Monroe Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Inc., has let a contract to KBR Inc. to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for an ultralow-sulfur gasoline (ULSG) project at the company’s 185,000-b/d refinery in Trainer, Pa., near Philadelphia.
As part of the EPC contract, KBR will relocate and rebuild an idled 60,000-b/d selective cat-naphtha hydrofining (SCANfining) unit procured from another plant at the Trainer refinery, the service provider said.
Licensed by ExxonMobil Corp., SCANfining hydroprocessing technology is a catalytic hydrodesulfurization process based on a proprietary catalyst system developed specifically for selective removal of sulfur from fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) naphtha that limits olefins hydrogenation to preserve octane content.
The SCANfining unit is due to be commissioned in 2017, KBR said.
A value of the contract was not disclosed.
Approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Air Quality (PBAQ) earlier this year, Monroe Energy’s USLG project comes as part of the refiner’s plan to reduce sulfur content of its gasoline production to comply with the US Environmental Protection Administration’s Tier 3 gasoline standards, which take effect Jan. 1, 2017.
Philadelphia refinery Tier 3 project
PBAQ also has announced its approval of a separate Tier 3 project at Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc.’s (PES) 337,250-b/d refining complex in Philadelphia.
As part of the project, PES will make several operational and process changes that will enable the refinery to meet Tier 3 regulatory standards by performing additional sulfur removal from finished gasoline, straight-run naphtha, and other gasoline-blending streams, PBAQ said.
Designed to provide more intensive processing of existing refinery streams rather than increase net production of gasoline, the project includes the following major components:
• Installation of low NOx burners on three existing process heaters (each 74-MMbtu/hr or greater).
• Replacement of a 45.5-MMbtu/hr process heater with a 70-MMbtu/hr refinery gas process heater equipped with ultralow-NOx burners (ULNB).
• Installation of a 110-MMbtu/hr refinery or natural gas process heater equipped with ULNB.
• Installation of heat exchangers, valves, reactors, and rerouting piping.
PES plans to spend $100-125 million on the Tier 3 project, which is due to be completed before 2017, the company said in a July 2015 filing to the US Securities & Exchange Commission.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].