Posted on 02/20/2012 7:56:14 AM PST by thackney
One factor was increased costs of feed stock. Seems that as soon as they were ready to symbiotically work with the Con-Agra turkey plant, that plant suddenly wanted paid for their waste that they had previously been paying to get rid of.
A second factor was public complaints. They could not control the stench of the supposedly stench-free process. It was reportedly worse than early paper mills, and IIRC put them in violation of their permits.
IAC, it was far from a rousing success.
I don’t understand how some people are obsessed with building a new refinery when it is far cheaper to expand existing refineries.
We have built the equivalent of several new refineries by expanding the existing ones.
Elk Point was planned to be a 400 MBPD refinery. We have added the equivalent of about six refineries this size.
Expanding existing refineries is also easier to get around EPA regulations.
$10,000 per barrel/day cheaper to expand, according to one of the articles.
OTOH, 1,000+/- fewer miles of pipeline to build from the source to refining, while not then having to ship finished product all the way back again.
EPA coming in to shut it all down in 3...2...1...
The same EPA regulations apply. In the refinery expansions I’ve participated in, filing for those permits was always a big requirement.
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