Meridian receives permit to build proposed North Dakota refinery

The North Dakota Department of Health’s (NDDH) division of air quality has issued the final permit-to-construct (PTC) for Meridian Energy Group Inc.’s two-phased grassroots 49,500-b/sd high-conversion Davis refinery to be built in Billings County in the heart of southwestern North Dakota’s Bakken shale region (OGJ Online, Aug. 10, 2016).

Approved on June 12, the final PTC comes 18 months after Meridian filed its initial application and is based on a thorough review of the Davis refinery application documents, as well as a full 3-month review of more than 10,000 comments received during a 45-day public comment period and revisions made to the permit to address those comments, Meridian and NDDH said in separate releases.

While issuance of the PTC allows Meridian to proceed with the refinery’s construction under North Dakota Administrative Code 33-15-14 Air Pollution Control Rules, other approvals may be required under different rules or through different agencies, including an air-quality permit to operate on completion of the project.

Now that the final PTC has been issued, Meridian said it will soon proceed with the refinery’s detailed design, engineering, procurement, and construction.

Originally filed in October 2016 and amended in April 2017 to further reduce potential emissions from the proposed refinery, Meridian’s PTC application is the first application in history for a full-conversion refinery of this size and complexity to seek and receive permitting to construct under classification as a synthetic minor source (SMS) of air contaminants (OGJ Online, May 10, 2017; Oct. 11, 2016).

“Meridian’s design efforts, which included modifications and improvements made as a result of their rigorous review, have ensured that the Davis refinery will operate in full compliance with the law, and in a manner that is responsive to the concerns of the local community,” said William Prentice, Meridian’s chief executive officer, adding that the site will “indeed be the cleanest refinery on the planet when completed.”

In addition to confirming Meridian’s selection of hydrocracking in lieu of fluid catalytic cracking for the refinery, the earlier PTC amendment outlined the operator’s decision to add vacuum distillation and hydrocracking units during the second phase to equip the refinery with greater product flexibility, including an ability to adjust the production ratio of ultralow-sulfur diesel to naphtha in order to meet changing market demands, ensure product quality, and further lower emission levels from the site (OGJ Online, Dec. 6, 2017).

According to the final PTC permit dated June 12, major processing units of the refinery will include the following:

• Two 27,500-b/sd atmospheric distillation units (Phase 1).

• A 16,800-b/sd vacuum distillation unit (Phase 2).

• An 18,205-b/sd naphtha hydrotreating unit (Phase 1).

• A 16,128-b/sd catalytic reforming unit (Phase 1).

• A 4-19-MMcfd hydrogen production unit (Phase 1).

• A 19,850-b/sd distillate hydrotreating unit (Phase 1).

• A 14,380-b/sd hydrocracking unit (Phase 2).

• An 11.5-tonne/day sulfur recovery unit equipped with Merichem Co.’s proprietary LO-CAT hydrogen sulfide removal technology (Phase 1).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].