Lytton Refinery celebrates production of cleaner fuels

abarrelfull wrote on 04 Jun 2012 07:19
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June 28, 2006

The completion and commissioning of the Caltex Lytton Refinery's Clean Fuels Project processing units and the production of cleaner fuels is being marked today with a celebration at the refinery attended by the Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Paul Lucas.

Caltex's $250 million Clean Fuels Project at Lytton is cutting air pollution by reducing benzene in petrol and sulfur in diesel in 2006 to standards required by the Australian Government.

Caltex Managing Director Des King said that the event marked something that was out of the ordinary for an industrial project. "What makes it special is that it is all about improving the environment, a project that is giving Queenslanders and other Australians cleaner air. And it is also about investing in Queensland and ensuring that Queenslanders have world class fuels," Mr King said.

The refinery's diesel hydrotreater unit is producing diesel to the new standards of a maximum 50 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur. This will reduce further to a maximum of 10ppm in 2009 (down from 500ppm in 2005). At the same time the new benzene hydrogenation unit produces petrol with a maximum of one per cent benzene, down from the previous range of two to three per cent.

The result is lower vehicle emissions and improved air quality. It is estimated the cleaner petrol and diesel will help reduce air pollution from vehicles by up to 50 per cent by 2010 and 85 percent by 2020 as new technology vehicles are introduced.

Caltex Lytton Refinery Manager Liam Tobin said the Clean Fuels Project was the single largest new investment in the Lytton refinery since it was built 41 years ago. "It enables us to produce some of the cleanest fuels in the world," Mr Tobin said.

During the 15 months of the Lytton Clean Fuels Project construction, the refinery's workforce of about 400 employees grew by an additional 600 employees and contractors. They worked together to install 64 items of major equipment, 2100 cubic metres of concrete, 19 kilometres of piping, 485 tonnes of structural steel and 1000 instruments. Caltex has also completed a similar project at its Kurnell refinery in Sydney.

The Queensland Government's Department of State Development and Innovation was responsible for facilitating the project's environmental assessment and development approval processes in co-ordination with the Brisbane City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Caltex is Australia's largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products and supplies more than 50 per cent of the Queensland petroleum fuels market. The Lytton refinery came on stream in 1965 and has a current throughput capacity of 105,000 barrels a day.

• Lytton Refinery celebrates production of cleaner fuels

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