Also known as:
St Charles is a large, high conversion refinery located on the Mississippi River 15 miles upstream from New Orleans in St Charles Parish, Lousiana in the US.
The refinery is 100% owned and operated by Valero.
The refinery processes heavy sour crude oil that it receives through LOOP and docks on the Mississippi.
Complexity: 15.8
Atmospheric distillation - 220 kbpd
Vacuum distillation - 180 kbpd
Coker - 86 kbpd
RCC - 100 kbpd - UOP/Bar-Co MSCC technology. Belco EDV system for SO2 and particulate emissions control. Process resdieu and VGO (straight run and hydrotreated).
Hydrocracker - two units: 28 kbpd, and 85 kbpd
Reformer - 25 kbpd - Continuous
Naphtha hydrotreater - 45 kbpd
Distillate hydrotreater - 66 kbpd
VGO hydrotreater - 24 kbpd
FCC gasoline hydrotreater - 60 kbpd
Alkylation - 48 kbpd
Aromatics extraction - 3 kbpd
Hydrogen production - 100 MMscfd
Pet coke - 24 kbpd
Sulfur plant - 840 t/d
1971 - Purchased by Good Hope Refining
1987 - Restarted by Transamerican Refining
1999 - Acquired by Orion Refining
2000 - RCC added
2003 - Acquired by Valero
2013 - Two hydrocrackers added, naphtha and distillate hydrotreaters expanded and hydrogen plant added
2018 - Expansion of hydrocracker (15 kbpd)
2021 - Started new alkylation unit (25 kbpd), $314MM, Lummus technology CD-Alky, CB&I engineering