Bidboland Gas Refinery Flaring Down 50%

EghtesadOnline: Flaring of associate petroleum gas (APG) in the Persian Gulf Bidboland Gas Refinery in southern Khuzestan Province has reduced by 50% over the last nine months.

News ID: ۷۸۶۹۵۷

05 September 2021

According to the Oil Ministry news portal and based on information from the National Iranian Oil Company, the $3.4 billion gas refinery that was inaugurated in January has curbed its flaring gas to less than 3% in the period.

“Collecting the APG and converting it to value-added products can help the company generate $120 million in revenues per annum,” Alimohammad Pourreza, head of the company said.

Moreover, optimization of flare stack systems has also cut greenhouse gases in the plant by 200,000 cubic meters per day, he added.

“Gas refineries are industries characterized by high consumption of energy and at the same time high CO2 emission. We have taken appropriate measures to do our fair share to curb toxic emissions.”

Greenhouse gases are capable of trapping the earth's emitted radiation, which otherwise escapes back into space. The primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

According to the official, online monitoring systems have been in place at the plant’s wastewater treatment facility. Output of the plant is used for cooling towers and watering green areas, which in turn has cut pollution from the refinery.

The treatment plant, equipped with reverse osmosis membranes for water purification, has a capacity of recycling 400 cubic meters of water per day, reducing industrial sewerage into the environment.

“A hazardous waste management facility has recently opened in the firm which receives toxic waste for treatment, storage and disposal.”

The refinery also has other programs underway, including studies to construct quality units, developing production capacity and establishing the environmental management system of ISO 14001: 2015, which specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an organization can use to improve environmental protection.

Furthermore, the refinery is equipped with a modern vapor recovery unit that collect s hazardous vapor to be reprocessed or destroyed.

Equipped with facilities to separate ethane from methane, the refinery helps diversify output of petrochemicals, which is presently allocated to urea and ammoniac production. Separation of the two chemicals helps increase productivity and cut waste.

Bid Boland gas treating facility is fed gas from the giant South Pars and Aghajari and Aghaz fields in the Persian Gulf.

Located in Behbahan County in the southwest, Bid Boland is a large refinery with annual production capacity of 10.4 million tons of methane, 1.5 million tons ethane, 1 million tons propane, 600,000 tons gas condensates and 500,000 tons butane.

Since 2008, Iran has prevented the flaring of 12 billion cubic meters of associate petroleum gas (APG), a source of global warming and wastage of valuable fuel.

APG is natural gas found with deposits of petroleum. Flaring pours methane, ethane and propane into the atmosphere and contributes to air pollution.