débenzolage

CONT: A federal regulation calling for a 98 percent reduction in atmospheric emissions of benzene by September 1991 required all tar storage tanks to be gas-blanketed. The cost of gas-blanketing Tarben's 16 tar storage tanks -- spread out over an area equal to about 15 football fields -- was estimated at $6 million. As an alternate solution, Tarben developed an innovative technology known as ""debenzolization"" to remove benzene from the tar in the first processing step; subsequent storage could then use existing atmospheric tanks without the release of benzene or the need to gas-blanket.