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A variety of methods exist to remove volatile organic compound (VOC) air pollutants from contaminated gas streams. As regulatory and public opinion pressures increase, companies are searching for more effective methods to control these emissions. This document is intended as a guide to help determine if existing systems are adequate and to provide additional information to improve the efficiency of the systems. It explores conventional methods of controlling VOC emissions, as well as innovative technologies including membrane separation, plasma destruction, and ozone catalytic oxidation. The conventional technologies covered include condensation, adsorption, absorption (or scrubbing), thermal incineration, flaring, catalytic incineration, and biofiltration. Each chapter includes a description of the technology, a discussion of the types of systems available, notes on the design of the system, economic estimates, an explanation of potential problems, and a list of considerations for installation and maintenance concerns. The final chapter is dedicated to the preparation and characterization of metal catalysts which were developed to improve the reaction rate of VOCs using ozone as an oxidant. / Ph. D.

[pt] Anualmente, mais de 100 bilhões de metros cúbicos de gás são queimados mundialmente em flares nas instalações de petróleo e gás natural. Esse número era ainda maior a alguns anos atrás. No passado, o holofote estava sobre o petróleo e o gás natural era visto como uma fonte de energia não rentável. A preocupação mundial com o aquecimento global impulsionou as ações para redução das emissões de gases causadores do efeito estufa. A crescente mobilização dos órgãos reguladores de diversos países para imposição de restrições de queima e ventilação do gás natural vem contribuindo para a melhoria dos índices de aproveitamento do gás associado. Muito embora já tenha havido um avanço relevante, o montante de gás desperdiçado ainda precisa ser reduzido. Neste contexto, a necessidade de se quantificar corretamente os volumes desperdiçados de gás fica evidente. As ações para redução da queima ou ventilação de gás natural se baseiam fortemente em medições precisas. O reflexo disto são as constantes publicações de diretrizes regulatórias voltadas para as medições de vazão de gás dos sistemas de alívio/tocha. Apesar da medição de gás de flare não ser uma técnica nova, ela ainda é considerada desafiadora e bem diferente das demais aplicações de medição de vazão. A natureza imprevisível da queima de gás natural, associada a instalações inadequadas, torna a medição extremamente difícil e complexa. O presente trabalho traz uma visão geral da queima de gás natural, da regulação do tema no Brasil e no mundo e das características e desafios da medição de gás de flare. Adicionalmente, foram feitos estudos de incerteza sobre os volumes diários medidos nos pontos fiscais de gás de uma instalação típica, de forma a analisar a influência da incerteza da medição do gás de tocha sobre a incerteza da produção mensal de gás natural, que é a base de cálculo para as devidas participações governamentais. Também foram calculadas as diferenças obtidas entre a medição indireta (balanço volumétrico de gás) e a medição direta (medição ultrassônica) da queima de gás natural e as incertezas relacionadas à medição indireta. / [en] Annually, more than 100 billion cubic meters of gas are flared from upstream oil and gas facilities. This number was even higher a few years ago. In the past, the spotlight was on oil and natural gas was seen as a non-profitable source of energy. The worldwide concern over global warming spurred actions to reduce emissions of greenhouses effect gases, contributing to change the scenario above. The increased mobilization of regulators from many countries enforcing gas flaring and venting restrictions has contributed to the improvement of gas use. However, although some progress has been already achieved, the amount of wasted gas still needs to be reduced. In this context, the need to correctly quantify the volumes of gas flared is evident. Actions to reduce the flaring or venting of natural gas rely heavily on accurate measurements. This reflects on the rigorous flare measurement guidelines introduced by many countries to support flaring legislation. Although the flare gas measurement is not a new technique, it is still considered a challenging task and quite unique compared to other flow measurement applications. The unpredictable nature of the flaring, many times happening at inadequate facility, makes measuring it extremely difficult and complex. This work provides an overview of gas flaring, regulatory requirements in Brazil and worldwide and the characteristics and challenges of flare gas measurement. In addition, uncertainty studies were made over the daily volumes measured in the fiscal points of a typical installation, in order to analyze the influence of the uncertainty of flared gas measurement on the uncertainty of monthly gas production, which is the basis for calculating the government takes. The differences obtained between the gas flaring indirect measurement (bydifference method) and direct measurement (ultrasonic measurement) were also calculated, as well as the uncertainties related to the indirect measurement.

Numa unidade offshore de produção de petróleo, o gás produzido é tratado para atingir as especificações requeridas e permitir sua utilização em diferentes demandas como gás combustível, gas lift, exportação de gás ou injeção de gás. No Brasil, a Agência Nacional do Petróleo regula a produção de óleo e gás, limita a queima de gás e controla a movimentação e utilização de gás de acordo com as estimativas informadas pelo operador. Falhas no sistema de tratamento de gás levam à queima e podem causar parada de produção. A confiabilidade e disponibilidade do sistema de tratamento de gás é uma preocupação relevante. Entender as relações e influências dos vários subsistemas e equipamentos do sistema nessas medidas de desempenho pode levar a melhorias nas estratégias de manutenção que podem minimizar perdas na produção de óleo e de gás. Dentre os vários métodos de análise de confiabilidade, as redes de Petri estocásticas se destacam quando comparadas às ferramentas tradicionais como diagrama de blocos ou árvore de falhas devido a sua habilidade em modelar aspectos como dependências funcionais, lógicas e sequências. Nesse trabalho foram construídos quatro modelos utilizando redes de Petri estocásticas para analisar a disponibilidade do sistema de tratamento de gás. A facilidade de construção modelo A sugere sua utilização em etapas preliminares de projeto para validar o arranjo inicial, as quantidades de equipamentos e as configurações de redundância. O modelo B pode ser utilizado para identificar os subsistemas e equipamentos que mais contribuem para as falhas do sistema e para realizar previsões quanto aos modos de operação do sistema e índice de aproveitamento de gás. A análise de sensibilidade dos resultados de disponibilidade quanto aos dados de falha utilizados mostrou que a variação do tempo médio para reparo tem maior influência. Por meio do modelo C verificou-se que uma plataforma operando num conjunto e sujeita a restrições de importação e exportação de gás tem maior indisponibilidade e maior probabilidade de falha do que uma plataforma operando isolada. O modelo D permite concluir que a inclusão de um modo de falha ao modelo não implica em variação significativa dos resultados de confiabilidade e que nos resultados de disponibilidade a variação passa a ser significativa quando adotam-se pequenos valores de tempo médio entre falhas e grandes valores de tempo médio para reparo. A construção das redes de Petri estocásticas para o sistema completo exige uma compreensão detalhada do funcionamento do sistema em análise o que também pode ser destacado como uma vantagem das redes de Petri estocásticas, contribuindo para aquisição de conhecimento acerca do sistema e dando segurança quanto a fidelidade do modelo criado. / In an offshore oil production facility, produced gas is treated to meet the necessary specifications to allow its use in different demands, as gas fuel, as exportation gas and as injection gas. In Brazil, the National Petroleum Agency regulates oil and gas production, establishing and gas flaring limits, the utilization and distribution of gas according to the operator\'s estimations. Failures in the gas treatment system eventually can cause oil production interruptions to avoid attaining the gas flaring limits. Reliability and availability of the gas treatment system is a major concern. Understanding the relationships and influences of the various gas treatment subsystems and equipment on these performance measures may lead to design or maintenance strategies improvements that could ultimately minimize oil and gas losses in the facility. Among several modelling methods stochastic Petri nets stands out comparing to traditional reliability tools like reliability block diagrams or fault tree analysis due to its ability to model aspects such as functional dependencies, logics and sequences. In this work, four models were built using stochastic Petri nets to assess the availability of a gas treatment system. The model A is easy to build and may be used in preliminary design stages to validate the initial arrangement, equipment and redundancies. The model B may be used to identify subsystems and equipment that most contribute to system failures and to predict operation modes and efficiency in the gas utilization. The sensibility analysis of reliability data has shown a predominant influence of the mean time to repair. Using model C, it could be noticed that a platform operating in a group submitted to injection and exportation gas limits has a greater unavailability and probability of failure than an isolated operating platform. Model D allow one to conclude that including a failure mode in the model does not imply in significant variation in the reliability results and that the variation is only significant in availability when using small mean time to failure values and large mean time to repair values. The stochastic Petri nets construction for the complete system requires an accurate comprehension about the system operation what could also be mentioned as an advantage of the stochastic Petri nets.

The issue of gas flaring and the attendant environmental effects have become a common sight in the Niger Delta. Apart from being a wastage of natural resources, it is a menace to the global existence of man. The incidences of acid rain and the disruption of economic life of the locals, basically farming and fishing, have led to consistent and irresistible agitation by the people of the Niger Delta for an end to gas flaring. The consistent release of harmful gases through gas flaring, with devastating effect on the surrounding environment of the Niger Delta region is discussed in this work. This dissertation examines why successive governments have not succeeded in their quest for a solution to gas flaring; policies and regulations are not being effectively implemented, and why despite the fact that flaring has been outlawed in Nigeria since 1st January 1984, it is still going on 24 years after. Flaring continues unabated undermining the consequences it has on the people and the effects on climate change. Interviews and case studies were used to examine the factors responsible for the non implementation of government policies and regulations, and why the consistent extension of flare-out deadline. Countries with outstanding results were examined in order to draw a baseline for the Nigeria situation. The research revealed that the Nigerian government has not enforced environmental regulations effectively because of its interests in the business of the multinationals. In addition there has been the dependence of environmental monitoring and regulatory agencies on government funding. This has drastically affected the proficiencies of the control and the insignificant penalties imposed on companies that flare gas. The need for government to play the role of an umpire rather than business partner with the multinationals is therefore of paramount importance. It is also pertinent that the regulatory and monitoring agencies be independent of government's supervision. More stringent measures, (ranging from more cost per a thousand standard cubic feet of gas flared to closure of platform(s) and/or outright withdrawal of license), should also be put in place to serve as deterrent to erring oil companies. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The issue of gas flaring and the attendant environmental effects have become a common sight in the Niger Delta. Apart from being a wastage of natural resources, it is a menace to the global existence of man. The incidences of acid rain and the disruption of economic life of the locals, basically farming and fishing, have led to consistent and irresistible agitation by the people of the Niger Delta for an end to gas flaring. The consistent release of harmful gases through gas flaring, with devastating effect on the surrounding environment of the Niger Delta region is discussed in this work. This dissertation examines why successive governments have not succeeded in their quest for a solution to gas flaring; policies and regulations are not being effectively implemented, and why despite the fact that flaring has been outlawed in Nigeria since 1st January 1984, it is still going on 24 years after. Flaring continues unabated undermining the consequences it has on the people and the effects on climate change. Interviews and case studies were used to examine the factors responsible for the non implementation of government policies and regulations, and why the consistent extension of flare-out deadline. Countries with outstanding results were examined in order to draw a baseline for the Nigeria situation. The research revealed that the Nigerian government has not enforced environmental regulations effectively because of its interests in the business of the multinationals. In addition there has been the dependence of environmental monitoring and regulatory agencies on government funding. This has drastically affected the proficiencies of the control and the insignificant penalties imposed on companies that flare gas. The need for government to play the role of an umpire rather than business partner with the multinationals is therefore of paramount importance. It is also pertinent that the regulatory and monitoring agencies be independent of government's supervision. More stringent measures, (ranging from more cost per a thousand standard cubic feet of gas flared to closure of platform(s) and/or outright withdrawal of license), should also be put in place to serve as deterrent to erring oil companies. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Numa unidade offshore de produção de petróleo, o gás produzido é tratado para atingir as especificações requeridas e permitir sua utilização em diferentes demandas como gás combustível, gas lift, exportação de gás ou injeção de gás. No Brasil, a Agência Nacional do Petróleo regula a produção de óleo e gás, limita a queima de gás e controla a movimentação e utilização de gás de acordo com as estimativas informadas pelo operador. Falhas no sistema de tratamento de gás levam à queima e podem causar parada de produção. A confiabilidade e disponibilidade do sistema de tratamento de gás é uma preocupação relevante. Entender as relações e influências dos vários subsistemas e equipamentos do sistema nessas medidas de desempenho pode levar a melhorias nas estratégias de manutenção que podem minimizar perdas na produção de óleo e de gás. Dentre os vários métodos de análise de confiabilidade, as redes de Petri estocásticas se destacam quando comparadas às ferramentas tradicionais como diagrama de blocos ou árvore de falhas devido a sua habilidade em modelar aspectos como dependências funcionais, lógicas e sequências. Nesse trabalho foram construídos quatro modelos utilizando redes de Petri estocásticas para analisar a disponibilidade do sistema de tratamento de gás. A facilidade de construção modelo A sugere sua utilização em etapas preliminares de projeto para validar o arranjo inicial, as quantidades de equipamentos e as configurações de redundância. O modelo B pode ser utilizado para identificar os subsistemas e equipamentos que mais contribuem para as falhas do sistema e para realizar previsões quanto aos modos de operação do sistema e índice de aproveitamento de gás. A análise de sensibilidade dos resultados de disponibilidade quanto aos dados de falha utilizados mostrou que a variação do tempo médio para reparo tem maior influência. Por meio do modelo C verificou-se que uma plataforma operando num conjunto e sujeita a restrições de importação e exportação de gás tem maior indisponibilidade e maior probabilidade de falha do que uma plataforma operando isolada. O modelo D permite concluir que a inclusão de um modo de falha ao modelo não implica em variação significativa dos resultados de confiabilidade e que nos resultados de disponibilidade a variação passa a ser significativa quando adotam-se pequenos valores de tempo médio entre falhas e grandes valores de tempo médio para reparo. A construção das redes de Petri estocásticas para o sistema completo exige uma compreensão detalhada do funcionamento do sistema em análise o que também pode ser destacado como uma vantagem das redes de Petri estocásticas, contribuindo para aquisição de conhecimento acerca do sistema e dando segurança quanto a fidelidade do modelo criado. / In an offshore oil production facility, produced gas is treated to meet the necessary specifications to allow its use in different demands, as gas fuel, as exportation gas and as injection gas. In Brazil, the National Petroleum Agency regulates oil and gas production, establishing and gas flaring limits, the utilization and distribution of gas according to the operator\'s estimations. Failures in the gas treatment system eventually can cause oil production interruptions to avoid attaining the gas flaring limits. Reliability and availability of the gas treatment system is a major concern. Understanding the relationships and influences of the various gas treatment subsystems and equipment on these performance measures may lead to design or maintenance strategies improvements that could ultimately minimize oil and gas losses in the facility. Among several modelling methods stochastic Petri nets stands out comparing to traditional reliability tools like reliability block diagrams or fault tree analysis due to its ability to model aspects such as functional dependencies, logics and sequences. In this work, four models were built using stochastic Petri nets to assess the availability of a gas treatment system. The model A is easy to build and may be used in preliminary design stages to validate the initial arrangement, equipment and redundancies. The model B may be used to identify subsystems and equipment that most contribute to system failures and to predict operation modes and efficiency in the gas utilization. The sensibility analysis of reliability data has shown a predominant influence of the mean time to repair. Using model C, it could be noticed that a platform operating in a group submitted to injection and exportation gas limits has a greater unavailability and probability of failure than an isolated operating platform. Model D allow one to conclude that including a failure mode in the model does not imply in significant variation in the reliability results and that the variation is only significant in availability when using small mean time to failure values and large mean time to repair values. The stochastic Petri nets construction for the complete system requires an accurate comprehension about the system operation what could also be mentioned as an advantage of the stochastic Petri nets.

<p>The goal of this study is to examine the environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration and production (E&P), the roles of legislation, and the environmental management strategies in the petroleum industry with respect to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study seeks to suggest sustainable solutions to the endemic economic, social, and environmental problems associated with oil and gas E&P in the region. The focus is on the environmental control in the upstream (E&P) operations of the oil and gas industry as it affects the Niger Delta region of Nigeria with a view to proffering sustainable solutions.</p><p>The heavily polluting activities and environmental impacts of the upstream oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta have over the years taken a routine dimension and are endemic as a result of inadequate environmental legislations and ineffective enforcements. Sequel to these environmental impacts is militancy, adoption of expatriates, communal conflicts, inter-ethnic conflicts, human right abuses, restiveness and other social vices as the study reveals. These social and environmental impacts of oil and gas activities in this region bring impoverishment, abject poverty, hunger, squalor, birth disease, gene mutation, and death while exposing inhabitants of the region to afflictions and diseases as the study explicitly documents.</p><p>The study also reveals that the persistence rate of unrest, restiveness, militancy and other social vices is as a result of non-dialogue status between the different stakeholders, lack of infrastructural development, lack of basic amenities, high rate of unemployment, poor policy construct, federalized mineral right / resource ownership structure, and the monopolistic nature of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earning in petroleum resources.</p><p>In this dissertation, both proactive and corrective measures to curb the menace of the social, economic and environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration & production operations in Nigeria are presented and discussed with suggestions to sustainable solution and development, better environmental legislation, and better resource policy construct while advocating for good industrial practices in the petroleum industry with emphasis on the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.</p>

The goal of this study is to examine the environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration and production (E&amp;P), the roles of legislation, and the environmental management strategies in the petroleum industry with respect to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study seeks to suggest sustainable solutions to the endemic economic, social, and environmental problems associated with oil and gas E&amp;P in the region. The focus is on the environmental control in the upstream (E&amp;P) operations of the oil and gas industry as it affects the Niger Delta region of Nigeria with a view to proffering sustainable solutions. The heavily polluting activities and environmental impacts of the upstream oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta have over the years taken a routine dimension and are endemic as a result of inadequate environmental legislations and ineffective enforcements. Sequel to these environmental impacts is militancy, adoption of expatriates, communal conflicts, inter-ethnic conflicts, human right abuses, restiveness and other social vices as the study reveals. These social and environmental impacts of oil and gas activities in this region bring impoverishment, abject poverty, hunger, squalor, birth disease, gene mutation, and death while exposing inhabitants of the region to afflictions and diseases as the study explicitly documents. The study also reveals that the persistence rate of unrest, restiveness, militancy and other social vices is as a result of non-dialogue status between the different stakeholders, lack of infrastructural development, lack of basic amenities, high rate of unemployment, poor policy construct, federalized mineral right / resource ownership structure, and the monopolistic nature of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earning in petroleum resources. In this dissertation, both proactive and corrective measures to curb the menace of the social, economic and environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration &amp; production operations in Nigeria are presented and discussed with suggestions to sustainable solution and development, better environmental legislation, and better resource policy construct while advocating for good industrial practices in the petroleum industry with emphasis on the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Esta tese tem por objetivo analisar as práticas de desaparecimento das ditaduras civil-militares de segurança nacional argentina e brasileira como componentes das estratégias de implantação do terror desses regimes, como a questão dos desaparecidos foi tratada durante os governos transicionais e administrações civis posteriores ao período ditatorial e como a temática foi trabalhada a partir dos governos de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva e Néstor Kirchner. Pretende-se, desta forma, estabelecer uma relação entre a forma como foram realizados os processos de transição política – em se tratando dos Direitos Humanos, mais especificamente, a garantia do direito à justiça e à verdade – e a elaboração de políticas de memória e reparação ou desmemória e esquecimento no presente. A partir dessa compreensão, têm-se indícios de que as rupturas, caracterizadas por uma condenação moral em relação ao passado ditatorial, são fundamentais para o desenvolvimento dessas políticas. Para o cumprimento deste objetivo, este estudo está dividido em três capítulos. No primeiro, apresenta-se uma análise da prática do desaparecimento, salientado as semelhanças existentes entre o caso argentino e brasileiro, resguardadas as diferenças em extensividade e intensidade. O segundo estuda os processos de transição política e o tratamento conferido à questão dos desaparecidos pelos governos transicionais e pelas administrações civis até o término da década de 1990. O terceiro e último capítulo analisa as políticas de memória e reparação e desmemória e esquecimento elaboradas a partir dos anos 2000, quando se efetivou uma mudança no marco interpretativo sobre o passado recente da região e se tornou possível a consecução dessas políticas. / This thesis aims to analyze the practice of disappearance of Argentine and Brazilian national security civil-military dictatorship as components of strategies for implementing terror. It also aims to approach how the transitional governments and subsequent civil administrations dealt with the disappeared and how this issue had been discussed from the governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Néstor Kirchner. This approach aims to establish a relation between the ways the political transitions took place in these countries – regarding the Human Rights, more specifically, in guaranteeing the rights to justice and truth – and the development of memory and repair policies or oblivion flaring and forgetting policies in the present. Based on this comprehension, there are evidences that the disruptions, characterized by a moral conviction against the dictatorial past, are fundamental to the development of these policies. For the fulfillment of these objectives, this study is divided into three chapters. The first one presents an analysis of the practice of disappearance, stressing the similarities between the Argentine and Brazilian case, safeguarding the differences in extensiveness and intensity. The second one deals with the processes of political transition and the treatment given to the issue of disappearance by the transitional governments and the civil administrations until the end of the 1990’s. The third and final chapter analyzes the memory and repair policies or oblivion flaring and forgetting policies prepared since the year 2000, when there was a change in the interpretative framework about the region recent past and it became possible to achieve these policies.