Oil refinery waste is a major source of air and water pollution
Two hours north of Oklahoma City outside a small town named Kremlin, billionaire William “Bill” Koch owns a plant that processes oil refinery waste. The 60-year-old Oxbow petroleum coke plant occupies enough land to cover 250 football fields. But it has an even larger environmental footprint.
The plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions create haze and reduce visibility in several downwind states. Yet the company refuses to install modern pollution control devices called scrubbers that would slash emissions and clear up the air.
The “petcoke” industry processes a black, coal-like oil refinery waste product that is nearly pure carbon and used as a key ingredient in aluminum, steel, cement, and other industries. But despite the large amount of pollution released by petcoke processing plants, EPA has neglected to require the industry to install modern air and water pollution control systems, as is required for many other industries, according to the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP’s) recent report, “Oil Refinery Waste’s Dark Shadow: Petroleum Coke’s Polluting Role in U.S. Industry.”
EPA’s failure to address these emissions harms the health of nearby communities, many of them disadvantaged. And looking to the future, this health threat may grow as the production of aluminum—which uses most of the processed petcoke—ramps up to build solar panels and electric vehicles to meet the demands of a low-carbon economy.
The Oxbow Kremlin plant has the capacity to process more petroleum coke than any other U.S. plant, according to the Oxbow company. The owner, William Koch, is the youngest of the four Koch brothers, who took over their late father’s company, Koch Industries Inc., and became famous for supporting conservative causes and being outspoken about their advocacy for fewer environmental regulations.
But Oxbow is not alone in fighting common-sense pollution controls at its petroleum coke plant. Almost three quarters (8 of 11) of the plants that process petroleum coke for aluminum manufacturing and other industries lack scrubbers, which have been used for decades to reduce deadly sulfur dioxide air pollution. Three quarters of these uncontrolled petcoke pollution sources (6 of 8) are in disadvantaged communities, most in Louisiana and Texas.
In Oklahoma, the Oxbow Kremlin plant in 2022 released almost 16,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2). That was about half of the volume of the pollutant released in the entire state, and nearly all of it coming from 98 sources in Garfield County, OK. Furthering pollution concerns, the plant is the only source of hydrochloric acid and the second-highest source of particulate matter emissions in the county.
While the Oxbow Kremlin plant is a health hazard to nearby residents, its pollution impact extends far beyond the vicinity. According to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Oxbow Kremlin's emissions contribute to visibility problems in 30 parks and wilderness areas. Notably, the same pollutants that cause haze—sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter—also cause respiratory, cardiovascular, and other health problems.
“The purpose of the regional haze rule is to cut pollution from facilities like Oxbow Kremlin that are contributing to visibility impairment and other air pollution problems in national parks and wilderness areas,” said Daniel Orozco, Senior Clean Air and Climate Manager at NPCA. “A scrubber is really the low-hanging fruit for Oklahoma to address its haze obligations.”
Orozco said pollution control equipment that would nearly eliminate sulfur dioxide emissions from Oxbow Kremlin could come at a relatively low cost. According to a comprehensive technical analysis by NPCA, Oxbow has inflated potential costs and ignored a variety of commercially available scrubbers that would be affordable and effective to install and operate.
Most of the petcoke processing plants in the U.S. were built between 1935 and 1983. The advanced age of the plants has helped them evade key provisions of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts and operate with weak pollution limits.
Petcoke processing plants release large volumes of air pollution during the process of superheating petcoke to high temperatures in kilns. This petcoke calcination, or “calcining,” involves the heating of petroleum coke in order to remove volatile material and purify the coke for further processing. Petcoke calcining facilities reported emitting at least 230,408 tons of hydrocholoric acid, 56,761 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 1,496 tons of particulate matter (PM2.5) in the most recent available year, 2022. Most of the plants rank as the number one source of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in the county or parish where they are located, according to EIP’s research.
When it comes to water pollution, petcoke plants are also getting a free pass to pollute. These plants discharge wastewater and stormwater, which contains pollutants such as lead, mercury, nickel, and vanadium. However, unlike many other industries, petcoke processors are not covered by EPA’s national standards for water pollution control equipment (called “effluent limitation guidelines”), which require operators to use the best available technologies to limit pollutants into waterways.
In their permit applications and company materials, petcoke plant operators often portray the process of petcoke calcining as straightforward and even beneficial because it turns petroleum waste into a valued product. Yet petcoke calcining is inextricably tied to the climate—and health—harming oil industry and a highly polluting process in its own right. As demand for aluminum, steel, and other products continue to grow—including to support the transition to clean energy and transportation—so too will the demand for calcined petcoke.
EIP’s report makes several recommendations as for how to best bring the petcoke calcining industry out from under the radar when it comes to protections for health, air and water quality, and the climate.
- Strengthen air pollution rules: EPA should establish national emissions standards that reduce sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and hazardous air pollutants from petcoke calcining plants.
- Require the use of modern pollution controls: EPA should require petcoke calcining plants to install and operate modern-day air pollution control equipment like scrubbers to reduce sulfur dioxide and other dangerous pollutants.
- Establish water pollution rules: EPA should develop technology-based standards called “effluent limitation guidelines” to limit the pollution that petcoke calcining plants are allowed to dump into our waterways.
- Advance cleaner technologies: The aluminum industry, in particular, should expedite production of metal made without petcoke, by using a different type of electricity-conducting device (called “inert anodes”) as an alternative.
Photo: Google Earth Screenshot of Oxbow Kremlin Calcining Plant in Oklahoma.
