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OAR Box 1784 

Prepped by Ollie Stewart 

Document Number: 

50) ll-B-9 

Docket Number: 

A--84-44 

Printed 10/31/2008 8:05:40 AM Sheet 50 of 143 
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^UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

2 2 JAN 1986 

:***.. MEMORANDUM :s* .-._•-' 

SUBJECT: Trip Report - Plant Visit to the Tenneco 011 Refinery 

Chalmette, Louisiana (ESED #83/03) 

FROM: William Larry Elmore, P.E.Y ^ 

Standards Documentation Section, ISB, ESED (MD-13) 

TO: Kenneth R. Durkee, Chief 

Standards Documentation Section, ISB, ESED (MD-13) ' 

""I. Subject: MM" '- ^-'- .'•"* • ~: A",''•"•' A"' . 

A plant survey was conducted at the refinery serving Tenneco Oil 

Processing and Marketing. 

II. Place and Date: 

Tenneco 011 Processing and Marketing 

A Tenneco Company 

P.O. Box 1007 

Chalmette, Louisiana ' . 

October 24, 1985. 

III. Attendees: 

Um. Larry Elmore, P.E. 

Larry McDougal 

F.R. (Bob) Slener 

Daisy K. Wong .... .,., 

John Edmunds ^ T 

Environmental Engineer, U.S. EPA 

Refinery Environmentalist, Tenneco Oil 

Refinery Environmentalist, Tenneco 011 

Process Engineer, Tenneco, Oil 

Technical Superintendent, Tenneco Oil 

.V-vt' yA''.'.:::":A^.' 

:_.-;•.. •%••• ~ •,-.. 

IV. Discussion: 

M •>•'•••" Purpose: .:••• 

The purpose of the visit was to gather information on refinery 

processes and operations, especially the process designed to remove and 

recover sulfur from refinery sour gases for an upcoming new source performance 

standard (NSPS) review. Also, we discussed Tenneco's experience with the 

refinery fuel gas WSPb. cM-, CONCURRENCES " 

SYMBOL 

SURNAME 

OATE 

EPA Form 1320- i 1 (l*-70) OFFICIAL FILE COPY 

GFO : 1983 0 - 403-201 
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Background: 

j ... The refinery*$ origin was about the time of World War I and was known 

as the Chalmette Petroleum Corporation. -In the IMO's, the plant was 

bought by D'Antonio and Vaccaro and 1n 1944 was bought by B v Petroleum. 

T Tenneco acquired the refinery in 1955. The latest expansion Increased 

>'MvMthe refinery's ability to process heavy crude oil.: The new units became" 

operational after October 19114. This refinery has two crude units: one 

for processing light crude oil and one for processing heavy crude oil. 

The light crude processing unit 1s capable of handling 80,000 barrels/day 

(BBL/D) and the heavy crude process stream Is capable of handling 55,000 

BBL/D, Currently, the heavy crude being processed at this refinery has a 

sulfur concentration of 2.5 percent by weight while the light crude has a 

sulfur concentration of 0.5 percent by weight. 

N 

Amine Treatment 

The amine treatment unit, the sulfur recovery unit, and the tall gas 

treatment unit were part of the modernization project. These units 

became operational after October 1984. The amine treatment unit was 

designed and constructed by Fluor while the sulfur recovery unit and the 

tall gas treatment unit was designed by Parson and constructed by Fluor. 

These units serve the entire refinery. 

-V-^r^.i"^ 

As part of Tenneco's construction permit Issued by the Louisiana 

Department of Natural Resources, Tenneco was required to Install dual 

sulfur recovery and tall gas treatment units. Each sulfur recovery unit 

1s designed to handle 180 long tons/day (LT/D) of sulfur. The amine treatment unit 1s designed to handle 54.19 MM scfd of sour gas. The amine 

treatment unit consists of two amine contactors and two amine strippers. 

The amine contactor vessels treat separate flows: one treats saturated 

sour gas (23.42 MM scfd 0 150 psig and 200*F) while the remaining contactor 

treats unsaturated sour gas (30.77 MM scfd #13 5 psig and 175°F). 

The total sour gas feed 1s a combination of the following: 

Design Flowrate 

'• ..4V_ - . . M l •- -^_.--..^

 r,A---y- A A .-•• (MMSCFD) M: ^ • ; >.T " ' • \:. 

Saturate Gas Sources -*.-- . A J''' 

Hydrotreating Desulfurization .1.4 3 

No. 1 Pretreater^ ••-.•_;.. 1.40 

Waste Gas Compressor *e••-• ^ ? 6.94 

Catalytic Feed Hydrotreater 0.15 

Hydrocracker Stripper 1.48 

Light Ends Plant 12.02 

Total ~7TM 
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Unsaturate Gas Sources 

No. 1 Coker_Absorber .... 4.14 

Fluid Catalytic Cracker Absorber 26.63 

:. .;•_.• ,...-M\ . -•*.:.. total ;;—lo r 

'Cv. 

The current total sour gas flow to the amine treater is 49.MM scfd with 

the saturate gas sources contributing 22 MM scfd and the unsaturate gas '•: 

sources contributing 27 MM scfd. The two amine contactors are designed 

to treat sour refinery gas that contains 3.7 percent H2$ by weight 

(approximately 37,000 ppm) and reduce the HgS concentration to less than 

160 ppm. -..---.. 

Other process units within the refinery utilize amine contactors to 

remove H2S. The catalytic feed hydrotreating unit and the alkylation 

feed unit utilize amine contactors. These two units also supply, refinery 

fuel gas. -•; --:. •••'-.••". >'-•-_- M"" 'A -.-A A . ' .v.-' ••/».*- .' "MM-'M. <-•-'-

The Tenneco Refinery 1s currently using diglycolamine (B6A), a 

primary amine, to remove H2S from the sour refinery gas. The refinery 

stocks about 7,000 - 10,000 gallons of concentrated DGA to be used as 

make up for DGA that 1$ lost during processing. Refinery personnel 

considered the following Hems to be proprietary: amine solution concentration, total quantity of amine solution used In the system, and amine 

loss rate. 

Refinery personnel indicated that as of yet they have not had to 

dispose of any waste amine solution but they felt that waste amine solution 

could be disposed of via the refinery's biological waste water treatment 

system. However, this method of disposal would be very time consuming 

because the waste amine would have to be gradually fed Into the waste 

water treatment system over a period of time. Refinery personnel stated 

that they did not have the storage capacity to hold waste amine and 

gradually feed It to the waste water treatment system; therefore, they 

would use a commercial waste disposal agency to remove and treat the 

waste amine. - • • -

H?S Monitoring and Emission Testing ..,•••---••••,. 

. . . i.. . V * • . . • -V " :* _*_.-'*'-.•{ • - ...

_ .-.. .-f'ytX'...- • --**•. -

,-..••-.'- • •' . *••-..-_•«.. > &r±i - *.•' . . •••>*^- . -.S.X.;*. * •• >•,,,- -..:..,,.,-•.• ;- • . _,- , . . • -_ - ^ 

•••• The amine system operators record readings of~the amine system 

equipment operating parameters: pressure, temperature, and flow, This -

includes the process operators who monitor the amine system from outside ' 

In^the refinery yard.and the operators who monitor the unit from within .-.„: 

the refinery*«5i.—.^£^-^•••-->--__...•-_•-. •, •••-. ^-.A:.- MV. -• ' M-;.:;Vl.-.. „._.,....-.^M 

The refinery has Installed monitors In the refinery yard so that yard 

?

ersonnel can view what Is being displayed 1n the central control room, 

he monitors are for display purposes and do not allow yard operators to 

control the unit. Refinery personnel believe that Installation of monitors 
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_ 

•tr.-".; 

within the refinery yard has Improved control room communications between 

yard personnel and central control personnel. The Improved communications 

have resulted In quicker and more accurate diagnosis of unit upsets and 

faster Implementation of solutions, T.- T / "';4?AA''~' 'A-r.A-A--

M . this refinery utilizes a'continuous «2S monitor, I Huston Atlis. 

Model 722R, which 1s located at the refinery's main fuel drum. The ; 

continuous HgS monitoring device 1s not Integrated Into the process as a 

control system; U s function Is strictly a process/environmental monitor. 

Data collected by this monitor 1s displayed in the central control room. 

The data 1s stored In a computer first as a six minute rolling average, 

then as an hour average at the end of each hour. At the end of each 

8-hour shift, the H2S information is transferred to hard disk for storage. 

Later, this Information will be used to generate State and Federal reports. 

Once per shift, the refinery collects manual samples (Drager Tube) of the 

sweet refinery gas as it leaves the amine contactors. These samples are 

used to demonstrate compliance with the H2S standard. Also, refinery 

personnel dally check the amine strength and the H2S loading. Manual 

samples are not routinely collected at the refinery's main fuel drum. 

Thus, 1t 1s not possible to compare the data collected by the N2S monitor 

and the manual samples. The refinery does have a regular preventive 

maintenance program for the H2S monitor which 1s patterned after the 

manufacturer's suggested maintenance schedule. Refinery personnel Indicated 

that they were satisfied with the performance of the H2S continuous 

monitoring device. 

. , • x - » 

A compliance test has been conducted on the amine treating system 

that supplies refiner/ fuel gas to various combustion sources throughout 

the refinery. Testing was performed June 3, 1985, by Kemron Environmental 

Services. The measured hydrogen sulfide concentration averaged approximately 

2.35 ppm during the sampling period. A copy of the test report has been 

placed in the docket. Refinery personnel indicate that compliance tests 

cost approximately $2000. 

Combustion Sources and Energy Demand 

'•'. The Tenneco refinery currently has 52 combustion sources. Thirteen of 

. these combustion sources have the capacity to burn refinery fuel gas and 

.•'.*' are subject to the petroleum refinery USPS. In order to meet the energy 

- demand, the Tenneco refinery utilizes a composite of refinery fuel gas 

J-vT,,.-. _... and natural gas. The refinery fuel gas system was designed to produce -

54.19 MM scfd with an average heating value of 1000 Btu/scf. The currentannual consumption of refinery fuel gas and natural gas 1s estimated to 

be 20.15 MM BTU and 8.02 MM BTU respectively. 

Cost Data 

The only cost information discussed during the plant visit was the 

cost of conducting an H2S test which refinery personnel indicated costs 

approximately $2000. 
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'-. . • 

Comments Concerning the NSPS 

. Company personnel reported no difficulties in interpreting the HSPS, 

achieving the NSPS, and operating the amine system to comply with the 

NSPS. . -•-.•':• -•.. " - '•;-...,. V T . ..,.; •«•;.;-,...;••• 

Confidential information .*!- .;' 

Company personnel supplied me with a copy of a process flow diagram 

entitled "Amine Regeneration System" plus a copy of the process description 

for the amine regeneration system (entitled, "Process Description, Amine 

Treating, Unit 82"). Company personnel requested that these two Items be . 

classified as confidential. 

Summary -;. .. ....?•_ • ._.. • _''M-. ir&Av-;:,^-:.•:•-,. .- Mi.. . 

The plant visit was very Informative and refinery personnel were quite 

helpful In discussing general plant operation and specifically the amine 

treatment system. 

ESED/ISB/SDS/WLELMORE/chbaker 11/26/85 x5595 Rm. 755 MU (MD-13) 

File No. AIP 8-1-15-2 Project No. 83/03 retyped 1/21/86 chb 

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