Flint Hills Cuts Feed to Catalytic Cracking Unit at Texas Plant
By Samantha Zee
March 25, 2009 (Bloomberg) — Flint Hills Resources LLC cut the
processing rate of a fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Corpus
Christi, Texas, refinery, after a malfunction.
A mechanical issue caused the primary steam turbine to shut
down on a carbon monoxide boiler on the catalytic cracking unit
for about eight minutes, according to a filing with state
regulators. The unit makes gasoline.
The boiler was brought back into service in a rapid
manner to help reduce carbon monoxide emissions from the event,
according to the filing.
During the event, the boiler flame became unstable and led
to the release of about 1,177 pounds of carbon monoxide into to
the atmosphere through the fluid catalytic cracking unit scrubber
stack.
The refinery can process about 305,000 barrels of oil per
day, according to the Energy Department.
