Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Propane Cooling System in Providing Cooling for Heat Exchangers of Bidboland Persian Gulf Gas Refinery

Arpanahi, Mazdak; Sayyahi, Soheil; Peyghambarzadeh, Seyed Mohsen

Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Propane Cooling System in Providing Cooling for Heat Exchangers of Bidboland Persian Gulf Gas Refinery

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Mazdak Arpanahi ¹^{, 2}

Soheil Sayyahi ³^{, 2}

Seyed Mohsen Peyghambarzadeh ¹^{, 2}

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, I.R. IRAN

² Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Energy, Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, I.R. IRAN

³ Department of Chemistry, Mahshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, I.R. IRAN

Abstract

Given the increasing global concerns about the environmental impacts of industrial and economic activities, life cycle assessment (LCA) has gained significant importance as a comprehensive and systematic tool for quantifying and analyzing these impacts across all stages of a product's, process's, or system's life. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to investigate and assess the environmental impacts of the propane refrigeration cycle used to provide cooling for heat exchangers in the Bid Boland Persian Gulf Gas Refining Company's export facilities and tanks complex. To perform this assessment, three well-known life cycle assessment methods—IMPACT 2002+, CML baseline, and ReCiPe 2016 endpoint—were applied using SimaPro software. The results obtained from these methods in assessing the environmental impacts of the propane refrigeration cycle showed: In the IMPACT 2002+ method, among 15 impact categories, the highest impacts were related to non-renewable energy depletion (0.000512), respiratory effects due to inorganic substances (0.000132), and global warming (0.000117), respectively. In the analysis of the four final damage categories of this method (human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources), the greatest damage was related to energy resources with a value of 0.000512. Furthermore, the results of the CML baseline method indicated that the highest consequence categories were freshwater ecotoxicity with a normalized value of 2.44E-12 and fossil depletion with 2.31E-12, while global warming (2.41E-13) and acidification (3.25E-13) followed in subsequent categories. Additionally, the examination of normalization and weighting results across 22 impact categories using the ReCiPe 2016 endpoint method revealed that the categories with the highest normalization indices were global warming (human health) at 0.000159, human non-carcinogenic toxicity at 0.000055, global warming (terrestrial ecosystems) at 0.000034, fossil depletion at 0.000026, and particulate matter formation at 0.000018. The results from all three methods clearly demonstrated that the most significant contribution to the environmental impacts of this system primarily stems from the consumption of propane as a refrigerant, particularly in non-renewable resource depletion, global warming, and ecosystem toxicity. These findings emphasize the importance of optimal refrigerant selection and management in refrigeration systems, and the necessity of focusing on reducing refrigerant leakage and thoroughly evaluating alternative refrigerants with higher energy efficiency and a lower environmental footprint across their life cycle to achieve greater sustainability in the refining industries.

Keywords

Life cycle assessment

Gas refinery

Propane refrigeration cycle

Environmental impacts

SimaPro software

Subjects

Oil, Gas & Petrochemical Industries

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