Chevron U.S.A. Products Co. plans a $750 million revamp of its Richmond, Calif., refinery in the San Francisco Bay area to help it meet changing specifications for motor fuels under clean air laws and improve plant operating efficiency and reliability.
Chevron also plans, in cooperation with two state agencies in the San Francisco Bay area, a major water reclamation project tied to the 205,000 b/cd refinery.
PLANT REVAMP
The Richmond revamp project, scheduled in stages, will require about 4 years.
About $400 million of planned outlays are earmarked for the refinery to meet 1995 U.S. Clean Air Act standards for reformulated gasoline, as well as stricter 1996 gasoline specifications set forth by the California Air Resources Board.
The remaining $350 million will go for upgrading key processing units to improve yields of higher value light products and reduce lower value heavy products. In addition to helping ensure the refinery's competitive position and economics in the long term, the modifications will deal with recent community concerns by improving plant reliability.
Plans call for installing a 2,500-3,000 b/d tertiary amyl methyl ether unit to provide a captive source of oxygenates. In addition, Chevron plans to revamp Richmond's alkylation, isomerization, and fluid catalytic cracking units and expand a naphtha reformate splitter. And plans call for reconfiguring the solvent deasphaltizer to make deeper cuts in the resid stream.
Chevron will work with the city of Richmond and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to obtain construction. permits.
EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS
The revamp will continue the refinery's efforts to lower air emissions, which have been cut 57% since 1980, and avoid an increase in water emissions, which have been reduced by 80% since 1981.
The project is partly an outgrowth of a much larger modernization plan that Chevron scaled back in March 1991, when cost estimates soared to $2 billion. The costliest part of that plan was construction of a flexicoker, which was shelved.
At that time, Chevron said it would still spend $400-500 million to achieve more than half the economic benefits of the earlier project at about one fourth of the cost.
Last year, state and federal governments adopted new fuel specifications requiring additional refinery modifications. Blending these newly required changes with already planned operating improvements has taken more than 1 year of detailed study leading to the current project.
Modifications planned for producing reformulated gasoline will focus on reduced vapor pressure, less aromatics, olefins, and sulfur content, and increased use of oxygenate.
The planned modifications include new instrumentation and computer control technology.
WATER RECLAMATION
Two East Bay public agencies have joined with Chevron in construction of the largest water reclamation unit of its kind in northern California, a project that will save enough drinking water for 20,000 bay area homes when completed in 1994.
East Bay Municipal Utility District (Ebmud), West Contra Costa Sanitary District (Wccsd), and Chevron are building a water treatment plant in North Richmond that will save more than 5 million gpd of drinking water now being used in cooling towers at the Richmond refinery.
The joint project will reclaim highly treated wastewater from Wccsd's plant in West Contra Costa County for industrial cooling.
BACKGROUND
The water reclamation project push began in 1987 with a pilot study to determine technical and economic feasibility of using reclaimed water at the refinery.
The study dealt with water quality, health concerns, discharge requirements, and potential plant problems from scaling, corrosion, and equipment fouling.
The study showed more treatment to remove nutrients and pathogens from treated wastewater would be needed to meet all water quality requirements. It also showed wastewater supplied from Wccsd could be reused rather than discharged into San Francisco Bay.
On July 14, Ebmud approved a $19.3 million contract with Roebbelen Construction Inc. of El Dorado Hills, Calif., to build the water reclamation plant. Earlier in the year, Ebmud had awarded construction engineering support contracts totaling $3.3 million and a $1 million construction contract for a pipeline to deliver Wccsd wastewater to the reclamation plant.
The project is eligible for as much as $23.4 million from California's revolving fund loan program, and approval from the State Water Resources Control Board is expected this month.
BENEFITS
In addition to the volumes of drinking water saved, the project will have environmental benefits by improving the quality of cooling water eventually discharged into San Francisco Bay through tertiary treatment provided by the reclamation project.
Regulatory agencies are supporting the project because reclaimed water will meet the most stringent requirements of the California Department of Health Services. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has issued a reclamation permit for the facility, and Chevron's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit is being modified to take into account the change in water source.
Funding for the reclamation project is coming mainly from Ebmud and the state's revolving fund. Chevron will finance all expenses for project related facilities within the refinery and pay for water used.
Ebmud's entire water service area will benefit from improved water supply efficiency. Chevron U.S.A. is Ebmud's largest water customer and in 1988 received an award from Ebmud for water use efficiency. More than 100 water conservation measures, saving more than 3 million gpd, have been implemented at the Richmond refinery.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
