Flint Hills Resources will spend $300 million on a bevy of new projects at its Pine Bend refinery in Rosemount, Minn., the company announced today. The upgrades include a new combined heat and power system to help cut the plant’s external energy consumption and a new gasoline desulfurization process. Construction is set to begin in 2015 pending environmental permits from Minnesota regulators. Flint Hills is currently in the middle of a $400 million project at Pine Bend to improve reliability and fuel manufacturing and reduce emissions.
The company plans to generate half the refinery’s needed electricity with the new combined heat and power system. The fuel desulfurization process — which Flint Hills says is the first of its kind in the U.S. — will provide feedstock for fertilizer and help the company comply with the EPA’s upcoming Tier 3 fuel standard.
