§ 60.101a - Definitions.

§ 60.101a Definitions.

Terms used in this subpart are defined in the Clean Air Act (CAA), in § 60.2 and in this section.

Air preheat means a device used to heat the air supplied to a process heater generally by use of a heat exchanger to recover the sensible heat of exhaust gas from the process heater.

Ancillary equipment means equipment used in conjunction with or that serve a refinery process unit. Ancillary equipment includes, but is not limited to, storage tanks, product loading operations, wastewater treatment systems, steam- or electricity-producing units (including coke gasification units), pressure relief valves, pumps, sampling vents and continuous analyzer vents.

Cascaded flare system means a series of flares connected to one flare gas header system arranged with increasing pressure set points so that discharges will be initially directed to the first flare in the series (i.e., the primary flare). If the discharge pressure exceeds a set point at which the flow to the primary flare would exceed the primary flare's capacity, flow will be diverted to the second flare in the series. Similarly, flow would be diverted to a third (or fourth) flare if the pressure in the flare gas header system exceeds a threshold where the flow to the first two (or three) flares would exceed their capacities.

Co-fired process heater means a process heater that employs burners that are designed to be supplied by both gaseous and liquid fuels on a routine basis. Process heaters that have gas burners with emergency oil back-up burners are not considered co-fired process heaters.

Coke burn-off means the coke removed from the surface of the FCCU catalyst by combustion in the catalyst regenerator. The rate of coke burn-off is calculated by the formula specified in § 60.104a.

Contact material means any substance formulated to remove metals, sulfur, nitrogen, or any other contaminant from petroleum derivatives.

Corrective action means the design, operation and maintenance changes that one takes consistent with good engineering practice to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of the recurrence of the primary cause and any other contributing cause(s) of an event identified by a root cause analysis as having resulted in a discharge of gases from an affected facility in excess of specified thresholds.

Corrective action analysis means a description of all reasonable interim and long-term measures, if any, that are available, and an explanation of why the selected corrective action(s) is/are the best alternative(s), including, but not limited to, considerations of cost effectiveness, technical feasibility, safety and secondary impacts.

Delayed coking unit means a refinery process unit in which high molecular weight petroleum derivatives are thermally cracked and petroleum coke is produced in a series of closed, batch system reactors. A delayed coking unit includes, but is not limited to, all of the coke drums associated with a single fractionator; the fractionator, including the bottoms receiver and the overhead condenser; the coke drum cutting water and quench system, including the jet pump and coker quench water tank; and the coke drum blowdown recovery compressor system.

Emergency flare means a flare that combusts gas exclusively released as a result of malfunctions (and not startup, shutdown, routine operations or any other cause) on four or fewer occasions in a rolling 365-day period. For purposes of this rule, a flare cannot be categorized as an emergency flare unless it maintains a water seal.

Flare means a combustion device that uses an uncontrolled volume of air to burn gases. The flare includes the foundation, flare tip, structural support, burner, igniter, flare controls, including air injection or steam injection systems, flame arrestors and the flare gas header system. In the case of an interconnected flare gas header system, the flare includes each individual flare serviced by the interconnected flare gas header system and the interconnected flare gas header system.

Flare gas header system means all piping and knockout pots, including those in a subheader system, used to collect and transport gas to a flare either from a process unit or a pressure relief valve from the fuel gas system, regardless of whether or not a flare gas recovery system draws gas from the flare gas header system. The flare gas header system includes piping inside the battery limit of a process unit if the purpose of the piping is to transport gas to a flare or knockout pot that is part of the flare.

Flare gas recovery system means a system of one or more compressors, piping and the associated water seal, rupture disk or similar device used to divert gas from the flare and direct the gas to the fuel gas system or to a fuel gas combustion device.

Flexicoking unit means a refinery process unit in which high molecular weight petroleum derivatives are thermally cracked and petroleum coke is continuously produced and then gasified to produce a synthetic fuel gas.

Fluid catalytic cracking unit means a refinery process unit in which petroleum derivatives are continuously charged and hydrocarbon molecules in the presence of a catalyst suspended in a fluidized bed are fractured into smaller molecules, or react with a contact material suspended in a fluidized bed to improve feedstock quality for additional processing and the catalyst or contact material is continuously regenerated by burning off coke and other deposits. The unit includes the riser, reactor, regenerator, air blowers, spent catalyst or contact material stripper, catalyst or contact material recovery equipment, and regenerator equipment for controlling air pollutant emissions and for heat recovery. When fluid catalyst cracking unit regenerator exhaust from two separate fluid catalytic cracking units share a common exhaust treatment (e.g., CO boiler or wet scrubber), the fluid catalytic cracking unit is a single affected facility.

Fluid coking unit means a refinery process unit in which high molecular weight petroleum derivatives are thermally cracked and petroleum coke is continuously produced in a fluidized bed system. The fluid coking unit includes the coking reactor, the coking burner, and equipment for controlling air pollutant emissions and for heat recovery on the fluid coking burner exhaust vent.

Forced draft process heater means a process heater in which the combustion air is supplied under positive pressure produced by a fan at any location in the inlet air line prior to the point where the combustion air enters the process heater or air preheat. For the purposes of this subpart, a process heater that uses fans at both the inlet air side and the exhaust air side (i.e., balanced draft system) is considered to be a forced draft process heater.

Fuel gas means any gas which is generated at a petroleum refinery and which is combusted. Fuel gas includes natural gas when the natural gas is combined and combusted in any proportion with a gas generated at a refinery. Fuel gas does not include gases generated by catalytic cracking unit catalyst regenerators, coke calciners (used to make premium grade coke) and fluid coking burners, but does include gases from flexicoking unit gasifiers and other gasifiers. Fuel gas does not include vapors that are collected and combusted in a thermal oxidizer or flare installed to control emissions from wastewater treatment units other than those processing sour water, marine tank vessel loading operations or asphalt processing units (i.e., asphalt blowing stills).

Fuel gas combustion device means any equipment, such as process heaters and boilers, used to combust fuel gas. For the purposes of this subpart, fuel gas combustion device does not include flares or facilities in which gases are combusted to produce sulfur or sulfuric acid.

Fuel gas system means a system of compressors, piping, knock-out pots, mix drums, and units used to remove sulfur contaminants from the fuel gas (e.g., amine scrubbers) that collects refinery fuel gas from one or more sources for treatment as necessary prior to combusting in process heaters or boilers. A fuel gas system may have an overpressure vent to a flare but the primary purpose for a fuel gas system is to provide fuel to the refinery.

Natural draft process heater means any process heater in which the combustion air is supplied under ambient or negative pressure without the use of an inlet air (forced draft) fan. For the purposes of this subpart, a natural draft process heater is any process heater that is not a forced draft process heater, including induced draft systems.

Non-emergency flare means any flare that is not an emergency flare as defined in this subpart.

Oxidation control system means an emission control system which reduces emissions from sulfur recovery plants by converting these emissions to sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and recycling the SO₂ to the reactor furnace or the first-stage catalytic reactor of the Claus sulfur recovery plant or converting the SO₂ to a sulfur product.

Petroleum means the crude oil removed from the earth and the oils derived from tar sands, shale, and coal.

Petroleum refinery means any facility engaged in producing gasoline, kerosene, distillate fuel oils, residual fuel oils, lubricants, asphalt (bitumen) or other products through distillation of petroleum or through redistillation, cracking or reforming of unfinished petroleum derivatives. A facility that produces only oil shale or tar sands-derived crude oil for further processing at a petroleum refinery using only solvent extraction and/or distillation to recover diluent is not a petroleum refinery.

Primary flare means the first flare in a cascaded flare system.

Process heater means an enclosed combustion device used to transfer heat indirectly to process stream materials (liquids, gases, or solids) or to a heat transfer material for use in a process unit instead of steam.

Process upset gas means any gas generated by a petroleum refinery process unit or by ancillary equipment as a result of startup, shutdown, upset or malfunction.

Purge gas means gas introduced between a flare's water seal and a flare's tip to prevent oxygen infiltration (backflow) into the flare tip. For flares with no water seals, the function of purge gas is performed by sweep gas (i.e., flares without water seals do not use purge gas).

Reduced sulfur compounds means hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), carbonyl sulfide, and carbon disulfide.

Reduction control system means an emission control system which reduces emissions from sulfur recovery plants by converting these emissions to H₂S and either recycling the H₂S to the reactor furnace or the first-stage catalytic reactor of the Claus sulfur recovery plant or converting the H₂S to a sulfur product.

Refinery process unit means any segment of the petroleum refinery in which a specific processing operation is conducted.

Root cause analysis means an assessment conducted through a process of investigation to determine the primary cause, and any other contributing cause(s), of a discharge of gases in excess of specified thresholds.

Secondary flare means a flare in a cascaded flare system that provides additional flare capacity and pressure relief to a flare gas system when the flare gas flow exceeds the capacity of the primary flare. For purposes of this subpart, a secondary flare is characterized by infrequent use and must maintain a water seal.

Sour water means water that contains sulfur compounds (usually H₂S) at concentrations of 10 parts per million by weight or more.

Sulfur pit means the storage vessel in which sulfur that is condensed after each Claus catalytic reactor is initially accumulated and stored. A sulfur pit does not include secondary sulfur storage vessels downstream of the initial Claus reactor sulfur pits.

Sulfur recovery plant means all process units which recover sulfur from H₂S and/or SO₂ from a common source of sour gas produced at a petroleum refinery. The sulfur recovery plant also includes sulfur pits used to store the recovered sulfur product, but it does not include secondary sulfur storage vessels or loading facilities downstream of the sulfur pits. For example, a Claus sulfur recovery plant includes: Reactor furnace and waste heat boiler, catalytic reactors, sulfur pits and, if present, oxidation or reduction control systems or incinerator, thermal oxidizer or similar combustion device. Multiple sulfur recovery units are a single affected facility only when the units share the same source of sour gas. Sulfur recovery plants that receive source gas from completely segregated sour gas treatment systems are separate affected facilities.

Sweep gas means the gas introduced in a flare gas header system to maintain a constant flow of gas to prevent oxygen buildup in the flare header. For flares with no water seals, sweep gas also performs the function of preventing oxygen infiltration (backflow) into the flare tip.

[73 FR 35867, June 24, 2008, as amended at 77 FR 56464, Sep. 12, 2012; 78 FR 76756, Dec. 19, 2013; 80 FR 75230, Dec. 1, 2015]