Air Pollutant Emissions and Regulatory Implications of a Biorefinery Co-Processing Bio-Oil in a Petroleum Refinery

Air pollutant emissions for a biorefinery utilizing an ex-situ upgrading pyrolysis of vapor process to produce partially upgraded bio-oil, with a design capacity of 2000 dry metric ton/day of biomass were assessed. The potential air pollutant regulatory and permitting implications for two potential cases: the first case assumes that an ex-situ fast pyrolysis biorefinery is co-located with a petroleum refinery and the second case assumes that a petroleum refinery will receive bio-oil from an offsite supplier, were studied. The potential-to-emit for four FCCU sizes was estimated and assessed technically feasible emission control options that could be employed to avoid being subject to Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) requirements due to petroleum refinery modifications to co-process bio-oil. The results indicated that co-processing bio-oil shipped from an offsite facility would be a practical and more feasible approach as it does not significantly increase the emissions and trigger PSD permitting requirements. Also, feasible emission control options are available to avoid major modifications, although the costs of adopting these controls should be evaluated before making the final decisions.