Refiner upgrades to meet world`s toughest gasoline specs
Ultramar Inc. has completed a $300 million upgrade of its refinery at Wilmington, California, near Los Angeles. The three-step program enables the refinery to produce reformulated gasolines meeting federal and California standards. The upgrade was done in three steps: Step 1 included a new naphtha hydrotreater (NHT) for sulfur reduction and a splitter for benzene reduction, these additions enabled Ultramar to produce the reformulated gasoline (RFG) required by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) beginning in January 1995; Step 2 included an olefin treater for gasoline from the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit (cat gasoline), a hydrotreated naphtha rerun tower, and modifications to the FCC unit (FCCU) main fractionator and debutanizer, to support the changes made in Steps 2 and 3, Ultramar expanded utilities, sulfur handling, and hydrogen production facilities during Step 2; Step 3 comprised a new, 48,000 b/d gas oil hydrotreater (GOH) which started up in mid-March. This was a discretionary project driven by an expected return on investment. Step 3 enabled Ultramar to produce more alkylate, which the general manager of engineering and support services for Ultramar, calls the ultimate clean fuel.
- OSTI ID:
- 376265
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal, Vol. 94, Issue 39; Other Information: PBD: 23 Sep 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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