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ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF GASOLINE BLENDING COMPONENTS THROUGH THEIR LIFE CYCLE
Citation:
Mata, T. M., R L. Smith*, D M. Young*, AND C. V. Costa. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF GASOLINE BLENDING COMPONENTS THROUGH THEIR LIFE CYCLE. 15th International Congress of Chemical & Process Engineering, Praha, Czech Republic, 08/25-29/2002.
Description:
The purpose of this study is to assess the contribution of the three major gasoline blending components to the potential environmental impacts (PEI), which are the reformate, alkylate and cracked gasoline. This study accounts for losses of the gasoline blending components due to evaporation and leaks, through their life cycle, from petroleum refining to vehicle refuelling. A sensitivity analysis was performed to access the effects of using different weighting factors on the relative importance of the several impact categories and on the total PEI of each gasoline blend. The potential environmental impacts were evaluated using the Waste Reduction (WAR) algorithm, which includes eight impact categories: human toxicity by ingestion and by dermal/ inhalation routes, terrestrial toxicity, aquatic toxicity, photochemical oxidation, acidification, global warming and ozone depletion. This study shows which gasoline blend contributes the most to the environmental impacts. With this information a refinery could devise a blending policy that obtains the desired gasoline while minimizing the potential environmental impacts.