Sinclair’s Wyoming refinery lets contract for renewable feedstock pretreater

Sinclair Cos.’ Sinclair Oil Corp. subsidiary Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. (SWRC) has let a contract to Applied Research Associates Inc. (ARA) to license technology for a new feedstock pretreatment unit under construction at the operator’s renewable diesel refinery collocated at the company’s 94,000-b/sd refinery in Sinclair, Wyo.

As part of the December contract, ARA will license its proprietary Hydrothermal Cleanup feedstock pretreatment (HCU Pretreat) technology for the 7,500-b/sd renewable feedstock pretreatment unit, which will enable the refinery to expand its feedstock slate to include lower-cost, lower-carbon intensity feedstocks for production of renewable diesel, the service provider said.

Specifically, HCU Pretreat technology allows efficient removal of phosphorous, metals, and other contaminants from fat, oil, and grease feedstocks, said Chuck Red, vice-president and director of ARA’s Better Fuels group.

According to ARA’s website, the HCU Pretreat process involves the following steps:

• Renewable feedstock and water are pumped separately at system pressure and then mixed in a static mixer.
• The mixture is heated by a feed-effluent heat exchanger and hot oil heater or refinery high-pressure steam.
• The mixture is maintained at the desired cleanup temperature for about 2 minutes in turbulent flow conditions.
• Clean product is then cooled via a feed-effluent heat exchanger and trim cooler.
• Pressure is reduced to near ambient.
• The clean organic and the aqueous phases readily separate using traditional oil-water separation techniques.

With detailed design of the HCU Pretreat project completed and construction already under way, the new renewable feedstock pretreatment unit is scheduled for startup in 2022, ARA said.

Upon announcing its agreement to purchase Sinclair’s downstream and midstream assets in a deal slated to close in mid-2022, HollyFrontier Corp. said SWRC’s new feedstock pretreatment unit will enable the 10,000-b/sd renewable diesel production refinery—which currently processes soybean oil and tallow—to expand its renewable feedstock slate to include distillers corn oil, as well as tallow and degummed soybean oil (OGJ Online, Aug. 4, 2021).