Table Of ContentStudies in Environmental Science 61
CHARACTERIZATION AND CONTROL
OF ODOURS AND VOC
IN THE PROCESS INDUSTRIES
Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on
Characterization and Control of Odours and VOC in the Process
Industries, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 3-5 November 1993
Organized bythe Societe Belge de Filtration (SBF)t o celebrate its 20th foundation year
Edited by
S. Vigneron
Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL)
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
J. Hermia
Professor at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL)
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
President of the Societe Belge de Filtration (SBF)
J. Chaouki
Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
Montreal, Ouebec, Canada
506th Event ofthe European Federation of Chemical Engineering
ELSEVIER
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Amsterdam Lausanne New York Oxford Shannon Tokyo 1994
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ISBN: 0-444-81789-1
0 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
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vii
Thanks tp;
The symposium has taken place with the patronage of
Direction Generale V et XI1 associees de la Communaute Europeenne
Ministere Regional Wallon de 1’Environnement, des Ressources Naturelles et de
1’ Agriculture
SociM Royale de Chimie (SRC), Division Environnement
Union Wallonne des Entreprises
SocietC Royale Belge des Ingenieurs et des Industriels
Federation Europ&nne de Genie Chimique
viii
The IInd International Symposium on Characterization and Control of Odours and VOC in
the Process Industry has been organized by the Socidtd Belge de Filtration.
Secretariat: SOCIETE BELGE DE FILTRATION asbl
voie Minckelers, 1
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
Prof. J. CHAOUKI, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Prof. J. HERMIA, Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL), President of the Societe Belge de
Filtration (SBF), Belgium
Dr. P. JANSSEN,C oatings Research Institute, Belgium
Dr. M. TERMONIA, DCMS, President of the Environnement Division of the SRC, Belgium
S. VERSTRAETE, Ing., UCL, Belgium
S. VIGNERON, Ing., head of the Laboratoire de Traitement des Effluents Gazeux et
d'Olfactom6trie (LTEG) of the SBF, UCL, Belgium
G.D. WORONOFF, Ir., ECOPUBLIC Environment Consultant, Belgium
Scientific Wmittee
R. BOUSCAREN, Centre Interprofessionnel Technique $Etudes de la Pollution
Atmospherique (CITEPA), France
Prof. Dr. L. A. CLARENBURG, Vereniging Lucht, The Netherlands
Prof. M. GIOT, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Facult6 des Sciences Appliquees, Belgium
Prof. C. GUY, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Quebec, Canada
M. KOSUSKO, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA
P. LAFFORT, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
M.L. PERRIN, Commissariat A l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Institut de Protection et de Stirete
Nucleaire, France
Prof. Dr. ir. H. VAN LANGENHOVE, Universiteit Gent, Belgium
C. A. VOGEL, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA
Dr. P. WIEDERKEHR, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD,
France
Vigneron/Hermia/Chaouki (Eds), Charactcrization and Control
of Odours and VOC in the Process Industrics 3
0 1994 Elsevier Scicncc B.V. All rights rcscrved.
Preface
J. HERMIA
Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Institute of Chemical Engineering, Chairman
of the SociCtC Belge de Filtration (SBF).
The second international symposium devoted to Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOC's) took place in Louvain-la-Neuve on 3,4 and 5th November 1993.
The numerous attendance fully demonstrated the interest of industries, research
institutes and official organisations in this subject that directly concerns the quality
of environment and workplace hygiene.
The Belgian Filtration Society, which celebrated in 1993 its twenty years of
existence, has been interested, since early on, in the problem concerning VOC's, in
particular as part of the research carried out since 1982 on olfactory nuisances
encountered in the steel and coke industries.
In this respect, we are particularly pleased to address hereafter our thanks to the
European Community for Steel and Coal, General Directorate V, which has been
sponsoring our research projects for the past ten years. The latter have, in a
progressive manner, naturally evolved from problems generated in coking plants
towards those of plate steel-plants, especially the plate-steel coating units.
But the Belgian Filtration Society's activities are not strictly limited to these fields:
already in 1986, it organized the 1st International Symposium on Olfactometry and
Malodorous Emissions Control in the Process Industries. Thereby, our Association
was filling one of its statutory obligations, namely the spreading of scientific and
technical knowledge, while contributing to the recognition of the seriousness of the
problems related to volatile organic compounds.
In 1990, our Association was formally recognised by the Walloon Region as a
laboratory specialised in measuring and characterising malodorous compounds. This
recognition officializes the role that the Belgian Filtration Society has been playing
for years through its contacts with the industries which need olfactometric and
chemical analysis of their effluents or consultancy on the most suitable methods of
treatment. Although the range of industries concerned by these problems is very
wide, a large proportion of the cases come from small and middle-sized companies.
4
With regard to the 1st Symposium of 1984, the IInd Symposium was more
substantial due in part to better scientific and technical understanding of the
problems related to VOC's and also because volatile organic compounds are now
considered as major elements of environmental nuisance and of risk in the
workplace.
Moreover, the sensitivity of official organisms with respect to this field has so
much developed over the past ten years, that the first part of the symposium has
been devoted to the legislative aspects related to odour emissions as well as to
regional, national, and European control programmes against the harmful effects
caused by VOC's.
After the legislative aspects, the first technical step of interest is the measurement
of odours and volatile compounds. Metrology of odours, basic mechanism of the
perception sense, chemical analyses and sampling techniques are presented in a full
section. Experience of specialized laboratory and industry are reviewed in the same
time. Those papers also involve contributions for immission problems approach.
All papers concerning abatement techniques were given in two separate sections.
Effort has been made to distinguish abatement techniques based on recovery
principle and those based on destruction techniques: separation processes using
membrane technology or cryogenic, adsorption and absorption fall into the first
category whereas destroying techniques involving mainly incineration, both thermal
and catalytic as well as biological epuration form a second part. Emphasis has been
given on VOC catalytic incineration processes which are part of research projects
carried out in our laboratory and sponsored by the ECSC.
Today and probably because of the more stringent regulation, it is not possible to
ignore actions which can be made on the industrial process itself. That is why a full
section of the symposium was devoted to the state-of-the-art in substitution
methods, analysing the control or elimination of VOC emissions. Applications case
are chosen in the coating industry.
With more than fifty lectures to offer, the contents of these Proceedings is quite
heavy, yet perfectly well balanced, with half the technical papers being given by
academics, and the other half by industry. This harmonious distribution is in
agreement with the interface activities of the Belgian Filtration Society, created in the
heart of the Engineering Faculty of UCL and resolutely oriented towards the
industrial world.
Vigncron/Hermia/Chaouki (Eds), Charactcrizalion and Control
of Odours and VOC in [hc Process Industrics 7
0 1994 Elscvicr Scicncc B.V. All rights rcscrvcd.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Minister Guy LUTGEN
Regional Minister of Environment, Nature Resources and Agriculture
I thank the organisers of the symposium beginning this morning for the honour of
inviting me to speak during the opening session.
I gladly accepted this invitation, because this symposium is devoted to two
subjects that directly concern me as the Minister of Environment.
The first concerns odours and the second, volatile organic compounds, more
commonly called VOC's.
Odours can be elements of pleasure and of quality of life. One thinks of the
wonderful odours exhaled by nature or perfumes of which the subtle distillation has
become a refined art. Odours can also be used as instruments of safety. Thus the
addition of appropriate substances to natural gas makes the latter smelly in order to
ensure its detection and to prevent the risk of explosion.
Naturally, odours are not always pleasant or useful. They can also have harfull
effects on the population. In that case, it becomes the public authorities'
responsibility to protect the population against these effects.
In order to do this, it is not enough to ensure only that the health of the population
is not threatened, but also that each ond every one of us may profit by quality
environment and pleasant lifestyles, in other words, by reducing the annoyance
caused by nauseating odours.
The second part of the symposium is devoted to volatile organic compounds.
VOC's regroup a great number of different compounds which are generally
odoriferous. The main emissions come from mobile souces. Nonetheless, they are
also emanated through simple evaporation, or as part of many other activities such
as:
-
fabrication processes in the chemical, paper, steel andfood industries;
-
all activities using solvents such as painting, dry-cleaning, printing, domestic
cleaning, the refrigeration industry, as well as fire prevention;
-
hydrocarbon storage;
-
refuse discharge, etc.
8
The examples are countless. Plant life in itself also highly contributes to volatile
organic compound emissions.
These volatile organic compounds have both direct and indirect effects on the
environment. Among the direct effects caused to man and to all living beings, one
thinks of the risk of cancer in particular. As to the indirect effects, they can be of two
types:
- on one hand, volatile organic compounds are, at low altitudes, precursors to
photochemical pollution and to gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect; they
affect in particular the ozone concentration in the lower atmospheric layer and
scientific literature describes the possible harmful1 effects caused to man, animals,
vegetation and to various materials, due to an excess of ozone;
- on the other hand, it has been shown that certain VOC's affect layers of the
stratosphere, as in the case of the famous CFC's which are presumably responsible
for affecting the hole in the ozone layer.
Because of all these factors, the authorities are much willing to control volatile
organic compound emissions and their cross-boarder flow in order to reduce their
harmful effects on the environment. This is not a simple matter.
The VOC's themselves as well as the circumstances of their emission differ much
from one case to another. The signs by which they manifest themselves in the
atmosphere have multiple forms.
It is of course up to the political authorities to legislate in this matter, but the
approach must be founded upon scientific and technological facts, based on the
knowledge of the emissions and their displacements, the mastership of the mesuring
techniques and the assessement of the effects on the environment etc.
This symposium which reunites different parties involved in research on the
subject at hand, will certainly bring better comprehension of the problems I have just
mentionnned.
An overview of the progress in mesurement and sampling techniques, in
predictible impact study methods, as well as in abatement and substitution methods
for volatile organic compounds, are of undeniable interest to the politicians like
myself called upon to legislate in this very sensitive field, the environment, as it
appears from a series of actions taken by different organisms and authorities.
In particular, I shall mention:
- the United Nation's protocol brought in in Geneva on November 18,1991, as part of
the 1979 Convention on long-distance atmospheric pollution, dealing with the
control of volatile organic compound emissions and cross-boarder flow;
-
publications of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), on control of emissions from automobiles and trucks, and on evaporation
during various refuelling activities;
9
- the proposal of an European Council directive on the control of emissions of
organic solvents from certain processes and industrial installations;
- finally, a proposal of European directive dealing with the control of volatile organic
compound emissions resulting from petrolium storage and its distribution in gas
stations.
As you can see, this work comes at the most opportune moment and will usefully
contribute to the global comprehension towards which we must stride.
VigncronkIcrrnidChaouki (Eds), Charactcrization and Control
of Odours and VOC in the Process Industrics 11
0 I994 Elscvicr Scicncc B.V. All rights rcscrvcd.
Emission reduction programmes for VOC in some OECD countries*
P. Wiederkehr
OECD, Environment Directorate, Pollution Prevention and Control Division,
2, rue AndrC-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France
1. INTRODUCTION
There is growing concern in OECD countries about exposure to levels of some hazardous
volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particularly in urban areas. Volatile organic compounds
together with nitrogen oxides (NO,) contribute to the formation of photochemical oxidants
(photochemical smog) and increasing tropospheric ozone pollution. Persistent organic
compounds, mainly organochlorines, might have global impacts through long-range transport,
accumulation and biomagnifying in the environment. The pollutants of most concern include
carcinogens (e.g. benzene, PAH), toxic organics (e.g. vinyl chloride) and persistent
halogenated organic compounds (e.g. PCBs, CFCs, dioxins). Thus, volatile organic compounds
are recognised to contribute significantly to the cumulative exposure and total risk posed by
air pollution at local, regional and global levels. Consequently, several OECD countries have
reinforced their efforts to extend existing control programmes for volatile organic compounds
and focused on major emission sources such as industrial and domestic solvent use and
evaporative emissions from fuel distribution and refuelling of motor vehicles.
This paper presents major findings of two OECD projects: the project on Major Air
Pollutants (SO,, NO,, VOC), completed in 1990, and the project on Hazardous Air Pollutants,
completed in 1993. The former developed an internationally coordinated emission inventory
for major air pollutants, including VOC, in OECD Europe and evaluated control technologies
and costs for reducing photochemical oxidants pollution [ 1-31. The latter analysed control
policies for hazardous air pollutants in seven member countries including France, Germany,
the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America [4]. Results
of the policy analysis are being presented only for OECD Europe with emphasis on the
priority setting for assessing VOC and efficient emission reductions for major sources. The
focus is on stationary sources, in particular control of industrial processes while other
important sources like motor vehicles are mentioned globally in this context to complete the
picture. Future priorities in national and international action programmes relating to control
of volatile organic compounds are also presented. The problem of stratospheric ozone
depletion by halogenated VOC (i.e. CFCs) will not be discussed in this paper, as this topic
is being dealt with extensively within the framework of the Montreal Protocol under the
United Nations Environment Programme.
* This paper represents views of the author and not neceswily those of the OECD or its member countries.
