Making the Fuel that Powers Our Everyday Life Cleaner and More Efficient
Through the energy transition, gasoline will remain an affordable energy source that many Americans will continue to rely on. Our Team is working on projects to increase efficiency and make oil & gas cleaner for our environment.
Overview:
The oil & gas industry is essential for modern life because it provides electricity to power our homes, workplaces, and schools, in addition to fuel for transportation. It supplies the building blocks for other materials and products that we interact with daily, ranging from electronics to food packaging and asphalt for our roads.
Our world is in the process of a major energy transition. In the long term, more energy will come from electricity and renewables. In the short term, oil & gas production needs to be maintained at existing levels to provide enough fuel to meet growing energy needs. Given this dynamic, there are opportunities to improve refinery operations to achieve national, global, and industry sustainability and climate goals.
The oil & gas industry is supporting these efforts by improving efficiency and reducing emissions.
Nexus has helped refineries across the country achieve their sustainability goals for almost 20 years. An important part of the work that we do is replacing old and outdated equipment that is inefficient, wasteful, and emits pollutants into our atmosphere. In this case study, you’ll learn more about a specific reformer project that led to greater efficiency and productivity with fewer emissions.
Challenge:
One of the biggest barriers to implementing sustainability-based projects is validating the return on investment. New technology, processes, and equipment can be expensive and difficult to introduce into existing facilities, and expected efficiency improvements are often not great enough to justify the investment. For this project to move forward, Nexus was asked to model ROI to increase assurance that this project would be a success.
Integrating new equipment into an existing facility is never an easy task. For this project, Nexus was asked to replace three existing reformer units with a single unit that would increase production capacity and efficiency. This presented multiple challenges, including:
- The layout of the area where the new equipment would be placed needed to be changed to accommodate the new reformer.
- The existing feedstock needed to be rerouted from multiple sources to the single reformer.
- The electrical system needed to be upgraded to accommodate the new equipment.
Lastly, there were staffing gaps in the client’s organizational structure, making it difficult to complete this project. Nexus was asked to provide project management and additional onsite support staff to the client.
Solution:
Referencing a similar client project at another site, Nexus modeled ROI with a degree of confidence that allowed the project to move forward. Nexus engaged with the client and multiple functions internally to ensure this project would be a success, including Project Management, Engineering and Design, and its Onsite Support Team.
Together, the Team tackled the challenges by replacing three pieces of equipment with a single unit and upgrading the refinery’s electrical system. The design outcome that Nexus delivered met the requirements for the new equipment and improved the electricity supply reliability and capacity for the refinery.
Using Nexus’ project management, commissioning, and start-up services, the new reformer was installed successfully and safely. The equipment, which produces high octane gasoline and hydrogen, improved gasoline production efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and lowered environmental emissions at the 100-year-old refinery.
“These solutions really provide us with a platform to be more strategic moving forward,” said the refinery manager. “It makes more gasoline from the same amount of crude, as well as more hydrogen we can use in other parts of the refinery. On many fronts, it makes this facility more competitive.”
