Milford chronicle., 1957-05-24
Tideuater Oil Dedicates
"Refnery OF The
Future
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(Continued from first page)
purposes on the eastern seaboard.
To preserve as much as possible
the rich farmland and bucollc at
mosphere of the area, Tidewater
leased more than $500 acres to
Seabrook Farms, a major process
sor of frozen foods and several
crop harvests have already been
brought in.
Although the 5,OOO-acre site ad-
joins the Delaware River, the main
process area is a mile and a half
inland and covers $50 acres.
In this area towers the 350-foot
stack of the crude unit, first OF the
processing units to be placed IN
operation, which performs the inl-
tial step in the refining cycle.
The crude distillation unit, of c.
F. Braun & Co. design, takes 13O,-
COO-barrels of crude daily, passes
it through it's complex maze OF
pipes, pumps, and towers, its pres
sure vessels and heat exchangers,
and separates the crnde into its
various fractions such as Gufinish-
ed gasoline, naphtha, kerosene,
heating oils and fuel oils.
Nearby, soaring as high as a 25-
story building, is the Orthof1ow
fluid catalytic cracking unit
known for the sake Of brevity in
the oil industry as a "cat cracker"
Feed stocks for the "cat" are
$4,000 barrels per day of straight
run gas oils from the crude unit
and $4,000 barrels of recycle stock
to give the unit a capacity OF 1922
600 barrels daily. Through the ac-
ton of the units catalyst, these
streams are converted into high
octane gasoline, light fuel oils and
chemically active gases. The gases
are further processed into top
grade Flying A autOmotive and avi-
alton gasolines. The "cat cracker
is of Kellogg design.
Another important part of the
manufacturing cycle at the new
plant is performed by the fluid
coker. Forming an important par
of the refinery skyline, the Della
ware Refinery fluid coker is one o.
| the two largest in the world
matched only by sister unit a
the company's Avon Refinery II
California.
The coker consists mainly OF
huge reactOr and burner, which
are set in a massive concrete struc
ture 95 feet high with some sec
tions eight feet thick. About AZ,
600 barrels a day of vacuum resi-
dunn, which is separated from
l crude oil in the first step of tn
manufacturing process, is fed int
the coker where it is up-grade'
into gas, gasoline, gas oil, ant
coke.
AS a by-product, the unit pro
duces about 1900 tons of COX
daily. most of which is used as
fuel for the refinery's $4,000 XIV
power plant, owned and operates
by the Delaware Power and Ligh
Company. The remainder is sold
High-octane components of au
tomotive and aviation gasoline
are produced by the catalytic re
II formers, which has a capacity o
4 $4,000 barrels of reformate daily
Reformate is a very high-Octan
blending stock. Charged witt
L naphthas from the crude unit, tn
reformer uses a platinum catalys
to rearrange the molecules of gaso
line, thus greatly increasing thei
octane rating. The reformer, c
Houdry design, also manufacture
intermediate products, includin
hydrogen which is used in the ny
drodesulfurization plant to remoT
sulfur and other impurities frol
gasoline and distillate stocks.
Tie Udex reformate extractio
unit works in conjunction with tn
cataiytic reformer unit to prOduC
a basic component of aviation an
automotive gasoline. The ''fee
stock" for the unit is $4,000 bal
rels of intermediate products frol
the reformer and heavy "cat" ga'
oline from the catalytic crackin
unit.
From the incoming feed, the un
extracts reformate and recyclt
the residue, known as raffinat
through the reformer again for VI
grading into reformate.
Basically, the udex permits o.
Grating the reformer at mild sew
rity", thus saving the valuab
platinum catalyst, while makir
possible a high yield of reforma
through recycling.
Another important link in Il
manufacturing process at the ne
/ Delaware Refinery is performed
the hydrodesulfurizer, which max
possible the processing of the hig
est grade petroleum products
1 ..n,,, o,rir,or nnrrnciua snlfnr cor