CONOCO REFINERY MARKETS FLUORINATED ALUMINA

Conoco Inc. is shipping reclaimed fluorinated alumina from its 138,000 b/d Ponca City, Okla., refinery. Shipments go to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.'s plant at Mead, Wash., where it is substituted for aluminum fluoride, a "bath" chemical used in aluminum manufacturing. Dennis Parker, Ponca City refinery manager and vice-president, said, "Fluorinated alumina, once a process stream solid waste at the refinery, has been given a new lease on life and relegated to a high quality additive for

Feb. 2, 1993

3 min read

Conoco Inc. is shipping reclaimed fluorinated alumina from its 138,000 b/d Ponca City, Okla., refinery.

Shipments go to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.'s plant at Mead, Wash., where it is substituted for aluminum fluoride, a "bath" chemical used in aluminum manufacturing.

Dennis Parker, Ponca City refinery manager and vice-president, said, "Fluorinated alumina, once a process stream solid waste at the refinery, has been given a new lease on life and relegated to a high quality additive for aluminum manufacturing.

"Essentially, our refinery process engineers in Ponca City have come up with a way to eliminate the annual solid waste disposal of a quarter million pounds of the plant's spent alumina fluoride. At the same time, they have partnered with representatives from Kaiser who have identified a valuable use for the refining waste product turned by-product."

Conoco signed an agreement last July to sell reclaimed fluorinated alumina to Kaiser with shipments to come from the company's 49,500 b/d Billings, Mont., refinery as well as the Ponca City plant. The Billings refinery will be able to reclaim about 200,000 lb/year of fluorinated alumina.

HOW IT'S PRODUCED

Conoco uses activated alumina in one of Ponca City's alkylation units to extract fluorides from propane and butane products. In the process, activated alumina is converted to aluminum fluoride.

Activated alumina reaches the end of its useful life when 60-80% of the material is converted to aluminum fluoride. That's when it becomes an additive for aluminum manufacturers.

Jim Thompson, Conoco's environmental director at Ponca City, said his company previously neutralized fluorinated alumina at the refinery. That turned it into a waste product for transport to environmentally approved solid waste disposal sites.

"By taking 250,000 lb of fluorinated alumina out of the refinery's waste stream, we've effectively eliminated 200 cu yd of nonhazardous material we would have had to dispose of in an approved landfill every year."

ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM

Parker pointed out that making fluorinated alumina a byproduct and not a refinery waste is another step in Conoco's campaign to conduct its business in an environmentally safe manner.

"Two years ago, Conoco engineers teamed up with a Kansas cement manufacturer to find a commercial use for another refinery waste product," he said. "As a result, spent lime, a nonhazardous substance, is no longer landfilled but now is transported to several Midwest locations for use in the making of concrete."

Later, Conoco researchers developed a process that turns a powdery by-product of petroleum coking into an environmentally friendly combustible filter aid. Called Burnaway filter aid, the new product greatly reduces disposable solid waste.