Montana Renewables advances turnaround at Great Falls biorefinery

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP subsidiary Montana Renewables LLC (MRL) is bringing forward planned maintenance following a decision to replace equipment at the operator’s renewable fuels manufacturing plant in Great Falls, Mont.

Following discovery and inspection of a leak in the steam-recovery system of its renewable hydrogen plant during third-quarter 2023, MRL has decided to replace the steam drum in lieu of repairing it, Calumet said on Oct. 20.

With the steam-drum replacement anticipated for completion sometime in November, Calumet said MRL will use the ongoing downtime to pull forward its a regularly scheduled turnaround previously planned for early 2024 into November.

While MRL will continue to operate the Great Falls renewables plant at reduced throughput until the turnaround begins, the operator plans to process more than 12,000 b/d of predominantly untreated feed upon completion of work in December, according to Calumet.

The revised maintenance plan follows original discovery of the leak in the renewable hydrogen plant’s steam-recovery system in August 2023, which at the time, was slated to be repaired by late September, Calumet said in an Aug. 31 release.

While the outage was anticipated to limit throughput at the site, Calumet said MRL’s redundant hydrogen systems would allow the renewable production plant to continue running at reduced rates. 

As of late August, MRL estimated 8,000-8,500 b/d of renewable product sales for third-quarter 2023, as ongoing debottlenecking of the plant’s pretreating unit enabled the site to process 11,000 b/d of untreated renewable feedstock (OGJ Online, Sept. 18, 2023).