Coal Fired Power Station Providing Steam to a Refinery

Summary

Prior to entering a steam-host agreement with AES powers station, Chevron Philips refinery generated its own process steam with four industrial boilers burning high sulphur fuel oil. Receipt of steam from AES obviated two industrial boilers at Chevron Phillips, and AES gained “qualifying facility” (QF) status to generate electricity in addition to the process steam.QF status was important for AES in order to be allowed to sell its electricity to the public utility.

Under the Puerto Rico’s Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act for an independent power generator to maintain QF status, the facility must use at least 5% of its energy output for products other than electricity.

Industry

Industry Sector	Specific Industry
energy utility sector	power generation station
petroleum	oil refinery

Region

Guayama, Puerto Rico

Applied Technologies

None.

Triple Bottom Line Aspects (direct at operational level)

Economic	power station gains QF as well as profit selling the steam refinery receives cheaper steam compared to generating onsite
Environment	reduced net air emissions of SO2, NOx and PM10
Social	not known

Additional Comments

None.

References

• Chertow, MR & Lombardi, DR (2005) "Quantifying Economic and Environmental Benefits of Co-Located Firms", Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 39, No. 17, pp. 6535-6541

Last Update

January 2007