A175-0004
An Optical Tent to measure BTEX inside petrochemical facilities

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Poster
Jochen Stutz1, Sol Cooperdock1, Santo F Colosimo2, Olga Pikelnaya3 and Andrea Polidori3, (1)University of California Los Angeles, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (2)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (3)South Coast Air Quality Management District, Diamond Bar, CA, United States
Abstract:
Early detection of accidental releases of aromatic hydrocarbons inside petrochemical facilities using modern remote sensing tools provides an exciting new approach to reduce emissions of toxic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (often summarized as BTEX). Aside from a faster response these methods also have the capability to narrow down the location of the releases, thus providing guidance for remediation activities, that is difficult to achieve with the more common fenceline monitoring approach.

Here we present first results from a two-dimensional Optical Tent inside a refinery that is based on two research-grade Longpath Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (LP-DOAS) instruments. Each instrument sequentially measures on five light paths, covering one half of the facility within approximately 15 minutes. Near realtime data analysis is based on absolute DOAS retrievals of the BTEX compounds in the 250-280 nm wavelength window. We will discuss the performance of the Optical Tent with respect to the accuracy of BTEX measurements, detection limits, and temporal stability. Examples of the two-dimensional BTEX observations will be presented.

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