Refining
Total to convert La Mède refinery to biodiesel plant
After a €200 million conversion, the La Mède site's flagship operation will be a 500,000-tpy biorefinery to manufacture biodiesel primarily from used oils, as well as renewable feedstock.
Total plans €400M upgrade for low-sulfur fuels at France’s Donges refinery
Total is investing €400 million to upgrade its Donges refinery in France to capture profitable new markets with low-sulfur fuels to meet new European Union (EU) specifications.
Rice students win BP’s engineering prize for water treatment in refineries
The Rice students, who prevailed over competitors from six other US universities, developed a plan that would grow microalgae capable of utilizing waste nutrients in order to purify refinery wastewater.
NuStar, Mexico’s Pemex to expand transborder naphtha shipments
Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, which extends a previous 10-year agreement, naphtha produced at Pemex’s Reynosa-Burgos Complex in northern Mexico is transported via the NuStar Burgos-Valley pipeline system to NuStar’s terminal in Edinburg, Texas.
Flint Hills awards $300M construction package to KBR to expand Corpus refinery
Under the deal, KBR will provide construction management and direct hire construction services for the modification and expansion of the Corpus Christi West refinery site.
Phillips 66 picks Elliott to supply compressor train for Sweeny refinery
The project will enable the refinery to meet the requirements set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 3 clean fuels standards, according to Phillips 66.
REG shuts Louisiana biorefinery after recent fire
While preliminary damage assessments are still ongoing, the damage appears to be contained to a limited area of the production facility. The company’s current expectation, subject to change, is that it should take 2-4 months to restore operations.
Total lists capacity for new Texas ethane cracker
Construction on the cracker could start in June 2016, the company said, with operations starting three years later. The project would include seven ethane-cracking heaters.
Shell completes ethylene unit upgrade, expansion at Singapore complex
Royal Dutch Shell has completed a revamp of its Singapore ethane cracker. The olefins unit is part of Shell’s integrated refinery and petrochemical complex.
Use vapor distributors to improve fractionation column performance
Vapor distribution has often been neglected in fractionation columns. Although the importance of liquid distribution is well understood and has been a consideration in column design from the early sta..
- INEOS receives €300-million grant to rejuvenate and decarbonize its Lavera plant 2/19
- AGC Vinythai commissions expanded chlor-alkali plant and e-BiTAC electrolyzers from thyssenkrupp nucera 2/19
- BASF launches AdBlue GE (green electricity) to decarbonize mobility value chain 2/19
- Carbon Neutral Fuels select Johnson Matthey, bp and Honeywell UOP technologies for UK SAF plant 2/19
- Kazakhstan to build a new $10-B, 10-MMtpy refinery 2/18
- U.S. EPA expected to send 2026 biofuel blending quotas to White House this week 2/18
