Refining

Refineries
Every barrel of crude oil holds remarkable potential: to keep us warm, to keep us on the go and to provide the building blocks for countless products we depend on every day. The job of the refinery is to unleash that potential by sorting and improving the hydrocarbons – chains of carbon and hydrogen – contained within the crude. Gasoline, propane, jet fuel, heating oil and petrochemicals are just some of the specially formulated products leaving the refinery.

Refining for a better environment
U.S. refineries mix and deliver a full range of gasoline fuels that help reduce vehicle emissions, including special reformulated gasoline mixtures tailored to address the pollution-reduction goals of specific areas of the country.

The phase-in of new Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) will be complete across the nation by 2010. Used in combination with cleaner-burning diesel engines and vehicles, ULSD will yield still greater reduction in sulfur emissions.

According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, by the late 1990s U.S. refineries were recycling more than 60 percent of the hazardous and non-hazardous wastes they created.

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