Carrier Captures Profit and Increases Safety for Gasoline Refinery

The Setup

A gasoline refinery found itself curbed in production during the height of summer demand because of the limitations of its cooling equipment. To capitalize on the profit opportunity, the refinery would have to recruit outside help in order to adequately cool the produced inventory to safe levels.

The Story

As the height of summer travel approached its peak, this gasoline refinery recognized a substantial opportunity for profit but was unable to fully realize the potential as a result of finite cooling capacity. After a discussion with Carrier Rental Systems, Carrier agreed to take on the unique challenge posed by the small footprint available for outside equipment and the short time frame.

Carrier arranged to provide chilled water to the existing exchangers as well as an additional Carrier exchanger to cool reflux. This temporary design cooled the gasoline from a hazardous 95°F to 65°F and cooled the tower water from 95°F to 45°F. Because of the unstable environment, Carrier strongly recommended that the refinery use the fleet of Class I, Division II Group C and D chillers, cooling towers, exchangers, and pumps.

Additionally, Carrier modified the chillers with a pressurization system, creating a complete, self-contained environment. The lack of project space was a major concern on premises. Carrier was able to negotiate this limitation by stacking its containerized water chillers, resulting in a more limited footprint than conventional industry chillers. Carrier’s capacity to design and create unique engineering solutions gave the refinery the opportunity to be far more efficient.

The Upshot

Responding to the need, Carrier Rental Systems engineered the temporary cooling system that enabling the refinery to increase production from 50,000 bbl. to 55,000 bbl. per day. The additional cooling netted Carrier’s customer between $10,000 and $20,000 per day and maintained safe working conditions in the midst of meeting demand. The extra revenue delighted the refinery ownership and gained their ongoing loyalty.