Ashland Petroleum Co. expects to complete a 4,000 b/d butane isomerization unit at its Catlettsburg, Ky., refinery next month.
The $11 million unit will produce isobutane from excess volumes of normal butane resulting from reductions in gasoline vapor pressure.
The isobutane will be processed in the refinery's alkylation unit to make high octane gasoline blendstocks.
"Ashland, like most refiners, was left with excess butane last summer after complying with new federal and state regulations for reducing gasoline vapor pressure," said Charles B. Miller, group vice-president of manufacturing.
Federal and state environmental rules implemented in 1989 require refiners and marketers to lower the vapor pressure of gasoline as a way of reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds, which are blamed for ozone formation.
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