Toxic Combustion Byproducts

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 require the United States Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate Maximum Achievable Control Technology ("MACT") regulations by the year 2000 for the control of air toxics from stationary combustion sources such as petroleum industry heaters and boilers; moreover, prior to that, the Act requires that new, modified or reconstructed sources meet MACf standards for "Hazardous Air Pollutants" and "Polycyclic Organic Matter" as determined " ... on a case-by-case basis where no applicable emission limitations have [yet] been established by the Administrator." The long range research project described in this paper seeks to elucidate scientifically well-founded, cost-effective MACf to minimize the cost of meeting these upcoming regulations while at the same time reducing toxic emissions to acceptable population health-risk levels. The program is unique in that it combines not only an industry consortium (Petroleum Environmental Research Forum) and a university laboratory (University of California at Los Angeles) but also two government laboratories (Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) into a collaborative, highly-leveraged fundamental research program sanctioned under a Stevenson-Wydler (15 USC 3710) Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. Not long ago it would have been nonsense even to contemplate a coupled attack on the chemical kinetics and fluid mechanics of the seemingly chaotic multiple chain-branching combustion reaction. But recent advances in quantum chemistry, computational capacity, numerical modeling and laser diagnostics today make it possible to meet the challenge for the simple gaseous fuels that power the petroleum industry. Furthermore, there is a powerful incentive for industry to partner with government to seek methodologies for limiting the emission of toxic combustion byproducts while at the same time continuing today' s energy efficient processing. The success of this cost-shared initiative will enable the continued use of process gas to fuel petroleum industry combustion sources while reducing toxic emissions to acceptable population health-risk levels through new burner configurations and operating methodologies in compliance with scientifically well-founded regulations.