New White Paper Addresses Failure Modes for Vapor Recovery Units

An ILTA Working Group has completed work on a white paper describing a process hazard analysis of vapor recovery units and discussing mitigation options. ILTA opted to produce a white paper on this topic after it identified significant member interest following a TOPS presentation in September 2020. VRUs are used at petroleum loading facilities to control hydrocarbon emissions originating from all loading activities. These include, but are not limited to, truck loading, rail loading facilities, marine vessel loading docks, as well as tank degassing activities. As trucks and other vessels load liquid product, residual hydrocarbon vapors are pushed out of the vessel’s vapor collection system, into the terminal’s vapor line and to the vapor control device. The white paper explains that the absorber and absorbent supply/return node represent the largest liquid release potential. After logging into your ILTA membership account, you can access the paper here.

The white paper effort was led by Greg Johnston, vice president of operations at Lucknow-Highspire Terminals, with help from Marissa Karl (Buckeye Partners, LP), Kevin Snyder (Marathon Petroleum Company), Steve Sullivan (CITGO Petroleum), Marty Summers (Energy Transfer) Cheryl Tate (Energy Transfer) and Jon Zadzora (Lucknow-Highspire Terminals).

ILTA thanks all that worked on this important effort.