Refinery Emissions ignored by CARB, nightly air pollution

According to their own "study", where ARB inventories the pollution they failed to stop,

http://www.arb.ca.gov/app/emsinv/emseic1_query.php?F_DIV=-4&F_YR=2006&...

The "Total Organic Gases", mostly HxCx, released statewide are 5,690.77 tons per DAY (TPD), with Reactive Organic Gases (the really bad stuff) at 2,321.39 TPD.

More importantly, SOx (future Sulfuric Acid) and NOx (future Nitric acid) emissions (SOx and NOx) total 304.26 TPD and 3,557.70 TPD, respectively.

That's pretty bad, and much of it is due to on-road pollution from Internal Combustion ("IC") cars.

What's even worse is the concentration around refineries:

Reactive organic gases of 134.5 TPD, with 13.71 TPD of Carbon Monoxide, 9.31 TPD of potential Nitric Acid ("NOx") and 42.5 TPD of potential Sulfuric Acid ("SOx").

From the AQMD presentation in Wilmington, their hope is that "meteorological conditions" will carry away the pollution, moving it to poison more people over a wider area.

To put things in perspective, each molecule of Carbon Monoxide (CO) complexes with a Hemoglobin molecule (red blood cell) just as Oxygen (O2) does; but CO, unlike O2, won't let go.

http://www.edinformatics.com/interactive_molecules/carbon_monoxide.htm

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/coftsht.html

So essentially, each molecule of CO destroys one red blood cell, lowering the effective Oxygen content of the blood, decreasing the respiratory ability, and increasing the danger of asphixiation to those suffering from pernicious anemia, asthma, or low red-blood-cell count. Essentially, CO operates exactly the same as Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN), each CN radical destroys one red blood cell.

Now how many molecules of CO are there in 13 tons of CO? Quite a lot. In each gram-mole of CO, there are 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of CO, that's 28 grams.

Yes, in each OUNCE (about 27 grams) of CO there are that many CO molecules, 6 times ten to the 23rd power, each one hungry to take out a red blood cell in kids lungs, lowering their respiratory ability and helping kill the elderly.

Now what about friendly-sounding NOx? Well, NOx stands for OXIDES OF NITROGEN, which include NO and NO2, which form eventually anhydrous NITRIC ACID, and there's quite a lot of it in 9.31 tons of NOx. In the presence of Ozone, sunlight and HxCx, very bad acids are formed, which are "bad for those with respiratory problems". And if you don't have any, you soon will have some.

http://www.raypak.com/lownoxtech.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_oxide

The same devils' brew occurs with SOx, which are Sulfurous and Sulfuric radicals, which form in the presence of water both Sulfurous and Sulfuric acid. The lower oxidation state can be converted, in the presence of Ozone and sunlight, into the sulfuric radical, which forms plain old Sulfuric Acid when it hits water, such as is found in lung tissue. These are not good for lungs, we might suspect. In the presence of Ozone and HxCx, SOx again forms some very bad things.

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/CHEMWEEK/Ozone/ozone.html (Oxidizing Nitrous to Nitric is given as an example, but the same holds for Sulfurous to Sulfuric)

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/wn07/wn07-3/wn07-302.html

Now the problem is the concentration. Around refineries, the prevailing wind blows toward nearby residents, who bear an inordinate share of the burden for petroleum refining. But even for those farther away, the refineries are a big part of the problem, and have no place in the air basin.

But ARB and AQMD just ignore these problems, dismissing them as "NOx" and "SOx".

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• RAV4-EV
• CARB
• EV
• failure

[saldih]

its steam, plus those refineries were there long before those communities, those people chose to live next to refineries

[liveoilfree]

@saldih Kids chose to live there???

[xtrmlyvolatile]

not all of that is burn off. most of what u see is steam

[liveoilfree]

@xtrmlyvolatile Don't be an idiot or ignoramus. The reason refineries are the "most regulated" industry is that they emit huge amounts of volatile chemicals. No hiding it, you can smell it.

[ejaz924n]

I agree with you however on the part that they usually release gases at night so that they do not have to waste useful resources to clean up the waste gases. At night you can usually release the gases directly into the air.

[liveoilfree]

Now that's the truth.

[Aelleor]

Alcoholism alleviates the effects of pollution? Steam kills? Parents, make your kids watch this video. It's proof that diitching science class to take bong rips makes you ignorant. I'd like to thank the poster of this in advance to post another video on tin foil hat construction

[noftchks1]

"anhydrous nitrous anhydrous sulpuric."....

Glad to see that we have an expert on the case here.

I wasn't going to comment on this one, but... I'm an Albertan, and we have our own hippies to punch, but this guy is just too easy of a target!

Driving past a refinery doesn't make you an expert. You have plenty of reason to be concerned, but do some research before you post on youtube looking like an enviro-maniac.

Oh, by the way, do you happen to drive a car?

[landrum2008]

AQMD KISS MY ASS  YOU GUYS ARE SO FULL OF SHIT.

[landrum2008]

AQMD KISS MY ASS

[jajawt]

@liveoilfree - what volatile chemicals are they emitting? Most of what you smell around a refinery is sulfur and yes it is a bad smell. However, the smell of sulfur will not kill anyone. Now if you ingest sulfur, or smell glue (which from the you sound, you might have done too much of as a kid) the effects would not be good. Get educated before you open your mouth and make an idiot of yourself. Truth is, the boogieman is still under your bed and is not the hard working people that refine.

[jajawt]

@liveoilfree - You sound like a blundering idiot. What "stuff" is it. And the ironic part of the whole thing is you are driving in a car, van or truck that runs on what? Do you have a magic pixie dust operated car? Refining oil is a dirty, nasty thing. But you have no idea the effort that is expended to minimize the effects of refining. Get out of your car and walk your fat ass everywhere before you go talking about this bad, bad "stuff" that is being emitted so you can drive your car.

[jajawt]

@liveoilfree - Yes, there are emissions which are regulated. If you were to take a movie of the fire stacks, that is where the emissions take place. They are safeguards where upsets in the process flow are burned off to keep plants from overpressuring and exploding. You sound and look like a fool when you take movies of steam from a cooling tower and call it devils brew. It's water idiot. That's all it is. And it is there during the day as much as at night. You just cant see it as well.

[Metallica0493]

All that air pollution turns me on