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After a brief review of the global gas flaring and venting in oil industries including the emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases and the amount of energy resources wasted, the focus is on Iran as a major oil producing and the world's third largest gas flaring country. Gas flaring is also practiced in natural gas industries, petroleum refining and petrochemical plants, although the level of emission is very low compared with emissions from oil production. The historical emission of these gases globally and Iran specifically, geographic location of emission sources, composition of gases, environmental impacts of gas flaring and the current and future projects to mitigate emissions are evaluated and discussed. Emission factor, an indication of efficiency in oil production, varies widely among oil production sites around the world, from near zero to more than 50 standard cubic meters of flare gas per barrel of oil produced with an average value of about 5. Iran's emission factor has fluctuated from around 1 to more than 16 according to the data of 1980–2012 with higher emission factors for offshore oil production. Data also show an increasing trend during 2010–2012 which could be due to the several technical reasons in oil productions as well as economic sanctions imposed on Iran. In addition, there is a great amount of uncertainty and discrepancies among various data sources in the emission factors due to the lack of actual measurements of the volume and composition of flare gas and the uncertainties in the data sources. This requires regulatory measures, investment by oil companies and international collaboration. The economic and technological constraints in implementing or delaying the gas flare reduction projects are evaluated and addressed, with successful case studies and best practices reviewed. In particular, the techno-economic constraints in implementing gas flaring reduction projects caused by international sanctions on Iran are analyzed. It is shown that despite the great loss of energy resources due to gas flaring, its adverse impacts on the local and global environment and the availability of the technologies to reduce emissions, flaring is still practiced in many parts of the world, which can be avoided if the necessary regulatory policies and measures are established at national levels and international collaboration can facilitate the investment by providing the required finance and technologies. At present the international activities to implement gas flaring project activities under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are very limited, but could be very effective in reducing emissions, if implemented. Due to the global demand and continued use of oil and gas in the next decades, there is an urgent need for reducing gas flaring emissions. This is not only the responsibility of the oil and gas companies, but also the responsibility of the national governments and the global community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to safety and control considerations, gas flaring is inevitable in chemical processes. In 2018, 17.3 billion cubic meters of flare gas had burned in Iran, which implies a significant economic loss and the emission of almost 150 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This significant amount of flaring has made Iran the third largest flaring country in the world. Various methods exist for transforming the flare and associated gases into value-added products. In the current study, to investigate the potentials of flare gas recovery in Iran, these technologies and the decision drivers for choosing between them are reviewed. Then, to evaluate Iran's flaring situation, the amounts of flaring in the different segments within the recent years are provided. Investigation of the flaring data in different segments and the condition of the planned and operational flare gas recovery processes indicates that there is considerable capacity for implementing the flare recovery processes in Iran, especially for the downstream flaring. Approximately 64% and 32% of the nominal capacities of NGL plants and reinjection units, respectively, were not in operation in 2016. Studying the existing flare recovery technologies and the decision drivers shows that power generation seems to be an appropriate option for application in flare gas recovery; hence it should be considered in the scheduled plans for flare gas recovery in Iran. There is a potential of saving nearly 5 billion dollars annually by generating power from the amount of flare gas currently burning in Iran. The primary challenges in the way of the application of flare gas recovery technologies in Iran include economic limitations and structural and institutional problems. Overcoming these challenges and implementing flare recovery technologies, Iran can significantly reduce its environmental emissions and gain considerable economic profit. Image 1 • A detailed review of nearly all possible technologies for flare gas recovery. • Identification of the parameters effective in determining the suitable technology for flare gas recovery. • A comprehensive study of the flaring situation in Iran, separately for upstream and downstream segments. • Reviewing the current situation of flare recovery projects in Iran since 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]