Posted on 01/26/2002 2:05:04 PM PST by GreenGecko
I just reveived this e.mail alert: This is a message from Contra Costa Health Services. There is an emergency at UDS Golden Eagle Refinery. Residents in Clyde and North Concord are advised to shelter in place. Go inside, close all windows and doors, turn off all heaters, air conditioners and fans. If not using the fireplace, close fireplace dampers and vents and cover cracks around doors and windows with tape or damp towels. Media news networks will continue to carry updated emergency information. Stay off the telephone unless you have a life threatening emergency ABNNNN
Fast Facts
-- Largest single producer of the clean-burning California Air Resources Board (CARB) diesel
-- Total throughput capacity of 168,000 barrels per day (BPD)
-- Products include California Air Resources Board (CARB) gasoline, CARB diesel, conventional gasoline, propane, butane, fuel oil, sulfur, ammonia and petroleum coke
-- Employs approximately 640 individuals
Overview
The Golden Eagle refinery is actually a sprawling and highly integrated complex made up of the refinery processing units, the Amorco Wharf and Terminal, the Avon Terminal, a wastewater treatment system and a sulfuric acid regeneration facility. This innovative facility is uniquely configured to optimize conversion to the specialized transportation fuels required in the state of California.
Output
Just as California is leading the charge for stricter clean air standards, Valero is leading our industry in the pursuit and production of more environmentally friendly fuel sources at plants like the Golden Eagle facility. The refinery processes 168,000 BPD of a mix of San Joaquin Valley crude, Alaska North Slope crude and foreign crudes. Production of 150,000 BPD of clean products is geared to CARB gasoline and CARB diesel. Major processing units include:
-- 43,000-BPD fluid coker
-- 66,000-BPD high pressure gas oil hydrotreater
-- 65,000-BPD fluid catalytic cracker (FCC)
-- 20,000-BPD sulfuric acid alkylation unit
-- 30,000-BPD distillate hydrocracker
-- Total of 168,000-BPD crude/vacuum unit capacity, including one built for 100 percent SJV crude
Location/Access
The Golden Eagle refinery is on 2,300 acres in Contra Costa County near San Francisco, not far from our Benicia refinery. The refinery benefits from the versatility of being able to receive crude oil via pipelines from the San Joaquin Valley and from crude tankers via the Amorco Wharf. The crude oil is temporarily stored at the Amorco Terminal prior to transfer via pipeline to the refinery. Production is shipped offsite by truck, rail, pipeline and tanker vessels via the Avon Terminal.
The release is SO2 and SO3, and another Freeper reports that it is raining in the area today. In the old days, refineries routinely released these gases. Today, they are not allowed to release them, and removal often involves passing them through a water spray that will absorb the SO2 and SO3. If it is raining, the gases were probably absorbed quickly. With various regulations being what they are, the refinery would have to report even leaks that are really too small to do much damage. In one sense, it is good that we have to keep very close watch on things. In another sense, refineries become like the boy who cried "Wolf" in the eyes of the public. When they do release enough to be a problem, people may not take the warnings as seriously.
WFTR
Bill
I grew up around a big refinery. My dad was the head engineer. He would take me along on his inspections when I was 4 Y.O. His biggest headache was the FCC. It even managed to kill two workers once. Oil refineries are exotically dangerous places. There is so much energy contained in such confined spaces. Would you casually heat gasoline to 450 degrees, put it under 300 psi prssure then pipe in hydrogen? Thats a nuts work environment in my opinion. OTOH, men in my dad's day seemed to have more balls. We look now only to our military, then to the Rangers and Seals. Nothing taken away from them, but it seems to me that my dad's generation had those kind of cajones spread everywhere.
The USA needs to build 200 new refineries!!
Bring domestic fuel prices down where we, as an up and coming 3rd world nation, can afford it!
Hmm. The SO2 and SO3 gases dissolve into the rain water droplets and form H2SO3 and sulphuric acid. Hose down your car after the rain ends, if you park it outside. The good part is that the rain will sink the gases so they will not travel far from the release site.
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