| A repeatable soot sampling protocol was developed to measure soot emission factors (EF) from lab-scale flares burning fuel compositions representative of solution gas flares typical of the Alberta upstream oil and gas industry. A gravimetric analysis system was employed as well as a Laser Induced Incandescence (LII) system. Results showed that accurate soot EFs can be quantified and that results from the two measurement techniques were in good agreement. For the range of conditions tested (burner inner diameter of 12.7-76.2 mm, exit velocity 0.1-2.2 m/s, and several 4- and 6-component fuel mixtures consisting of 74.5 to 91.1% methane), measured soot emission rates were less than 1 g soot/kg fuel (or 0.84 kg soot/10 3 m3 fuel). These values are lower than the current EF used in Canada (2.5632 kg soot/103 m3 fuel). A simple empirical relationship was established for the emission factor as a function of the fuel heating value for a range of conditions, which is a significant improvement over the single EF approach currently adopted. |
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