Real World Emissions Data from Process Heaters At a Large West Coast Refinery

In 1988, the California legislature passed the "Air Toxics Hot Spot Information and Assessment Act of 1988", better known as Assembly Bill 2588 (or AB2588). California law required industry to inventory air emissions of more than 300 substances (later expanded to more than 700) to assess the potential human health risk to communities surrounding emission sources. Source testing, to characterize air toxin emissions, was required where reliable emission factors or engineering estimating techniques did not exist. In 1989 the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) initiated development of industry-wide air toxics emission factors with a pooled source-testing program for combustion devices. Two rounds of testing were performed initially in 1989 and 1992. A common database of air toxin emission factors for petroleum industry combustion devices was created. This compilation became know as the WSPA Pooled Source Database (WSPA, 1992).