAWE effluent speciation project

Report No. 3/10: In preparation for the implementation of the EU REACH regulation, a project was undertaken to transfer the high-resolution analytical method for determining hydrocarbon blocks in petroleum products by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) to a laboratory external to the petroleum industry (Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the VU University of Amsterdam). The method was validated and used for the analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons extracted from refinery effluents.

The report describes the technology transfer and the approaches used to demonstrate the successful transfer and application of the GCxGC methodology from analysing petroleum products to the quantitative determination of hydrocarbon blocks in refinery effluents.

The report describes all the methods used for all the determinations on the effluent samples along with an overview of the results obtained which are presented in summary tables and graphs. These data have significantly improved CONCAWE‘s knowledge of what refineries emit in their effluents.

A total of 111 Effluent Discharge Samples from 105 CONCAWE refineries in Europe were obtained in the period June 2008 to March 2009. These effluents were analysed for metals, standard effluent parameters (including COD, BOD), oil in water, BTEX and volatile organic compounds. The hydrocarbon speciation determinations and other hydrocarbon analyses are also reported.

The individual refinery analytical results are included into this report, coded as per the CONCAWE system. These data will be, individually, communicated to companies and refineries.

The report demonstrates that it is feasible to conduct a research programme to investigate the fate and effects of hydrocarbon blocks present in discharged refinery effluents.