Evaporation Loss of Hydrocarbon in Handling Petroleum

Abstract

Evaporation losses of hydrocarbons from various sources, such as refinery plants, oil terminals and gas stations, were studied. A correlation involving the volume of discharged gas, temperature and hydrocarbon concentration was derived for crude oil and petroleum products. These gas emission sources were classified according to their mode of evaporation. As a result, hydrocarbon emission factors in terms of annual mean value were obtained for various emission sources, such as cone and floating roof tanks, loading tankers, tank trucks and gas stations; and also the hydrocarbon emission factors far crude oil and such petroleum products as naphtha, gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil and fuel oil. The hydrocarbon emission factors obtained in this study were smaller than those presented by the U. S. EPA.The calculated hydrocarbon emission factor for loading a tanker which was calculated for the first time, was less than 1/5 of that for loading a tank truck. The hydrocarbon emission factor for loading various kinds of vessels with kerosene and diesel oil was about 1/500 of that for loading the same types of vessels with gasoline.