ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the sixth-largest oil refinery in the United States and seventeenth-largest in the world,List of oil refineries#World.27s largest refineries with an input capacity of per day as of January 1, 2020. The refinery is the site of the first commercial fluid catalytic cracking plant that began processing at the refinery on May 25, 1942.
History
Standard Oil first erected the refinery in 1909. Today's facility is part of a complex made of nine individual plants across the region. The main plant is located on the east bank of the Mississippi River. There are about 6,300 workers spread across these sites, including 4,000 direct employees (the rest are contractors).
In 2013 Genesis Energy LP announced an investment of $125 million to improve ExxonMobil's existing assets in the Baton Rouge area. The investment includes plans to build an , diameter crude oil pipeline that connects Genesis Energy's Port Hudson terminal, to ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge refinery.
Units
Petroleum refining units According to ExxonMobil's filings with the US DOE's Energy Information Agency, the unit capacities for the Baton Rouge Refinery are presented below: +UnitCapacity in BPCDTotal Refinery Nameplate 544,600Atmospheric Distillation544,600Vacuum Distillation254,000Delayed Coking123,500FCC243,000Hydrocracker27,000ULSD Hydrotreating215,800Gasoline & Naphtha Hydrotreating261,000Naphtha Reforming80,000Alkylation41,000Lubricants Production16,500Petcoke mt31,525 The refinery undertook a $230 million investment to modernize the crude unit and expand crude flexibility as part of the BRRIC program with plans to increase exports of clean fuels. The project involved up to 600 contractors and took place over 3 years.
ExxonMobil is also considering a biofuels project to be constructed at the Baton Rouge site.
Electricity generation The refinery operates is own powerplant with the following detail: Unit nameStatusFuel(s)Capacity (MW)TechnologyCHPStart yearCTG1Operatingfossil gas: natural gas85gas turbineyes1990
PetroChemical production The ExxonMobil Chemical division operates a steam cracker that is integrated with the refinery and has an output of 975,000 mt per year of ethylene.
Environmental permits The refinery operates with a Title V Air Major permit covering its emissions. The facility ID is LA0000002203300015 for the air permit which is the most important permit controlling the emissions thresholds of the plant.
Greenhouse gas emissions history As a major emitting facility, The ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery and Petrochemical Site must report its complete greenhouse gas emissions to the EPA every year subject to the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The Baton Rouge reports as four separate facilities but with the integrated refinery and olefins unit being the largest and accounting for >95% of emissions. The greenhouse gas emissions by year are reported below: +YearTotal Reported Direct EmissionsCO2 Emissions Non-BiogenicMethane EmissionsNitrous Oxide Emissionsmetric tonmetric tonmetric tonmetric ton20235,914,8625,883,26217,16014,440
The Baton Rouge Refinery is one of the ten largest emitting refineries in the United States according to Reuters. However, it is also a top ten refinery in size and complexity and is deeply integrated with its petrochemical business. See also Cancer Alley Atmospheric distillation of crude oil HF Acid Alkylation Cracking (chemistry) Delayed coker
References
External links
2007 Louisiana Crude Oil Refinery Survey Report ExxonMobil: A Legacy of Commitment to Baton Rouge Interview with Site Manager Stan Vanderleeuw in BIC Magazine, February 2007