Refineries

Refineries serve an important role in the US economy by turning raw materials into valuable and usable products. Some refineries have the task of refining specific materials, which may be sold to other manufacturers.

Type of Refineries

Petroleum refineries are often the first thought in this area as they take crude oil and convert it into gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and other products. However, many other refineries exist, such as those that convert cooking oil into a product that can be sold to the public. Natural gas may be converted into fuel for residential and commercial customers. Sugar refineries take sugar cane and beets and turn them into syrup and packaged sugar. Salt is another product which is refined for use as table salt and other products.

Metals and iron may also be refined for use, including pig iron, lead, nickel, gold and copper. Much of the time all these raw materials require multiple processes to reach the finished product stage. They need steam and other heat sources, water and electric to create those processes as well as other materials which may be a necessary part of the refining process.

Storage tanks are important for storing the raw materials in their original states as well as when they become intermediate and end products. They may need to store other materials as well as waste products from the various processes.

The Refining Process

A simpler example of this refining process is with sugar cane, which requires two separate processes. In the first process, the sugarcane must be washed, chopped and mixed with water. Lime is added into the mixture to attain the correct pH. Solids, including the lime, must be removed as the juice is concentrated into a syrup. The sugar crystalizes and is separated from the liquid, which becomes brown sugar and molasses. The sugar is often purified more until it becomes white sugar.

The solids that remain after the sugarcane is crushed are used as fuel, as animal feed, to create electricity or to make paper. The second process requires the sugar to go through factional crystallization to purify it further for use in certain areas, including North America.

Depending on the industry in which the refining is taking place, strict regulations must be followed. As in the example of sugar refining, numerous requirements must be met since it is part of the food industry. This includes storage of the raw materials, as well as storage for the final products. A different set of regulations by other federal and state organizations will govern oil, gas, metal, and iron refining.

Great River Industries works with companies in all these areas of refining. Our team stays up to date on current requirements for storage facilities to ensure they are built and maintained according to specifications. Safety and quality are our guiding principles and our team works to develop tankers and other equipment that will help the refiners continue their operations with no downtime or issues. We build and install onsite and maintain the storage facilities to ensure they aren’t compromised and are up to or exceeding codes for the industry.