Suncor Power is making plans a two-year building challenge at its Trade Town oil refinery to rip down a 75-year-old flare stack that frequently sends flames flickering from the highest, and reconnect the pipes that funnel extra gases to a more recent, extra environment friendly flare on website.
The $16 million challenge is scheduled to begin later this 12 months, pending approval from the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere.
The paintings would dismantle the 100-foot-tall flare stack, frequently referred to as a smoke stack by means of most people, inbuilt 1950 as a part of what’s now referred to as Plant 1. The gases which are burned by means of that flare can be rerouted to the refinery’s taller fuel benzene aid flare, which was once inbuilt 2012, mentioned April Maestas, engineering director on the Trade Town refinery.
Suncor filed its building allow software for the challenge in October, and it’s beneath assessment by means of the state’s Air Air pollution Keep an eye on Department. Remaining week, Suncor held two on-line conferences to give an explanation for the challenge and solution questions from the group — a results of Colorado’s 2021 Environmental Justice Act, which calls for extra verbal exchange between polluters and the communities during which they perform.
The refinery has more than one flares, that are notable, particularly at evening, when other people see flames leaping from the tall pipes. The ones flames will also be observed from Interstates 70 and 270 and round Trade Town and Denver’s Elyria-Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods.
“Seeing a flame at the flare tip isn’t dangerous,” Maestas mentioned right through a March 5 public assembly. “It signifies the surplus refinery gasoline is correctly managed and correctly combusted via an engineered device.”
The flares burn off extra gasoline to steer clear of explosions and are a important a part of oil refining. The challenge will have to reinforce emissions and protection on the refinery, she mentioned.
“We get well as a lot extra gasoline as conceivable and recycle it again to the refinery to make use of as gasoline gasoline for furnace operation,” Maestas mentioned.
The fuel benzene aid flare is 250 toes tall, which 1.5 occasions upper than the 75-year-old person who can be taken down. That implies air pollution together with carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, unstable natural compounds and particulate topic can be dispersed farther from surrounding neighborhoods, she mentioned. That are meant to lower some affects from emissions.
Suncor additionally expects the conversion to cut back the quantity of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides as a result of there can be one much less flare burning gases and sending byproducts into the air, mentioned Bernd Haneke, the refinery’s environmental and regulatory supervisor. The taller, more recent flare is extra environment friendly.
Then again, in its building allow software filed with the Air Air pollution Keep an eye on Department, Suncor mentioned it “isn’t soliciting for any new or revised emissions boundaries together with this building allow software.”
The refinery is a common goal of complaint as it is without doubt one of the greatest polluters within the state, and those that reside in Trade Town and north Denver be afflicted by that air pollution greater than different Colorado citizens. They bitch of bronchial asthma, nosebleeds, most cancers and different well being issues. Additionally they say the refinery frequently stinks, making it unsightly to spend time outdoor.
Suncor agreed to pay a $10.5 million penalty in February 2024 to settle air allow violations for belching poisonous chemical substances over a three-year duration. In July, the corporate was once notified that it was once beneath investigation by means of the state and the Environmental Coverage Company for repeated Blank Air Act violations.
A large portion of the paintings will occur in March 2026, when Suncor is scheduled to shutter Plant 1 for regimen upkeep. All the way through that duration, the refinery additionally will refurbish pumps, compressors and electric methods, and building staff will use that duration to tie gasoline strains from the outdated flare into the more recent one, Maestas mentioned.
The transfer between flares will occur in 2027 if all is going in keeping with the plan, she mentioned.
Suncor has invested “loads of tens of millions” within the Trade Town refinery in recent times to reinforce its apparatus and cut back air and water air pollution, Maestas mentioned. The corporate additionally upgraded its refinery over the last two years to provide reformulated fuel, which is needed in metro Denver and alongside the northern Entrance Vary right through the summer season months to cut back ozone air pollution.
Suncor operates the one refinery in Colorado, processing about 98,000 barrels of crude oil in line with day. That oil comes basically from Canada, but additionally from the Denver-Julesberg basin.
The refinery employs greater than 500 other people.
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