Imperial Oil commissions cogeneration unit at Strathcona refinery

Imperial Oil Ltd. has started operation of a newly constructed cogeneration unit to increase increasing energy efficiency and help reduce provincial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at its 191,000-b/d Strathcona refinery—the largest in western Canada—near Edmonton, Alta.

Capturing heat generated from the production of electricity that would normally go to waste and using it to produce steam for use in refining operations, the Strathcona cogeneration unit produces about 41 Mw/day of electricity to meet about 75-80% of the refinery’s power needs, greatly decreasing the site’s energy consumption from the Alberta grid, the operator said on Oct. 28.

The unit also reduces province-wide GHG emissions by about 112,000 tpy, which is the equivalent of taking nearly 24,000 vehicles off the road annually, according to Imperial.

The Strathcona cogeneration unit is now Imperial’s third in Alberta, with cogeneration technology used at its Kearl and Cold Lake oil sands facilities, the two of which reduced GHG emissions by about 860,000 tonnes/year during 2019, or the equivalent of 186,000 fewer passenger vehicles on the road each year, the operator said.

Imperial said it also uses cogeneration at its 119,000-b/d refinery in Sarnia, Ont., and 113,000-b/d refinery in Nanticoke, Ont.

In a previous project update issued midway during project construction, Imperial said startup of the new Strathcona cogeneration unit also would allow the refinery to retire one of its four existing boilers.