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CFD simulation for dispersion of benzene at a petroleum refinery in diverse atmospheric conditions

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Abstract

Atmospheric parameters play a vital role in the dispersion of air pollutants. Benzene is a confirmed human carcinogen. It is also a neurotoxin and an irritant compound. The objective of this study was to examine the CFD simulation by Fluent16 software to simulate and analyze the effect of atmospheric conditions on the dispersion of benzene in eight different scenarios in a petroleum refinery. According to the results of this study, the highest and lowest impacts of atmospheric parameters occurred on spring days and autumn nights, respectively. Wind direction did not have a significant effect on the benzene distribution due to the artificial ceiling of piping installations in the computational domain. However, the wind speed had a critical role in the benzene dispersion. The maximum concentration occurred at 36- to 37-m distance from the inlet boundary for all scenarios except winter nights. On winter nights, this distance increased to 38 m. Benzene concentrations were the highest at their sources of release. They decreased after the artificial ceiling of the pipelines was at 5.5- to 7-m height where the air displacement was not sufficient, and therefore, leading to a gradual reduction in concentration. The accumulation of benzene concentration in the small domain was noticeable compared to the benzene concentration distributed in the total computational domain, and the authors recommended control measures in this domain. This study demonstrated CFD simulation methodology could enable the investigators to predict the benzene concentration dispersion in the atmosphere of a petroleum refinery plant. These findings can be used by occupational health engineers for health risk assessment of refinery personnel involved with maintenance operations and engineering control systems.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author (such as runs results and sampling results) Also, some of data and materials are openly available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1318-6.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted as partial fulfillment of a Ph.D. thesis at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Funding

The authors would like to thank their university officials for the financial support provided for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Majid Bayatian

  2. Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center and School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mansour Rezazadeh Azari

  3. School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Khosro Ashrafi

  4. Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Jafari

  5. School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Yadollah Mehrabi

Authors
  1. Majid Bayatian
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  2. Mansour Rezazadeh Azari
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  3. Khosro Ashrafi
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  4. Mohammad Javad Jafari
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  5. Yadollah Mehrabi
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Contributions

Majid Bayatian: Study design, data collection, simulation, measurement, validation

Mansour Rezazadeh Azari: Study design, measurement, validation

Khosro Ashrafi: Study design, simulation

Mohammad Javad Jafari: Simulation

Yadollah Mehrabi: Study design, validation

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mansour Rezazadeh Azari.

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Bayatian, M., Azari, M.R., Ashrafi, K. et al. CFD simulation for dispersion of benzene at a petroleum refinery in diverse atmospheric conditions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 32973–32984 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12254-1

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