Question
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In view of the recent wave of refinery closures, including five in the US during 2021 and other closings, what technologies and market strategies are emerging to keep plants operating?
Dec-2022
Answers
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Raj Patel, Topsoe, rhp@topsoe.com
In the last two pandemic years, refinery closures have accounted for nearly 1 million bpd of refining capacity in the US. These refineries range in capacity from 50,000 bpsd to over 250,000 bpsd. The one market small and large refineries are considering and implementing is the production of renewable fuels (renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, renewable naphtha). We have designed 6,000 bpsd to 50,000 bpsd renewable units in the smaller-to-intermediate size idle refineries, and more than one-third of the 350,000 bpsd total renewable processing capacity licensed by Topsoe come from idle refineries.
Idle refiners are turning to renewable fuels to take advantage of the incentives offered by federal as well as state governments. These include Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), Low Carbon Fuel Standard Credits (LCFS), Blenders Tax Credit, and Carbon Cap and Trade. These incentives can amount to more than $3/gal. For one of the idle refineries being revamped to renewable service using Topsoe technology, these government incentives can be more than $5 million per day.
Utilising an idle refinery for processing renewables is a natural fit. Compared to a standalone renewable facility, the idle refinery has a lot of equipment and facilities that can be utilised for renewable processing. A list of equipment and facilities that can be reused for renewable processing includes:
- Rail, trucking, and marine facilities that can be used to bring feed into the refinery as well as send product out of the refinery
- Existing facilities that can be used for required feed and product tankage
- Utility facilities that can be reused in a renewables refinery
- A hydrogen plant or method to bring in hydrogen, which is required for renewables processing
- An existing sour water stripper and water treatment facility that can be reused for processing renewables, which will produce a significant amount of water in the chemical reaction
- Pretreatment facility assets may or may not be required, depending on the source of the feed, but some existing equipment can be utilised for this application
- Sour off-gas treatment facilities, which may be wholly or partly reused in renewable service
- Hydroprocessing units that can be revamped for renewable service.
Topsoe has utilised naphtha hydrotreaters, diesel hydrotreaters, FCC feed pretreaters, and hydrocrackers in idle refineries for renewable service. Converting an idle refinery to a renewable refinery is a natural fit.Dec-2022
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