Potential for reducing air pollution from oil refineries

Islamic Republic of Iran has to invest 95 billion US$ for her new oil refineries to the year 2045. At present, the emission factors for CO2, NOx and SO2 are 3.5, 4.2 and 119 times higher than British refineries, respectively. In order to have a sustainable development in Iranian oil refineries, the government has to set emission factors of European Community as her goal. At present CO2 per Gross Domestic Production (GDP) in the country is about 2.7 kg CO2 as 1995's US$ value that should be reduced to 1.25 kg CO2/GDP in the year 2015. Total capital investment for such reduction is estimated at 346 million US$ which is equal to 23 US$/ton of CO2. It is evident that mitigation of funds set by Clean Development Mechanism (3 to 7 US$/tons of CO2) is well below the actual capital investment needs. Present survey shows that energy efficiency promotion potential in all nine Iranian oil refineries is about 165,677 MWh/year through utilization of more efficient pumps and compressors. Better management of boilers in all nine refineries will lead to a saving of 273 million m(3) of natural gas per year.