Determination of Parameters of Rational Placement of Oil and Petroleum Product Vapor Recovery Unit

The importance of marine transportation of crude oil and petroleum products significantly increases in the context of geopolitical tensions. Marine transportation of oil involves losses from evaporation during loading and unloading of tankers at marine terminals, as well as during transshipment from ship to ship. It is difficult to predict the volume and quantity of the resulting multi-component mixture of gases because of the uncertainty in the initial data. Gas-dynamic processes occurring inside the tanker and in the pipelines of gas phase affect the efficiency of oil and oil products vapor recovery systems. The paper proposes a model that allows to determine the parameters of these processes during tanker loading. Under conditions of high ambient temperatures of 25.-30 0C, it is experimentally determined that the concentration of hydrocarbons can reach up to 0.6 kg/m3 during vaporization of gasoline. The paper presents the calculation of distances for which the vapor recovery unit can accept vapors simple by pressure without using a gas blower. The developed model was verified on the basis of real loading data on the territory of a large port in the Russian Federation during gasoline transshipment. It was shown that for an operating marine terminal with a vapor recovery unit located 300 m away from the tanker, the gas blower can be turned off without the risk of opening the discharge valve.