By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 24 -- Canada's largest refiner Imperial Oil Resources Ltd., Edmonton, this month is completing a $600 million (Can.) program of reducing sulfur in gasoline content across Canada by more than 90%.
The company said all its operations would be producing fuel averaging less than 30 ppm by this month, more than a year ahead of the deadline set by Environment Canada. The sulfur content of its gasoline will be "among the lowest in the world," Imperial said.
In a $140 million (Can.) project wrapping up the program, Imperial completed installation of a sulfur-reducing production unit at its Strathcona, Alta., refinery late last month, following like facilities installed at its other refineries at Dartmouth, NS, Nanticoke, Ont., and Sarnia, Ont. (OGJ Online, Sept. 8, 2003).
Imperial says the process, a clean-fuels technology called SCANfining that removes sulfur and at the same time preserves molecules needed to maintain octane levels, is in place just in time to be used in the 2004 model automobiles having advanced emission-control systems.