Hyperion Refining sent out a press release late Wednesday boasting it would be the first  North American oil refinery to use thermal oxidizers to burn off what it called the “small amount of vapors” coming from storage tanks of liquids such as crude oil and gasoline, rather than let them ooze into the air and contribute to its planned refinery’s emissions.

To the company’s credit, it does note that that use of the thermal oxidizers were not in its initial preconstruction air quality permit application, but were added later as a condition of receiving that key permit from the state DENR’s Board of Minerals and the Environment, something it accomplished earlier this month after a final hearing before that board in Pierre.  (more…)