Evaluation and Estimation of Gaseous Pollutant Emission Factors in Natural and Liquid Gas Processing Units

Oil and gas processing plants are one of the most air pollutant industries. In this paper, gaseous air pollutants emission factors were estimated for pollutant sources in an Iranian Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant using fuel analysis method and published emission factors. The results showed that the main pollutant sources in this unit are gas flare, gas turbines, pit and boiler. Total Hydro Carbons (THC) and CH4 emissions from gas flares and NO2 emission from gas turbine are higher than any other pollutant sources. Activity based emission factors were determined as 513.3, 2731.0, 0, 1805.3 and 225.6 g/1000kg LPG for NO2, CO, SO2, THC and CH4 respectively on the basis of LPG production in the unit. Because of possible gas leakages from the units, CH4 emission factor have larger margin of error. Calculated emission factors can be used for emission estimation of air pollutant in other similar NGL processing units.