xvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
December 2007
EPA530-F-07-047
www.epa.gov/osw
EPA Finalizes Revision to  RCRA
Hazardous Waste Program to
Promote Sustainable Recycling
of Oil-Bearing Materials Into Fuel
                By allowing certain secondary materials to be recycled for additional fuel
             production, EPA is helping petroleum refineries to reduce waste and capture more
             energy from each barrel of oil.


         Action
            EPA is revising the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's (RCRA) oil-
         bearing hazardous secondary materials exclusion to allow for the recycling of
         oil-bearing hazardous secondary materials,  such as sludges or other byproducts,
         generated by the petroleum industry when they are gasified at a petroleum refinery for
         the production of synthesis gas fuel.
            Gasification will join distillation, catalytic cracking, and fractionation as
         recognized petroleum refining processes. This exclusion is conditioned on there
         being no land placement and no speculative accumulation of the material prior to
         re-inserting into the petroleum refining process. EPA also has finalized a regulatory
         definition of gasification specific to this exclusion.
            Gasification is a commercially proven technology that is used in a variety of
         manufacturing operations. It converts carbon-containing materials, such as coal
         or petroleum coke, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. This gas, known as
         synthesis gas, can be converted into usable products such as hydrogen, steam,
         electricity, ammonia and other chemicals. In the petroleum refining operations,
         electric power generation is the application of choice for manufactured synthesis gas.
         Background
            In August 1998, EPA promulgated an exclusion from the definition of solid waste
         for oil-bearing hazardous secondary materials generated at a petroleum refinery
         that are recycled by being re-inserted into the petroleum refining process (63 FR
         42110). EPA proposed in March 2002 a separate conditional exclusion for these
         same materials that added gasification to the list of recognized petroleum refining
         processes (67 FR 13684). As part of this proposal, EPA also solicited comment on
         a number of other conditions in addition to the prohibition on land placement and
         speculative accumulation. In response to the proposal, commenters generally agreed

-------
with the idea of promoting the reuse of secondary materials from petroleum refineries
to produce additional fuels through gasification. Today's action amends and finalizes
the 2002 proposal.

For More Information
For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/gas.htm.

To find out more detailed information or to ask a question, visit
   http://waste.custhelp.com and click on Find an Answer or Submit a Question.

-------