Project Profile
Value: US$1.7 billion
Location: Minnesota, Rosemount, USA
Capacity: 320,000 barrels (51,000 m3) per day
Processing: 339,000 bpd (October 2016)
Area: unknown
Start-up Year: 2018
Pine Bend Refinery is an oil refinery in Minnesota and has a nameplate capacity of 320,000 barrels (51,000 m3) per day. The facility is owned by Flint Hills Resources (FHR), a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The plant was first constructed in 1955 by the Great Northern Oil Company with a capacity of 25,000 barrels per day. In 2006 the plant underwent a US$350 million project to produce a diesel fuel containing substantially less sulfur. In 2012 the company proposed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a US$400 million upgrade to help move the refinery closer to its processing capacity of 320,000 barrels of crude per day and also reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. The expansion is also expected to increase the average daily contract workforce to more than 1,000 workers. the upgrade begun in 2014 and included the replacement of the plant\'s three less-efficient heaters with two state-of-the-art model heaters, upgrades to an existing process heater, as well as improvements to the cooling towers.
In 2016, a new upgrade project was launched. Flint Hills Resources LLC (FHR) invested US$750 million to execute projects that would further improve both energy efficiency as well as clean fuels production at the refinery. Designed to improve the refinery’s environmental performance to meet heightened regulations, the projects involve a series of technology and efficiency upgrades that would enable a 500-tonne/year drop in overall permitted emissions, including additional cuts to nitrous oxide emissions. The proposed upgrades also would improve finished product production yields at the refinery, boosting its output of diesel and gasoline without associated increases in emissions levels. Specific projects of the proposed upgrading program, which would utilize best-available control technology throughout, includes the following:
- Replacement of two 1960s-era delayed coking units with a single energy-efficient unit equipped with the latest emissions-reduction technology.
- Installation of a gas oil fractionator.
- Technology upgrade of a hydrogen unit.
- Process improvements to enhance flexibility to adjust clean-diesel fuel production in line with market demand.
- Improvements to gasoline-blendstock processing to enable greater flexibility in production of ultralow-sulfur gasoline without increasing emissions.
Pending requisite regulatory review, state permitting, and final approval by management, construction on the Pine Bend projects would begin as early as 2017. The newly announced upgrading plans for Pine Bend follows FHR’s recently completed investment of more than US$400 million on earlier projects to improved reliability and reduce key emissions at the refinery Since 1997, the Pine Bend refinery has lowered emissions of criteria air pollutants by about 65% since 1997, with its current emissions/bbl lower by about 21% compared with the industry average, according to FHR. The company has invested a total of about US$1.7 billion on upgrades and improvements at Pine Bend since 2010
Operators:
Flint Hills Resources (FHR): Operator with 100% interest