EQuIS™ Supports Benzene Fenceline Monitoring (BFM) Regulatory Requirements

Petroleum Refinery 1

 

Background

In late 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its Risk and Technology Review and New Performance Standards which require petroleum refineries to control toxic air emissions and provide related emission information to the public and other key stakeholders. The EPA rule requires refineries to monitor air concentrations of benzene at key emission sources within facilities and along facility perimeters. It is anticipated that this rule will be fully implemented during 2018, and every refinery will be required to load Benzene Fenceline Monitoring (BFM) data to the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI) within 45 days following conclusion of each reporting period.

 

The EQuIS Solution

EarthSoft offers a proven track record in environmental data acquisition and reporting. EQuIS has become the industry standard for analytical data management, and it is used by the US EPA, State environmental agencies, and global petroleum entities.

 

NOAA Dashboard

 

EQuIS Enterprise facilitates access to your BFM data through actionable dashboard views. Dashboards combine sampling results, CEMS data, delta C calculations, and meteorological conditions in interactive widgets providing key performance indicators and refinery roll-up reporting. EQuIS Enterprise supports the entire BFM workflow including sample planning and tracking, laboratory data verification and loading, action level exceedance views and automatic notifications, delta C calculations, time-series and point-in-time analysis, GIS, and regulatory reporting.

EQuIS is currently used by major North American petroleum refineries as an effective tool to collect, analyze, and report BFM data. Refineries collect samples at the pre-determined frequency and use EarthSoft’s mobile field data collection tools, EDGE or Collect, to send validated COCs to the laboratory, requesting use of the appropriate EPA 325 method. Labs load datafiles to EQuIS through an intuitive cloud-based interface where data are screened for quality and agreement with business rules. Dashboards update automatically with statistical information providing an overview of emission trends for numerous refinery locations. Additionally, users can drill down into specific monitoring locations or by exceedance to understand the contributing site and meteorological conditions at the time of sampling. Users leverage a direct connection to NOAA, EPA AirNow, Weather Underground, and other open data platforms to support thorough analysis of BFM data.

Meet EQA CEDRI reporting requirements in addition to real-time analysis of refinery conditions with EQuIS. Required data are planned and tracked for completeness throughout the monitoring lifecycle to ensure decisions are made off a complete dataset. Subsequently, EQuIS generates single-click reports and electronic data submittals to be uploaded to public and government websites, consistent with reporting deadlines levied by the EPA.

To learn more about how EQuIS workflow solutions can support BFM reporting requirements, please write info@earthsoft.com.

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