Harwich refinery
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| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| City | Harwich |
| Coordinates | 51°56′32″N 1°14′18″E / 51.94222°N 1.23833°E |
| Refinery details | |
| Operator | Haltermann Carless |
| Owner(s) | Haltermann Carless |
| Commissioned | 1964 by Carless, Capel and Leonard Limited |
| Capacity | 500,000 tonnes per year |
| No. of employees | 100 (2022) |
| No. of oil tanks | 170 |
Harwich refinery is a 500,000 tonnes per year refining, processing, blending and storage facility near the port of Harwich in the UK. The refinery was commissioned in 1964 to process petroleum-based feedstocks into specialist hydrocarbon solvents.
The Carless Company was founded by Eugene Carless in 1859 to process naphtha and the by-products of coal gas production into solvents, petrol and diesel fuel.[1] The company was known as Carless Capel when it was purchased by John Hare Leonard in 1873. It operated from sites in Hackney Wick and Bow in East London. The company was floated on the stock market in December 1948 as Carless, Capel and Leonard Limited.[1]
In the late 1950s and the early 1960s the British gas industry experimented with the use of oil-based rather than coal-based feedstocks to manufacture town gas.[2] Carless realised that these changes would reduce the feedstock available for its processes and therefore also began to use petroleum-based feedstock available from oil refineries.[1]
With the advent of North Sea gas in 1967 a further feedstock became available; condensate was produced with natural gas and was separated from the gas at shore terminals such as at Bacton, Norfolk.[2]
Harwich refinery
Harwich refinery was built on a 38 acre (15.4 hectare) site at Parkeston Harwich in 1964 at a cost of £600,000.[1] In its first year it processed 14,000 tonnes using a batch distillation plant.[3] This represented about half of the petroleum solvents used in Britain at that time. Such solvents were used in chemicals, rubber, paint, printing ink, adhesive and pharmaceuticals. Other refinery products included chemical naphtha (for petrochemicals), kerosine fuel, and hydrocarbon resins.[1]
In 1968 the original plant at Harwich was expanded which doubled the refining capability. In 1971 Carless entered into a contract with Phillips/Arpet to take all the condensate it produced at Bacton.[1] Condensate is pumped from Bacton to North Walsham via a pipeline. At North Walsham, adjacent to the railway station, condensate is routed to storage tanks; periodically rail wagons are filled from the tanks and are transferred to Harwich refinery by rail. Harwich refinery has 3 railway sidings.[4] In addition to the railway connection there is a jetty in the River Stour capable of handling vessels of up to 14,000 tonnes displacement and a draught of 7.5m.[5]
In 1981 an extraction plant was added to the facilities at Harwich costing £2m.[6]
In 1990/1 a 3-column vacuum distillation unit was commissioned which increased the capacity by 50 percent.[7]
The following distillation plant is operational in 2022.[5]
| Plant | Equipment/ column | Capacity | Operating conditions | Heating medium | Column internals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batch distillation plant | Batch Still 1 | 45 m3 | 2.04 barg & full vacuum | Steam 10 barg 184 °C | 40 pairs sieve trays |
| Batch Still 2 | 90 m3 | 43 pairs sieve trays | |||
| Condensate distillation plant | Column 1 | 30 tonnes per hour | 2.4 barg & full vacuum | Mineral oil 298 °C | 40 valve trays |
| Column 2 | 2.4 barg & full vacuum | 40 valve trays | |||
| Column 3 | 1.7 barg & full vacuum | 20 valve trays | |||
| Column 4 | 3.0 barg & full vacuum | 4 stages of structured packing | |||
| High vacuum distillation plant | Column 1 | 25 tonnes per hour | 1.5 barg & full vacuum | Synthetic oil 320 °C | 26 valve trays |
| Column 2 | 36 stages of structured packing | ||||
| Column 3 | 36 stages of structured packing |
The storage capacity of the site amounts to 150,000 m3 in 170 storage tanks of 12 m3 to 15,000 m3.[5]