74    DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTES FROM PETROLEUM
REFINERIES
Jeffrey S. Bryant, Sr. Environmental Supervisor
Charles W. Moores, V. P., Environmental Marketing & Sales
Badger Engineers, Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
INTRODUCTION
The petroleum refining industry is required to operate under increasingly stringent environmental
regulations. In the past decade, refineries have had to conform to new environmental regulations
dealing with effluent quality, solids disposal, vapor emissions, hazardous materials containment, and
remediation of contaminated areas. Addressing these requirements invariably generates an increased
quantity of solids requiring disposal. In many cases these solids fall under the "hazardous waste"
definition. Disposing of these hazardous wastes is becoming a critical issue for the refining industry.
This paper reviews the sources and characteristics of hazardous and solid wastes in a refinery,
discusses the available disposal alternatives, and presents examples of disposal scenarios which conform to current and proposed regulations.
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Regulations Impacting Refineries
A refinery may be constrained by environmental regulations issued from the federal, state, or local
level. It is often the case, however, that state and local environmental agencies either defer to the
federal environmental regulations or promulgate environmental regulations that are consistent with
those issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This paper addresses only the EPA
environmental regulations impacting refinery solid wastes.
Because the monitoring and record keeping requirements as well as liabilities for improper disposal
are significantly greater for hazardous wastes, it is important to identify which wastes in a refinery are
hazardous. Under current regulations, the EPA uses two procedures to define wastes as hazardous:
"listing" and "hazardous characteristics". The listing procedure involves identifying specific wastes
that pose hazards to human health and the environment. For the refining industry, the EPA has
"listed" the wastes shown on Table I.
The second procedure involves identifying properties or "characteristics" that, if exhibited by a
waste, indicate a potential hazard if the waste is not properly controlled. The four characteristics that
must be considered are toxicity, ignitability, reactivity, and corrosivity.
• Toxicity: A waste is hazardous due to the toxicity characteristic when the leachate,
resulting from subjecting the waste to the "toxicity characteristic leaching procedure"
(TCLP) test2, exceeds specified concentrations for specific components. In this regard,
EPA has finalized a new toxicity characteristic rule which, as indicated on Table II, adds
25 new substances to the Toxicity Characteristic list. This is in addition to the 14 constituents (eight of which are heavy metals) to be met as part of the previous law4. Refineries
will have to comply with these new regulation by the fall of 1990.
• Ignitability: This characteristic refers to a waste that has an organic layer or one which
exerts a high vapor pressure and a flash point less than 140°F.
• Reactivity: Wastes which can generate toxic gases when exposed to extreme pH conditions are hazardous due to the reactivity characteristic. Wastes containing sulfides or
cyanides are examples of wastes demonstrating this characteristic.
• Corrosivity: These are wastes having a pH less than 2 or greater than 12.5.
45th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, © 1991 Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan 48118.
Printed in U.S.A.
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