Ergon Refining Incorporated Invests Heavily in Expanding Vicksburg Refinery

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--An immense expansion project is currently under way at Ergon Incorporated's (Jackson, Mississippi) refinery in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the company's first refinery, which was constructed 30 years ago. More than $100 million is being spent to increase production capacity and enhance efficiency at the 25,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery, a primary producer of nonfuel products including base and electrical insulating oils, asphalt, and ultra-low-sulfur diesel.

When the expansion is complete, a total of three new units will have been added to the refinery. A hydrogen generation unit, operating at 7.5 million standard cubic feet per day, was the first unit of the major expansion project to be completed. Civil and structural construction began earlier this year for an 8,000-BBL/d lube oil and ultra-low-sulfur-diesel high pressure hydrotreating unit, plus an 8,000-BBL/d supercritical solvent deasphalting (PDA) unit.

Wink Incorporated (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is providing the engineering and procurement portion for the two remaining units under construction. BE&K Incorporated (Birmingham, Alabama) is performing the construction and equipment installation, which includes multiple shell and tube heat exchangers, as well as a single heater for the PDA unit and two heaters and a reactor vessel for the lube oil and ultra-low-sulfur-diesel hydrotreater unit.

The PDA unit's purpose will be to reduce residual oils and produce feedstock for new specialty oil products referred to as "bright stock." The new hydrotreater addition will accompany an existing 12,000-BBL/d lube oil and ultra-low-sulfur-diesel unit that has a single reactor. The new unit will boost lube oil and production of ultra-low-sulfur diesel by an additional 8,000 BBL/d. The unit will produce 6,000 BBL/d of lube oils and 2,000 BBL/d of ultra-low-sulfur diesel. The two remaining units are scheduled to begin operating with the hydrogen unit in early 2009.

View Plant Profile - 1018223
View Project Report - 03002728 03002733

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.