February 26, 2007 by admin.

Transitions Online (TOL) and neweurasia, February 23rd, 2007Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s biggest onshore oil field, is known to produce sulphur-rich crude. ChevronTexaco, exploring, developing and producing at Tengiz since the early 1990s, has had different ideas how to get rid of this unwanted by-product. Until today, these attempts have not yielded any noticeable success, though. In 2001, St. Petersburg Times correspondent Christopher Pala reported:

There are 4.5 million tons of sulfur at Tengiz spread out on football-field-sized cakes that are 7.5 meters thick. And every day another 4,500 tons of liquid sulfur comes up with the oil and is sprayed with agricultural watering equipment out onto the yellow slabs, solidifying rapidly into a luminous, porous material that gives off hardly any odor at all….

“According to our data, this sulphur negatively affects the environment,” said Turaly Onerbayev, regional representative of the natural resources and environmental protection ministry.

The sheer size of the amassed sulphur deposits became an environmental hazard, and several people had to get relocated several miles away from wind corridors. The Guardian ran a story on this in 2002:

Even before the imposition of the fine, it was clear that about 3,000 people were having to be moved 50 miles away because of pollution - and they blame sulphur dust for their illnesses.

TCO [Tengizchevoil] denies the charge and says the sulphur is safe, but has decided to get rid of it. Until recently it had virtually no outlet for it; in landlocked Kazakhstan the only route out for large volumes of sulphur has been by rail, but TCO has used every available slot for transporting oil.

Now, however, TCO has linked up with the Russian oil pipelines, so most of its output no longer needs to go by rail. But there is a second problem: a worldwide sulphur glut. Some 40m tonnes of sulphur a year is used by industry, mostly in the form of sulphuric acid, but there is still an excess. From a peak of £100 a tonne in 1988, sulphur prices have dropped to £20 a tonne this year. To unload an additional six million tonnes on the market would mean the price would drop to near zero.

But TCO has to do something. It has put in a £30m plant to process the sulphur into flakes for the Chinese fertiliser market and granules for the western market. The flakes are already being exported by rail to China and the granules will be heading west to Black Sea ports for European and American markets.

At most TCO expects to be selling 3,000 tonnes a week next year [2003], but even that vast quantity means the sulphur mountain will still be growing at 1,000 tonnes a week. (Full Story)

…There is not a lot Chevron can do. The world market price for sulphur is relatively weak and would of course not survive a massive injection of the Tengiz deposits without plunging. The further reprocessing of the sulphur to chemical fertiliser has been attempted, but also here prices are volatile and of course very supply-elastic.

The bottom line is that Chevron would have to invest millions of dollars to get rid of the stuff - without earning a single dime….Chevron has one month to come up with an action plan on how to get rid of the now almost 10 million tonnes of sulphur that have piled up….(Full Story and Photo)

Posted in Fines & Penalties, Emission Incidents & Issues, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics | Print | No Comments »

February 26, 2007 by admin.

Pambazuka News; 2007-02-22

A UN agency on environment has recommended phasing out of high sulphur diesel in Kenya to reduce air pollution. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) says use of high sulphur diesel is contributing to environmental degradation. (Source: Daily Nation)

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

February 26, 2007 by admin.

By Aditya Shirali ‘08, Cornell University…Chinese health officials have noticed a troubling increase in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to pollution….Sulfur dioxide, a noxious compound produced in coal combustion, contributes to approximately 400,000 premature deaths a year in China through its damaging effects on the environment and health of citizens (Bradsher & Barboza, World Business)….Sulfur dioxide results in the formation of acid rain, which now falls on approximately 30% of China’s cultivated land area (EIA 2006). Consumption of crops and water affected by acid rain can have drastic effects on human health, such as arsenic poisoning and suppression of the immune system. However, a source of worry regarding acid rain is the destruction of crop yields, significantly inhibiting the growth of the agricultural sector….China has seen a soaring rise in respiratory diseases, which are currently the leading cause of death in China….In an attempt to reduce sulfur dioxide emission, the Chinese government established protocols to require smokestacks of all new coal-fired plants to be fitted with devices that remove up to 95 percent of the sulfur (Bradsher & Barboza, World Business).* (Full Story)
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* Note by folc.ca: That ought to have a negative impact on Canada’s (read Alberta’s) prospects to increase waste sulphur exports to China.  The world market for waste sulphur is already glutted.

Posted in Acid Rain, Pollution: Health Issues, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur Logistics, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

February 21, 2007 by admin.

NEP&I (North of England P&I Club, marine insurance mutuals), Dec. 22, 2006

Emission Limits and Requirements for Auxiliary Diesel Engines and Diesel Electric Engines within Californian Waters

From the 1st of January 2007 all ocean going vessels calling at California ports will have to ensure that auxiliary engines and all diesel electric engines are operating with gas oil or diesel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.5% when within 24 nautical miles from the Californian baseline. [That equates to a sulphur content of 20,000 ppm by weight. — ed. *]

Owners and Operators who’s vessels exceed this limit may be prosecuted under California’s Health and Safety Law….

From 2010 vessels will require to use marine gas oil with a maximum sulphur content of 0.1%. (Full Story)

Update 2007 11 08 by folc.ca: In September of 2007 the US Federal Government nixed this California legislation. It is curious that the driving force for that was the US Environment Protection Agency.

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*See also: REGULATIONS FOR AUXILIARY DIESEL ENGINES AND DIESEL-ELECTRIC ENGINES OPERATED ON OCEAN-GOING VESSELS WITHIN CALIFORNIA WATERS AND 24 NAUTICAL MILES OF THE CALIFORNIA BASELINE (39 kB PDF file)

Without a doubt, marine diesel fuel is a concern with respect to air pollution, as shown in the photo (at right) of the diesel-exhaust plume (visible in the lower right of the photo) laid down by the cruise ship Norwegian Wind on a tour to Alaska (June 8, 2006, near Haines, Alaska).

Obviously the emission reduction targets set by the California regulation are no more than a pittance in the fight to curb SO₂ emissions from bunker fuel. All that the California regulations achieve is to set the limit for the sulphur content in marine bunker fuel to be no higher than 1,333 times than that in ultra-low-sulphur diesel. (Some marine bunker fuels can contain as much as 1.5% sulphur in designated areas, while the sulphur content of some No. 6 bunker fuels can be as high 6%.) Even the 2010 target limit for sulphur content in marine bunker fuel will still permit marine bunker fuel to have a sulphur content that is 267 times higher than the 15 ppm in ultra-low-sulphur diesel, but that will be a considerably more effective restriction.

It must therefore be concluded that marine diesel or bunker fuel is until then a convenient vehicle for the disposal of waste sulphur on a very large scale by spewing it into the environment in the form of SO₂. Marine diesel exhaust plumes are loaded with SO₂; and the one shown in the photo is from just a single ship. A number of cruise ships travel this route each day during the tourist season. Although tourism is vital to Alaska’s economy, that makes it far from being environmentally friendly.

Well, at least Californians now have the benefit of the illusion that something effective is being done to curb air pollution caused by ships.

Nevertheless, the sulphur-content restrictions for marine bunker fuel in California and other localities will increase the world’s waste-sulphur inventory and the waste-sulphur storage requirements in the US. The world market for waste sulphur is already seriously glutted, and the tightening emission restrictions on SO₂ will increase the severity of that glut. That decreases the market potential for Alberta waste sulphur. The question now is by how much the California regulations and those in other localities increase the likelihood that waste sulphur will be stored at the proposed sulphur storage and handling facility in the County of Lamont.

See also: Europe likely to slash Marine sulfur, emissions

One recent study for the EC [European Commission] found that ship-borne sulfur dioxide [SO₂] emissions will account for at least 30% of all airborne SO₂ in Europe by 2010 (see Diesel Fuel News 11/27/2000, p2). But updated forecasts indicate that marine SO₂ could rise to the equivalent of 75-100% of all Europe’s land-based SO₂ emissions by 2010, Robinson said….Sweden, Belgium and France already ban the sale of higher-sulfur marine gasoil….

Posted in Bunker Fuel, Emission Incidents & Issues, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

February 18, 2007 by admin.

nwi.com, Saturday, February 17, 2007 1:15 AM CSTBy The Associated Press

…Rosenberg’s company is helping Indiana Gasification LLC develop a coal-gasification plant that was expected to produce 40 billion cubic feet of gas annually — enough to meet 15 percent to 20 percent of the state’s natural gas needs.

Construction of the plant, which was announced in October, is tentatively set to begin in 2008, with the plant going online three years later. It would employ 300 to 400 workers….

“We need to be able to negotiate contracts for coal on a very long-term basis, about 3 million tons annually over a 30-year period,” said Rosenberg, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The plant would use southwestern Indiana’s high-sulfur coal deposits, but as part of the gas-extraction process, it would remove sulfur, mercury, particulate matter and other pollutants, significantly reducing its emissions.

The plant will mix coal with oxygen and water to create a coal slurry that’s treated with heat and pressure to extract gases the company said are molecularly identical to natural gas. It will include a gas turbine that produces steam to drive an electricity-generating turbine….(Full Story)

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur Logistics, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »

February 15, 2007 by admin.

Wate, Knoxville, Tennesse, February 14, 2007

ROGERSVILLE (WATE) — The Tennessee Valley Authority says a plan for adding new equipment at its John Sevier Fossil Plant will reduce some emissions by as much as 95 percent.

TVA plans to install equipment to further reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and nitrogen oxide emissions at the 712-megawatt plant in Rogersville.

Sulfur dioxide contributes to the formation of acid rain and haze problems. Nitrogen oxide contributes to ground-level ozone pollution. (Full Story)

Posted in Acid Rain, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »