Refining BREF review – air emissions
Report no. 4/09: A review of emission and abatement technologies has been carried out to inform the review of the Reference Document for Best Available Techniques for the Mineral Oil and Gas Refining Industries (the BREF) which acts as a guidance to permit authorities when implementing the Industrial Pollution Prevention Control Directive.
This report extends and supplements CONCAWE Report no. 99/01 - Best Available techniques to Reduce Emissions from Refineries. Focus is on providing additional information on emissions to air, with new information on NOx emissions from combustion, emissions from FCC units, sulphur removal and recovery and vapour recovery systems. Recommendations are made as to how to improve the BREF and update the Associated Emission Levels (AELs) ascribed to each technique.
It is suggested that the BREF be clearer in its definition of AEL values associated with the Best Available Technique by enumerating each component technique.This work did not set out to gather detailed information on costs of abatement techniques because a substantial element of cost is in the local implementation and this is extremely difficult to quantify. However, where cost information has become available in the course of the work on techniques, it has been included.