There are few existing data on emissions and characteristics of fine aerosols from petroleum industry combustion sources, and the limited information that is available is incomplete and outdated. The American Petroleum Institute (API) developed a test protocol to address this data gap, specifically to:

Develop emission factors and speciation profiles for emissions of primary fine particulate matter (i.e., particulate present in the stack flue gas including condensible aerosols), especially organic aerosols from gas-fired combustion devices; and

Identify and characterize secondary particulate (i.e., particulate formed via reaction of stack emissions in the atmosphere) precursor emissions.

This report presents the results of a pilot project to evaluate the test protocol on a refinery fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU).