A planned, controlled flare is scheduled to take place at the World Energy Paramount facility around mid-July 2024, enabling the safe burning of gasses and protecting the community and facility equipment.
A flare is a safety device that allows excess gasses that cannot be used in the operation of the facility to be safely burned. Flares safeguard the community by ensuring the gas is burned and not released into the air in an uncontrolled manner and protecting equipment from damage.
While Paramount community members may see the flare, they should not expect odors or other impacts. Unlike petroleum-based refinery gasses, the gas generated by World Energy’s manufacturing process does not contain high concentrations of benzene, toluene, or xylene. The World Energy Paramount facility uses vegetable oils, used cooking oil and organic animal fats to produce fuels.
A flare event can happen for various reasons including planned maintenance, or the need to release pressure on equipment. Planned flaring – such as this flare event – may occur during long-term maintenance outages such as annual turnarounds. Unplanned flares may occur as a result of external factors such as a loss of electricity. Although a possibility, unplanned flaring is typically very short in duration and is minimized due to World Energy’s daily maintenance and inspections of the facility.
To ensure the safety of the community and employees, flare emissions and smoke are strictly regulated by South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). World Energy is required by AQMD to report major flare events and monitor emissions from all flare events.
Flaring event information is reported to AQMD in real-time and is publicly available on the AQMD Flare Event Notification System. To stay up-to-date on any flare events, community members are encouraged to visit the FENS website at https://xappp.aqmd.gov/fens/public.
For more information on the World Energy Paramount facility, please visit www.paramountenvironment.org/altair-world-energy.
Comments are closed.