Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 22
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Some 1,000 tons of pollutants are being emitted into the air in the city of Ahvaz, south-west of Iran, causing acid rains in autumn and winter, the Pana News Agency quoted Hamidreza Sayyah, the person in charge of the society of graduates at the University of Oil Industry as saying.
In case of a temperature inversion, pollutants, including H2S and CO2 with 250000ppm and 750000ppm density, respectively, are produced 25 kilometers distance from the city and cause acid precipitation, he explained.
Preventing from burning gases which are associated with oil is one of the main concerns of oil and gas experts. The emission of some 1000 tons of H2S and CO2 being emitted into the air in Ahvaz is the main cause of the acid rains.
A plan, dubbed as AMAK, has been launched to use the oil associate gases and curb burning them. In many countries, the oil associate gases which lack CO2 are being reused. But, in oil layers which are associated with sour gas, the gas is usually burnt. This issue leads to severe air pollution, so that the UN has warned countries such as Nigeria, the UAE, Indonesia, and Iran in this regard.
Before implementing the AMAK plan, some 240 million cubic feet of oil associate gases were burnt daily, leading to the emission of 7500 tons of pollutants into the air. After the plan was launched in 2003, this volume of gas is transferred to a refinery 25 kilometers east of Ahvaz and is refined there to be used in the household sector.
Unfortunately, the last section of the project, which is related to the transfer of H2S and CO2 via a pipeline to Mahshahr for recovering sulfur, has not been completed yet.
However, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has taken special measures to implement the most important section of the AMAK project in the early days of the next Iranian calendar year, which begins on March 21, 2014.
Presently, some 20-30 million cubic feet of H2S with 250000ppm density and CO2 with 750000ppm density are being burnt at the refinery per day, leading to the emission of 1000 tons of pollutants into the air. This volume of pollution is excluded from the pollution which is made by other oil, steel, and power plant facilities around the city.
Inhaling such pollutant air will cause harsh respiratory problems, so that 8000 people have gone to hospitals after recent rains in the city.