Photo of Chevron workers opening new ISOALKY unit in June 2021.
Did the refineries LIE to us?
TRAA recently learned of this article from 2017, in the Oil & Gas Journal that we somehow missed back then. It indicates a cost of about $67 – $87 million for the retrofit. The Salt Lake City refinery is smaller than many of the other HF refineries, and the final cost was greater than the estimate, but this was the first complete conversion.
The article also shows that PBF and Valero lied to the AQMD when they gave a figure of $900 million. This also indicates that the statement by the American Petroleum Institute to the US EPA in the public comment period on the RMP rule revision was half true – HF Conversion is “commercially proven” (True) but “prohibitively expensive” (False). We have been told that “This Alky unit has been running fine.”
And in the last 6 years, several other alternatives have been available and have proven themselves. And all are much less expensive than the refineries claim. Time to convert?
Torrance Refinery Action Alliance 