Valero Selects UOP Hydroprocessing Technologies for ULSD, Low-Sulfur Gasoline and FCC Feed Pretreat
Valero Energy Corporation has selected UOP hydroprocessing technologies to produce ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) at its St. Charles, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, refineries, plus treated FCC feed at the St. Charles plant. Engineering and design work is currently underway for the refineries’ integrated hydrocracking and hydrotreating units, both of which are scheduled to be commissioned in 2006.
Valero has selected UOP’s Unicracking™ technology for upgrading light cycle oil (LCO) feedstocks to ULSD and naphtha, which can be blended directly into the gasoline pool; UOP’s Distillate Unionfining™ technology for upgrading coker diesel to ULSD; and UOP’s VGO Unionfining™ technology for upgrading heavy coker gas oil (HCGO) as FCC feed.
The technologies will be constructed in a single, integrated unit at each refinery. This multi-functional design allows ULSD hydrotreating and LCO hydrocracking to produce ULSD diesel, using common facilities for a portion of the hydroprocessing unit. In St. Charles, the unit will also include FCC feed pre-treatment that will allow it to produce FCC feed.
Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio, with approximately 20,000 employees and annual revenues of approximately $55 billion. The company owns and operates 15 refineries throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Valero’s refineries have a combined throughput capacity of approximately 2.5 million barrels per day, which represents approximately 12 percent of the total U.S. refining capacity. Valero is also one of the nation’s largest retail operators with more than 4,700 retail and wholesale branded outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under various brand names including Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, Valero, and Beacon.
UOP LLC, headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., U. S. A., is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, process plants and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries.
