Why is Hydrocarbon Sampling Important?

Carbon dioxide captured by growing feedstocks reduces greenhouse gas emissions by balancing carbon dioxide from burning renewable hydrocarbon biofuels with conventional fuels. The production of these fuels supports companies' missions to reduce their carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, and water use.

Many fuel production plants have converted or are planning to convert traditional refining processes to biodiesel or biofuel production processes to reduce their footprint. However, this conversion may pose many challenges, including ensuring that sampling processes are used to sample these fuels properly and safely.

Hydrocarbon is Facing Increased Legislation and Regulation

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program is a national policy that requires a particular volume of renewable fuel to replace or reduce the quantity of petroleum-based transportation fuel, heating oil, or jet fuel. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) significantly increased the size of the RFS program by boosting long-term production goals to 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel per year.

The RFS program includes four categories of renewable fuel:

1. Advanced biofuels are produced from types of renewable biomass, such as sugarcane, biobutanol, and naphtha.
2. Biomass-based diesel is produced from biomass such as soybean oil, canola oil, waste oil, and animal fats.
3. Cellulosic biofuel- produced from cellulose or hemicellulose of corn stover, wood chips, Miscanthus ornamental grasses, or biogas.
4. Conventional renewable biofuel- including ethanol from corn starch or other renewable fuels.

Maximize Safety with Representative Sampling

During production, renewable fuels undergo many processes like traditional fuels, making it essential to sample them for quality, safety, and integrity, just as you would in a conventional refinery.

Sampling can help production plants meet strict environmental standards, maximize product quality, ensure product integrity, and maintain the safety of personnel and equipment.

The first step in ensuring proper sampling is to sample at suitable locations within the biofuel production process. These can include:

• Renewable feedstock sources- Sample raw materials before production to ensure appropriate ingredients enter the process.
• Intermediate hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) products- Sample products to ensure sufficient removal of oxygen.
• Hydrogen Sulfide- Sample for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to ensure elimination of corrosive contaminants.
• Sour water—Sample to ensure sufficient removal of H2S and ammonia to condition the water for discharge or reuse in the plant.

Sentry has experience with various applications in refineries worldwide, providing sampling systems and support for these hydrocarbon sampling systems. Our experience and expertise can help you navigate the unique requirements of producing renewable fuels so you can expand to meet this growing demand.

Contact us at +1-262-567-7256 or complete our online contact us form for more information.