Whiting Business Unit ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT

Whiting Business Unit
ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT
FOR YEAR 2012
(Review of Y2011 performance)
Introduction
Recognizing the complex nature of petroleum refining operations and to ensure that we meet our
stated goal of no damage to the environment, BP Whiting Refinery has implemented an
Environmental Management System (EMS). The EMS has been certified under ISO 14001 since
2001 and is a formalized structure for ensuring that a facility prioritizes its environmental aspects and
has plans in place to address and document progress toward improving environmental performance.
The EMS works to achieve regulatory compliance and continually improve management of the
environmental impacts of our operations.
Our ISO 14001 certification covers the entire refinery, including our marine dock. The refinery’s Site
HSSE Policy focuses the organization on Safe, Compliant, and Reliable operations.
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Description of our operations
The scope of our EMS includes the activities, products and services of BP Whiting Business Unit (BP WBU),
located in Whiting, Indiana. These activities include refining crude oil and processing chemical feedstocks.
•
Built in 1889, the Whiting Refinery occupied 235 acres and processed 600 barrels of crude oil daily. Today,
the crude units can process up to approximately 420,000 barrels of crude oil each day.
•
Now located on 1,400 acres and stretching through three communities, the refinery has grown with its
neighbors, employees, and customers.
•
The refinery operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and employs more than 1,700 full-time employees,
and several thousand contractors.
•
The refinery makes about 15 million gallons of product daily, about half of it gasoline. On an average day,
the refinery produces enough fuel for about 430,000 automobiles, 10,000 farm tractors, 22,000 semi-trucks,
2,000 commercial jet liners, and to fill 350,000 propane cylinders. The refinery also makes about 8 percent
of all asphalt used in the United States.
•
The refinery ships and receives hydrocarbons via barge, rail, truck and pipelines.
Whiting Re fine r y Proce s s Ove rvie w
SRU
VRU
Refinery
Fuel Gas
Alkylation
Crude
Oil
Isomerization
Reforming
OMD
Catalytic
Cracking
Cat Feed HT
Coker
Asphalt
Coke
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How We Identify and Manage Important Environmental Impacts
Environmental impacts are identified and managed through considering external stakeholders and
internal processes. The Whiting Refinery reports all emissions to state and federal agencies. These
agencies create regulations that control emissions and their impact to the environment. Regulations
include requirements for the refinery to implement pollution control measures, as well as permit and
operating conditions that limit emissions and/or require extensive monitoring and reporting. The
refinery keeps local officials informed of emissions-related and other events that could impact the
community.
Whiting Refinery identifies and manages environmental impacts through BP’s global as well sitespecific processes. BP sets annual goals for Loss of Primary Containment Whiting Refinery includes
these goals in BP’s annual plan. The ISO 14001 process is used to annually evaluate the
Environmental Aspects of its operations and to set Objectives and Targets. Management programs
are established to achieve targets. The refinery monitors performance to ensure delivery of results.
Our Impacts and Performance
Air Quality
As one of the largest refineries in the United States, we understand that Whiting Refinery can have a significant
impact on the local air quality. We have made significant strides in the past decade to continue to reduce our
emissions to the air. Through these actions, our air emissions are down since 2001. Continuous emission
monitors (CEMs) exist on the refinery’s largest emission sources of key pollutants. The refinery has more than
30 CEMs on sources throughout the refinery for various pollutants. This enables the refinery to establish
baseline emissions and take corrective actions if emissions increase.
As part of a voluntary agreement with the U.S. EPA to reduce emissions from BP refineries nationwide, Whiting
Refinery implemented several actions to reduce air emissions from our facility:
•
Hydrocarbon emissions were reduced through an enhanced valve monitoring program (2003), an enhanced
pump monitoring and repair program (2006), and a program aimed at reducing hydrocarbon flaring (2003).
•
Beginning in 2002, SO2 and NOx emissions were reduced through use of emission reducing additives at the
Fluidized Catalytic Cracking units (FCUs), the installation of a Selective Catalytic Reduction system at one of
the FCUs, elimination of oil burning in all refinery heaters and boilers, and installation of Ultra Low NOx
burners at selected Power Station boilers.
In addition to the above, the refinery has implemented other actions to continue to drive down air emissions from the
facility. Our hazardous waste incinerator (FBI) and #3 Ultraformer Unit were shutdown in 2008. High efficiency drift
eliminators were installed on cooling towers #2 and #3 in 2009 to reduce particulate emissions from those sources.
The refinery ceased loading gasoline at our barge dock in 2009.
A key activity in 2010 was installation of Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCRs) systems at one of our boiler houses
(3SPS) to reduce NOx emissions. The last of these SCRs began operation in 2011. Additionally, we retired an
older, less efficient boiler house in 2010. This resulted in over 600 tons of NOx reductions between 2009 and 2011.
Still more is planned. As part of our continuing modernization project at Whiting Refinery, we are
investing more than $1 billion in environmental enhancements to the facility including waste water
improvements, air emission reductions, and systems to remove sulfur from gasoline and diesel.
Equipment is being replaced with more modern technology, and emission controls will be installed on
new and existing units. These controls include technology to produce lower sulfur fuels, specialized
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burners and controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from heaters and boilers, and improved
automated controls that optimize process units for lower emissions.
BP Whiting Refinery Air Emissions (NOx & SO2)
30,000
SO2
NOx
25,000
Tons/yr
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Water (use and discharge)
The Whiting Refinery draws its intake water from Lake Michigan which is used in contact and non-contact cooling
throughout the plant. Treated water discharges from our Waste Water Treatment Unit (WWTU) to Lake Michigan.
The refinery continues to take steps to better understand and improve water management systems such as:
•
In 2009, Whiting Refinery added capacity through startup of Tank 5052 to handle storm events and for
equalization/stabilization of feed quality to the facility WWTU.
•
In 2010, we completed a project to improve metering of stormwater in our tank fields, upgraded
procedures to improve monitoring, implemented an internal plantwide “permitting” process for the sewer,
implemented equipment to reduce the impact of our discharge, and improved measurement of
discharge flows.
Additionally, BP funded independent academic work by Purdue University Calumet and Argonne National
Laboratories on deployable technologies for the removal of total suspended solids, ammonia, mercury and
vanadium from wastewater. The research has significantly contributed to the body of knowledge about the
technologies, chemistry and analysis of wastewater treatment that is of interest to industries, municipalities,
regulators and local communities.
The above actions supplement but do not replace systems previously in place to maintain high quality water
discharge. These systems include unit oil water separators to reduce total oil sent to the WWTU influent parameter
monitoring, and tools to monitor and communicate wastewater treatment health.
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Discharge levels of Total Suspended Solid (TSS) in 2010 continued to show good treatment (following graph).
Except for an unplanned outage of one of the refinery clarifiers in 2011, annual TSS discharges was at
approximately 31% of our lower commitment levels.
Annual Average TSS Discharge (lbs/day)
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
20
11
20
10
20
09
20
08
20
07
20
06
20
05
20
04
20
03
itm
Co
m
m
Li
m
it
en
t
0
Glossary
Environmental
aspects
Components of the business unit’s activities, products, and services that
can interact with the environment
Environmental
Impacts
Activities
A change to the environment. Such change can be positive or negative.
Environmental impacts are caused by environmental aspects.
Processes and support functions including products and services that are directly or
indirectly related to business unit operations
Those materials produced (including by products) as a result of the process of
crude oil refining and petrochemical processing operations
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
Environmental Management System
Sulfur Dioxide
Nitrogen Oxides (nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide)
Volatile Organic Compounds – generally hydrocarbon emissions
Carbon Dioxide – a greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas – primarily carbon dioxide and methane
Selective Catalytic Reduction – a technology that employs catalyst to reduce NOx
Products
IDEM
EMS
SO2
NOx
VOC
CO2
GHG
SCR
5
3SPS
TSS
WWTU
emissions
3 Stanolind Power Station – This is part of the refinery’s power station that
generates a significant portion of the plant’s steam and energy demands.
Total Suspended Solids - a water quality measurement
Waste Water Treatment Unit - This is part of the refinery’s operation that focuses
treating process wastewater prior to discharge.
Further Information
This is Whiting Refinery’s annual Environmental Statement.
This document was prepared by the Environmental Department at the Whiting Refinery.
You can contact us at:
Environmental Manager (Linda Wilson): 219-473-3287
Environmental Management System Coordinator (Janet Slupczynski): 219-473-2092
24-hour Alternate: 219-473-7700
Our verified Statement for Y2013 will be issued in 2014.
Feedback
Tell us what you think. Are our statements easy to understand?
Is there any further information in which you are interested? Let us know what you think so we can improve our
environmental reporting. If you have any queries about this report or general operations, please write or telephone
us and we will be happy to assist.
Verification Statement
During the course of conducting a periodic ISO 14001 conformance audit, DNV has independently reviewed the
Whiting Business Unit Environmental Statement and concludes it represents a true and fair reflection of the
environmental programs and performance within 2010-2011. Within the audit samples performed by DNV, and
based on information provided by the plant, within the scope of the facility’s ISO 14001 EMS, DNV has found no
statements in this report which we have been unable to substantiate and verify through observations, visits and
review of the appropriate systems.
Signed:
Date: 22 May 2012
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