Emarat, the country's leading petrol retailer, is attempting to limit the large amount of vapourised gasoline emitted from its filling stations, storage facilities and tankers by installing vapour recovery units to address the problem.
It is believed that out of every 1,000 gallons of petrol distributed every day in the UAE, 4.4 litres could be lost through evaporation.
Vehicle owners also lose part of their petrol from fuel tanks through vapourisation, especially in the summer.
The vapourized petrol contains, among other things, MBTE a substance banned in some parts of the world, as it is feared to be a mild carcinogenic substance.
KV Jayaraman, manager of health, safety and environment for the Emirates General Petroleum Corporation, told Emirates Today that Emarat is currently modifying its old retail petrol stations to prevent vapourised gasoline emission because it causes bad odours and ecological and health problems.
He said the new petrol stations are fitted with additional pipelines and vapour recovery units that can absorb the petrol vapour before it goes into the atmosphere.
The company has already invested Dh17 million in the project due to concerns of financial loss, as well as environmental concerns about the impact of vapourised petrol emission into the atmosphere.
While petrol containing lead is widely known to be dangerous, the hazards of MBTE in unleaded petrol are less publicised, though it causes ozone layer damage and other health problems, Jayaraman added.
"We are implementing this project because new rules to regulate petrol vapour emission may be introduced in the UAE.These rules have already been introduced in the United States and United Kingdom.
"We are modifying our old filling stations by adding new underground pipelines connected to activated carbon beds, which absorb and recycle the vapourised petrol before it is released.
Our studies show that about 0.44 per cent of the total gasoline distributed per day gets evaporated at three stages - from the storage tanks, trans portation stage and dispensing points. Oil tankers will also have additional pipelines to prevent petrol vapour emission," said Jayaram.
He added that some car manufacturers, like Honda, have already introduced fuel tanks that prevent vapour emission onto the market.
By VM Sathish
© Emirates Today 2007
