Chalmette refinery
Chalmette is a medium sized, high conversion refinery located on the Mississippi River outside of New Orleans in Chalmette, Louisiana in the US.
The refinery is 100% owned and operated by PBF.
The refinery processes a mix of domestic and imported medium and heavy sour crude oils.
PBF is developing a plan to add a renewable diesel plant (20 kbpd), using an idled hydrocracker (idled since 2010) and UOP Ecofining renewable diesel technology, at a cost of ~ $550 million (including a new pretreament plant).
Refinery configuration
Complexity: 13.7
Major process units:
Atmospheric distillation - 197 kbpd - Mulitple units: CDU 2 (96 kbpd)
Vacuum distillation - 169 kbpd
Coker - 42 kbpd - Conoco technology. Produces calcine grade coke. Multiple units:
Coker 1 ~ 10 kbpd)
Coker 2 ~32 kbpd
FCC - 76 kbpd
Reformer - 23 kbpd - Continuous
Reformer - 30 kbpd - Semiregen
Naphtha hydrotreater - 42 kbpd
Distillate hydrotreater - 35 kbpd
VGO hydrotreater - 66 kbpd
FCC gasoline hydrotreater - 46 kbpd
Alkylation - 17 kbpd - HF acid
Aromatics extraction - 11 kbpd
Asphalt plant - 15 kpd
Pet coke - 13 kbpd
Sulfur plant - 920 t/d
Refinery history
1915 - Built by Chalmette Refining
1944 - Acquired by Bay Petroleum
1953 - Acquired by Tennessee Gas (Tenneco)
1968 - Hydrocracker added - Chevron Isocracker technology. Later idled
1988 - Acquired by Mobil
1997 - Placed in JV between Mobil and PDVSA
1999 - Mobil merges with Exxon to form ExxonMobil, JV with PDVSA continues
2005 - FCC gasoline hydrotreater added
2010 - Hydrocracker (20 kbpd), coker (10 kbpd), and SR reformer (29 kbpd) shut down
2015 - Acquired by PBF
2015 - C4 isomerization and C5 isomerization units shut down
2017 - SR reformer added/restarted
2019 - Idled coker (10 kbpd) restarted. $100MM project.
2023 - Planned conversion of idled hydrocracker to 20 kbpd renewable diesel production. Includes new pre-treatment unit. Developing in partnership with Eni. Uses Ecofining technology from Eni/UOP