VAPOUR RECOVERY DURING FUEL LOADING

Volatile fuels such as gasoline and naphtha, and to a lesser extent jet fuel and diesel, have significant vapour pressure and the amount of vapour lost during fuel handling and transfer can be significant. For example, in transferring gasoline into a road tanker, the loss often exceeds 0.1% of the fuel transferred. When fuels are transferred several times in the chain between the refinery production unit and reaching the end users tank, the losses accumulate. These vapour losses are both an economic loss to the owner of the fuel, and an undesirable environmental emission. Capture of the vapours is technically simple, and once captured, the vapour can either be vented, incinerated or recovered. Recovery is the preferred option, and in many cases the value of the product recovered can pay for the cost of the vapour recovery system in a short time – often less than two years, and sometimes less than one year. This paper describes vapour recovery units (VRUs) using refrigeration to condense the hydrocarbon vapours, and gives examples of detailed economic payback analysis from actual projects.