Greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state refineries

Edited from various sources by Claira LloydSolomon Associates has announced that it has been working in collaboration with the refining industry and state officials in Washington to assist in establishing a regulatory framework designed to help control greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from five Washington petroleum refineries. The Washington Department of Ecology has begun the process of controlling GHGs by adopting a new rule under RCW 70.94.154. The rule requires all Washington stationary sources to have reasonably available control technology (RACT). Refineries are being presented with two options to meet the requirement.

The choices

The first option requires refineries to use Solomon’s Energy Intensity Index^® (EII) to benchmark their energy efficiency against other similar sized refineries in the nation. Solomon’s proprietary metric is based on the industry’s largest database of energy management data and an in depth understanding of refinery energy and emissions efficiency. EII has become the global refining industry gold standard for assessing the efficiency of energy usage, one of the primary drivers of combustion related GHGs.

As cited in the rule, a refinery will be considered compliant if it has a calculated EII equal to or more efficient than the EII value representing the 50^th percentile EII of similar sized US refineries, based on 2006 performance data and the EPA EnergyStar^® Program\s methodology designed specifically for the refining industry.

The second option allows a refinery to comply by reducing its emissions of GHGs. Emissions reductions achieve compliance with the RACT requirement if they implement GHG reduction projects that do either of the following:

• Result in cumulative annual emissions reductions equivalent to 10% of the facility’s baseline GHG emissions.
• Result in the petroleum refinery meeting the EII standard from Solomon.

Comments

Dale Emanuel, President of Solomon said, ‘we’re pleased to help Washington refineries control greenhouse gas emissions by leveraging our benchmarking data. We welcome a conversation with any of the affected plant managers to discuss our EII benchmarking methodology.’

Adapted from press release by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/10062014/ghg_emissions_from_washington_refineries/