AM-01-52 A NEW ROLE FOR REFINERIES IN MEETING AMERICA’S CLEAN ENERGY CHALLENGE

Description:

As we enter the new millennium, the petroleum refining industry will be defined in large measure by how it addresses the challenge of sustainable development. Creative solutions must be found to meet growing demand for refining products while protecting public health and the environment. Refinery-based gasification projects, and especially refinery-based Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) projects, deliver sustainable results by converting a potential liability -refinery low-valued byproducts, whose ultimate disposition is subject to ever more stringent environmental regulations - into reliable, economical, efficient, and environmentally-preferred electrical generation opportunities. In addition, refinery-based gasification, or refinery-based IGCC, can generate higher value chemicals and hydrogen from low value byproducts, and is currently practiced at many refineries all over the world. There are sixteen Texaco Gasification Process (TGP) plants located at refineries, including ten of the twelve TGP plants that have started up during the last eighteen months. Several of these plants use Texaco’s enhanced IGCC designs, known as the Texaco Gasification Power System (TGPS) This unprecedented number of gasification start-ups provides additional evidence that the time for refinery-based gasification, and particularly the refinery-based TGPS, has indeed arrived. We will review three of these TGP plants, each utilizing a different feed (refinery off-gases, deasphalter bottoms and petroleum coke) and each manufacturing different products (high pressure hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and electricity/steam) to highlight the TGP flexibility. We will also provide performance expectations and early operational reliability experiences.