The State of Kuwait has three large refineries, namely, Mina Al Ahmadi Refinery, Mina Abdullah Refinery and Shuaiba Refinery. These refineries process and refine Kuwait Crude Oil through different process units. There are many heaters, boilers and flares that form a part of the complicated equipment which enhance the different petroleum processes. Fuel gas is used as a firing fuel for those heaters and boilers. As a result, stack emissions like SO2, NOx, CO are predominantly present in the flue gases and this study focuses on those emissions and their impact on the surrounding residential area. The area of interest will be Umm Al-Hyman residential area. This study accumulates emission inventories from the three refineries and the respective ground level concentration of the pollutants in the neighboring residential area. It also focuses on the impact of emissions from the refinery operations on the ground level concentrations in the surrounding areas by using the inventory model and latest emission factors to provide accurate emission estimates. The models were developed and the results were verified with the actual data from the area of impact. As a result of the findings of the major pollutants, namely SO2, NOx & CO, it is found that SO2 and CO are not exceeding Kuwait EPA Ambient Air Quality Standards for Residential Areas normally. However, NOx is observed to exceed occasionally. Even though, NOx emissions from refineries sources represented by plume models were much less, there is a consistent increase in the measured NOx. Furthermore, in 2007, the measured hourly, daily and annual NOx concentration exceeded the international standard many times. The increasing trend in NOx is attributed to continuous increase in population and the number of motor vehicles. The study will go further step in recommending engineering solutions and best practices to reduce the pollutants concentrations which will help in the reduction of human health risks and protect the environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:594446 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Alanezi, Salwa |
| Publisher | Loughborough University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12544 |
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