Title: blowdown
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - blowdown
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.B00687
Status: current

Definition
Hydrocarbons purged during refinery shutdowns and startups which should be piped to storage systems for safe venting, flaring or recovery. This term also applies to the purging of water in boiler operation, and serves in the control of dissolved solids in the boiler water.

Related Terms
- Hydrocarbons: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02889
- recovery: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/R05206

Source
- PAC, 1990, 62, 2167. 'Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990)' on page 2176 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199062112167)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/B00687/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/B00687/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/B00687/xml

Citation: Citation: 'blowdown' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.B00687
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-30T03:27:26+00:00