Gas-Fired Steam Generator - Test Reprot Site C: Characterization of Fine Particulate Emission Factors and Speciation Profiles from Stationary Petroleum Industry Combustion Sources
PROJECT OVERVIEW: In 1997@ the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated new ambient air standards for particulate matter@ including for the first time particles with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5). There are few existing data regarding emissions and characteristics of fine aerosols from petroleum industry combustion sources@ and the information that is available is old. Traditional stationary source air emission sampling methods tend to underestimate or overestimate the contribution of the source to ambient aerosols because they do not properly account for primary aerosol formation@ which occurs after the gases leave the stack. This issue was extensively reviewed by the American Petroleum Institue (API) in a recent report (England et al.@ 1997)@ which concluded that dilution sampling techniques are more appropriate for obtaining a representative sample from combustion systems. These techniques have been widely used in research studies (Hildemann et al.@ 1994; McDonald et al.@ 1998) and use clean ambient air to dilute the stack gas sample and provide 80-90 seconds residence time for aerosol formation prior to sample collection for determination of mass and chemical speciation. As a result of the API review@ a test protocol was developed based on the dilution sampling system described in this report. The dilution sampling protocol was used to collect particulate emissions data from petroleum industry combustion sources@ along with emissions data obtained from conventional sampling methods. This test program is designed to provide reliable source emissions data for use in assessing the contribution of petroleum industry combustion sources to ambient PM2.5 concentrations. The goals of this test program were to: ? Develop emission factors and speciation profiles for emissions of fine particulate matter@ especially organic aerosols; and ? Identify and characterize PM2.5 precursor compound emissions.