Content area
Full Text
Grandpa's wink faded to a scowl on Jan. 1. Stringent sulphur recovery standards set by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board in 1988 kicked in for all sour gas plants. In official jargon, exemptions for old sites were "degrandfathered."
The exemptions were born because it was thought that the old plants had short life expectancies and costs of improvements would be excessive for short-range environmental benefits. But 10 years later, 61 old plants were operating. Together, each day, the 61 released 91 more tonnes of sulphur into the air than if they met the 1988 standards. They accounted for a full 32% of all sulphur-dioxide emissions from the 800 plants in Alberta.
After discussions with the public and industry showed that an improvement was considered important, the EUB announced in August that all plants would have to upgrade completely by Dec. 31, 2016. "We need to protect the environment and put money into issues that need to be addressed," says Brian Beitz, an AEUB member who just moved into the chair at the Natural Resources Conservation Board. "Consumers pay (for upgrading) because it gets translated inevitably into the price of the product. Whether it's environmental dollars or safety dollars, you look to get the absolute best benefit from the money spent. It seemed a reasonable application to get a level playing field for the gas plants in the province."
To get immediate results, the regulators laid their expectations out in increments and said upgrading beyond the minimum required early on would buy plant operators breathing room in later years. "There are benefits in running facilities as well as they can be run. We've already seen some operational improvements," says Kim Eastlick, of the EUB's facilities applications division.
Although the 1988 sulphur recovery guidelines applied only to sour gas plants, the review begun in 1999 sought to extend them to other kinds of facilities. There are now facility-specific timetables for sour gas emissions at various types of upstream field facilities. Also affected are acid gas streams produced in downstream refineries and heavy oil and bitumen upgraders. Acid gas refers to a gas mixture containing predominantly hydrogen-sulphide and carbon-dioxide which results from treating or "sweetening" sour gas.
The change comes at a time when the natural...