For the past 30 years, Intergulf Corp. has been a known leader in liquids management for plants and refineries on the greater Gulf Coast and throughout the nation. The company has built a solid reputation within the industry by specializing in wastewater processing and recycling oils and fuels. It offers a wide range of products and services, including products blending and trading and much more. While Intergulf is focused on advanced hydrocarbon processing, it is also proud of its newest processing additions — a re-refinery and three-phase centrifuges.
The national and international marketplace has seen quite a few used oil re-refineries built in the past five years and even more talked about but not constructed yet. Clearly, the re-refining of used oil is the best method of processing and is fully supported by the EPA, but Intergulf wanted to do something a little bit different.
Unlike other re-refineries that are designed to process only used oil, Intergulf’s in-house engineering team has done an excellent job designing this plant to be extremely flexible regarding feedstock quality. Their state-of-the-art re-refinery design utilizes multiple low-pressure evaporators that allow varying operating conditions for control of product quality.
The re-refinery feedstocks will consist of used oil and other higher ash, as well as difficult-to-manage hydrocarbons that are commonly procured from other refineries, petrochemical facilities and used oil collectors. Feedstocks can be received by truck and rail on-site or by barge off-site from Intergulf’s marine terminal located just five minutes away. The unique advantage of Intergulf’s re-refinery is its flash correcting, de-ashing and de-watering abilities. The re-refinery will produce three primary products: gasoline blendstock, vacuum gas oil and asphalt extender.
“We are very excited about the re-refinery expansion and being able to offer another reputable treatment option to the market,” said Intergulf President Brandon Velek. “We have seen many competitors come and go over the years. Many have entered the market and gained market share by offering low-cost services; however, most realize within short order that it takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and resources to survive in this highly regulated industry. The re-refinery will allow us to accept more difficult-to-manage materials from our customers that have been historically considered unacceptable due to poor quality and our inability to process these materials to meet market quality specifications.”
Since 1983, Intergulf has been procuring, blending and marketing cutterstocks for the utility fuel oil market and gasoline blendstocks for the gasoline market. Its experience in that arena allows the company to absorb the additional products produced into its petroleum blending operations that consist of well over 150,000 barrels of storage with truck, rail, barge and ship access.
The re-refinery will be located at Intergulf’s Highway 225 location in La Porte, Texas, which houses the company’s petroleum refinery (SIC 2911), fuel oil blending operations and transportation fleet. The co-locating of facilities will allow the sharing of utilities for cost control. The re-refinery is specifically designed for future expansion to accommodate double the processing capacity. Additionally, a hydrogen pipeline is conveniently located on-site to allow for future hydrotreating for the production of base oil lubricants.
“We have been focused on growing our processing capabilities for some time,” Velek said. “We have had success running our petroleum refinery making fuel oil cutterstocks and gasoline blendstocks. That experience stimulated our interest in processing more difficult products like higher ash oils and used oil by using more advanced processing equipment. We are proud of the construction of our re-refinery, which includes an additional 420,000 gallons of storage tanks that will allow for processing of 8 million gallons of oil per year to produce gasoline blendstock, vacuum gas oil and asphalt extender. The re-refinery is also engineered to accept a varying feedstock specification and can be easily expanded to allow for future growth.”
Three-phase gas-tight decanters
Concurrently, Intergulf is in the process of building the infrastructure to support two state-of-the-art, 25 gallons-per-minute, three-phase, gas-tight decanters to augment its advanced hydrocarbon processing focus. This new process, slated for the first quarter of 2015, will also be located at the Highway 225 location in La Porte and will share utilities with Intergulf’s existing petroleum refinery and re-refinery. Feedstocks will include high-solids, high-water, high-ash and difficult-to-manage hydrocarbons that are commonly procured from other refineries and petrochemical facilities. Feedstocks will also include pumpable product tank residuals and other lower quality oils that typically require on-site centrifugation to meet market specifications.
In three-phase separation, it is possible to separate two liquid phases from one solid phase at the same time. The different densities of the immiscible liquids — oil and water — and the solids mean all three phases can be discharged simultaneously using these units. The safety of the entire process plays an important role as the focus lies on protecting the environment on one hand, while also ensuring workplace safety for employees.
The gas tight designs include a nitrogen-inerting system with dioxide monitors that make it possible to process products that can emit vapors that are flammable or harmful to the environment in a safe manner. To reduce downtime, these two units will have a spare rotating assembly to ensure around-the-clock processing. The finished product will be a low-ash, low-water, low-solids hydrocarbon ready for market or can easily be diverted to the petroleum refinery or the re-refinery for further processing. Byproducts will be water and solids. Intergulf will treat and process this water internally through its Bayport waste treatment facility in Pasadena, Texas, which can accept both hazardous and nonhazardous waste. Residual solids will be landfilled or incinerated at approved facilities.
Marine Terminal expansion
Along with these new processing assets, Intergulf will take possession of a brand new 10,000-barrel barge to add to its growing fleet located at its Marine Terminal in La Porte. The Marine Terminal is currently home to the company’s two slop oil barges, wastewater barge, refined-products barge and 1,800-horsepower tugboat.
The new 10,000-barrel barge is highly engineered and built to serve the specific needs of Intergulf customers that generate marine pollution waste from tank washings from vessels calling on ports in Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Intergulf’s Marine Division recovers oil and water, thus reducing any potential impact to the environment or the world’s waterways. With the new barge and processing capabilities, Intergulf will have the ability to offer a rebate/payment for products recovered.
“We believe in doing things the right way, which in turn creates confidence that we care about our customers’ risk and liability as much as we do our own,” said Marc Sansom, Intergulf’s COO.
Consolidated office building
Lastly, Intergulf also recently unveiled its brand new 14,000-square-foot office building located in La Porte that will be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The office building will be centrally located between the company’s Bayport facility, Highway 225 plant and the Marine Terminal, and will allow the consolidation of the staffs of the company’s different divisions under one roof.
Intergulf strives to find value in materials that are difficult to manage by using state-of-the-art processing equipment to recover valuable hydrocarbons. This effort reduces the amount of waste disposed in landfills and reduces dependence on the environment’s limited natural resources.
Intergulf is committed to finding the best methods of processing the world’s toughest-to-manage hydrocarbons. Strategically located along the Houston Ship Channel, Intergulf is actively involved in the petrochemical community and understands the dynamics involved in this sensitive, highly regulated arena. Intergulf has the experience, financial strength and conservative management principles needed to meet the requirements of its customers.
For more information, visit www.intergulfcorp.com, call (281) 474-4210 or email info@intergulfcorp.com.
