Hazardous waste, petroleum refinery

Unrefined waste-derived fuels and oils Fuels produced at a petroleum refinery from oilbearing hazardous wastes that are introduced into the refining process after the distillation step or that are reintroduced in a process that does not include distillation are exempt if the resulting fuel meets the specifications under the federal recycled used oil standards. Oil that is recovered from hazardous waste at a petroleum refinery and burned as a fuel is also exempt provided it meets the used oil specifications. 

Petrochemical recovered oil. Organic chemical manufacturing facilities sometimes recover oil from their organic chemical industry operations. U.S. EPA excluded petrochemical recovered oil from the definition of solid waste when the facility inserts the material into the petroleum-refining process of an associated or adjacent petroleum refinery. Only petrochemical recovered oil that is hazardous because it exhibits the characteristic of ignitability or exhibits the toxicity characteristic for benzene (or both) is eligible for the exclusion. 

Landfill leachate or gas condensate derived from listed waste. Landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate derived from previously disposed wastes that now meet the listing description of one or more of the petroleum refinery listed wastes would be regulated as a listed hazardous waste. However, U.S. EPA temporarily excluded such landfill leachate and gas condensate from the definition of hazardous waste provided their discharge is regulated under the CWA. The exclusion will remain effective while U.S. EPA studies how the landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate are currently managed, and the effect of future CWA effluent limitation guidelines for landfill wastewaters. 

Cyanide compounds are useful to society in terms of their key role in synthetic and industrial processes, for certain fumigation and agricultural uses, and for some therapeutic applications (Ballantyne and Marrs 1987). Cyanides are present in effluents from iron and steel processing plants, petroleum refineries, and metal-plating plants, and constitute a hazard to aquatic ecosystems in certain waste-receiving waters (Smith et al. 1979) and to livestock (USEPA 1980 Towill et al. 1978). Cyanide serves no useful purpose in the human body, yet it is present in our food, air, and water (Becker 1985). 

The 1984 amendments also brought the owners and operators of underground storage tanks under the RCRA umbrella. This can have a significant effect on refineries that store products in underground tanks. Now, in addition to the hazardous waste being controlled, RCRA Subtitle I regulates petroleum products. 

Petroleum refineries must retrofit surface impoundments that are used for hazardous waste management. Retrofitting must involve the use of double liners and leak detection systems. 

Petroleum refinery operators face more stringent regulation of the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous wastes. Under recent regulations, a larger... 

According to a USEPA survey, many of the more than 150 separate processes used in petroleum refineries generate large quantities of hazardous wastes. Typical wastes generated from refinery processes include bottom sediments and water from crude storage tanks, spent amines, spent acids and caustics, spent clays, spent glycol, catalyst fines, spent Streford solution and sulfur. 

Bryant, J.S. Moores, C.W. Disposal of hazardous wastes from petroleum refineries. Proceedings, 45th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference, West Lafayette, IN, 1990 Lewis Publishers, Inc. 

Wong, J.M. Hazardous waste minimization (SB 14) in California petroleum refineries. Proceedings of 50th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference, Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, MI, 1993. 

This technology has been used to treat polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), halogenated and nonhalogenated solvents, semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, herbicides, fuel oils, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), and mercury. This system has also treated Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous wastes such as petroleum refinery wastes and multisource leachate treatment residues to meet RCRA Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. 

National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants From Petroleum Refineries National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants from Off-Site Waste and Recovery Operations... 

Wastes Generated from Petroleum Refining. Petroleum refining wastes are regulated by EPA in several ways. There are approximately 150 active petroleum refineries in the United States. RCRA Subtitle C currently lists four characteristics as hazardous in 40 CFR 264.21 and. 24 and five waste categories as hazardous in 40 CFR 261.31 and. 32. When most of these wastes were listed beginning in 1980, there were 250-300 active refineries ranging in capacity from about 400,000 barrels (bbl) per day to only a few hundred bbl per day. 

An additional monograph on occupational exposures in petroleum refining (IARC 1989e) concluded that there is limited evidence that working in petroleum refineries entails a risk of skin cancer and leukemia. Exposures during refining, however, are not particularly relevant to exposures resulting from contamination of hazardous waste sites with crude oil. 

EPA. 1981a. Hazardous wastes from non-specific sources Petroleum refinery primary and secondary oil/water/solids separation sludges (F037, F038). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Code of Federal Regulations. 40 CFR 261.31. 

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