Conserving Our Natural Resources

Cooling tower water vapor plume

Saving Water

We use water to produce steam and to keep the Refinery product streams and equipment cool, similar to the cooling system in cars.

Cooling the water in large wooden “cooling towers” and re-circulating it minimizes the amount of fresh water needed. The water falls in droplets from the top to the bottom of the cooling tower. Large fans pull air from the bottom to the top.

The falling water cools when it encounters the rising air and forms billowing clouds of steam. These plumes of white clouds, which can be seen from miles away, are not smoke. Rather, they consist of condensed water vapor that is formed during the cooling process.

The clouds behave like fog, dissipate quickly, and do not harm the environment.

The Refinery’s water re-circulation rate for cooling systems is about 400 million gallons per day. Steam condensate recovery and recycle are about 7 million gallons per day.

Water Source

All the water used in the Refinery’s processes is supplied by the Jackson County Industrial Water System, which draws from the Pascagoula River and not from groundwater resources.

The water is pumped from the river through dual pipelines to the Bayou Casotte treating facility where clarification, filtration, and pH adjustments are done. Treated water is transported by pipeline to the Refinery and other Bayou Casotte area industrial users.

To replenish evaporative and consumed water losses, the Refinery uses about 13 million gallons of water per day from the Jackson County Industrial Water System, which is operated by the Jackson County Port Authority.

One of five co-generating units

Saving Energy

The refinery’s Utilities Area and a Mississippi Power Company co-generating plant, located adjacent to the Refinery, supply the required utilities for Chevron Pascagoula Refinery’s continuous operation.

Our Utilities Area supplies some electrical power and most steam requirements, as well as all the compressed air, fuel gas, fire water, process water, drinking water, nitrogen, and both high and low pressure boiler feed water.

Mississippi Power Company’s co-generating facility provides 85 percent of the Refinery’s electricity needs and about 60 percent of our steam requirements. The co-generating units’ waste heat recovery boilers generate and supply steam to the refinery at 600 pounds per square inch and 650°F.

Oil-To-Oil Heat Exchangers

In order to process the crude oil, many of the refinery’s process units require heat. In an effort to maximize energy efficiency, heat is recovered from hot product streams leaving the refinery’s process units by oil-to-oil heat exchanger equipment.

This heat is transferred into the cold feed streams coming into the process units, which reduces the amount of fuel gas required for process heating.

Since recovering heat energy minimizes the fuel burned, it also helps keep the environment clean. Saving energy has a direct effect on profitability by reducing our operating costs.

Insulation

Covering the refinery’s equipment and piping with insulation prevents heat from escaping into the atmosphere. Insulation not only saves energy (and reduces operating costs) it also provides safety protection to our employees by covering the hot equipment and piping.

Flare Gas Recovery

Environment protection and profitability is also improved by reducing losses of valuable products. Flare gas recovery compressors help control fuel loss in the refinery's flare relief system by recovering valuable light products that would otherwise be burned in the flare.

We welcome comments and questions about our environmental record and policy. Contact us by e-mail at pasms@chevron.com.

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