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84-516: Shell Haven was a port on the north bank of the Thames Estuary at the eastern end of Thurrock , Essex, England and then an oil refinery. The refinery closed in 1999 and the site was purchased by DP World who received planning consent in May 2007 for the new London Gateway deep water container port at the site. The neighbouring Coryton Refinery remained in operation until 2012. Shell Haven appears on

168-459: A hydrocracking unit was added to increase the proportion of light distillates. A new bitumen plant started production in 1981. In 1992, a major capital investment was completed, adding a 'Naphtha Minus' complex which contained an isomerisation unit, benzene recovery and gas turbine power generation. A new Control Centre was added. By then the plant had a capacity of 4.6 million tonnes per annum, and covered 800 hectares (2,000 acres), with

252-551: A silica or silica-alumina support base . Fresh catalyst is chlorided (chlorinated) prior to use. The noble metals (platinum and rhenium) are catalytic sites for the dehydrogenation reactions and the chlorinated alumina provides the acid sites needed for isomerization, cyclization and hydrocracking reactions. Chlorination requires finesse, lest it affect the Pt or Re component. The platinum and/or rhenium are very susceptible to poisoning by sulfur and nitrogen compounds. Therefore,

336-438: A 27 km (17 mi) perimeter and its own generating plant, emergency and other services. It had five jetties, handling tankers of up to 300,000 tons capacity. The refinery delivered products by road and ship and UK oil pipeline network . In the period of 1970–1973, major fires broke out at the refinery three times. The Shell refinery closed in 1999. A team consisting of operations and engineering personnel were picked from

420-573: A blending plant for producing horticultural chemical products. During World War II the refineries and oil storage tanks at Thames Haven, Shell Haven and Coryton became a sitting target for air raids, notably in September 1940, during the Battle of Britain . In 1946, a plant producing high grade Paraffin Wax for candles, paper, etc. was commissioned. In 1947, expansion began on a 400 hectares (990 acres) site west of

504-494: A catalytic reformer to reform its hydrocarbon molecules into more complex molecules with a higher octane rating value. The naphtha is a mixture of very many different hydrocarbon compounds. It has an initial boiling point of about 35 °C and a final boiling point of about 200 °C, and it contains paraffin , naphthene (cyclic paraffins) and aromatic hydrocarbons ranging from those containing 6 carbon atoms to those containing about 10 or 11 carbon atoms. The naphtha from

588-560: A firemain, which was a pipeline that ran around the refinery to be used in the event of a fire. This had dedicated pumps, separate from the cooling water system. Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea , in the south-east of Great Britain . An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salinity). For this reason

672-433: A gasoline blending stock, reformate is the main source of aromatic bulk chemicals such as benzene , toluene , xylene and ethylbenzene , which have diverse uses, most importantly as raw materials for conversion into plastics. However, the benzene content of reformate makes it carcinogenic , which has led to governmental regulations effectively requiring further processing to reduce its benzene content. Catalytic reforming

756-476: A platinum and/or a rhenium catalyst: A petroleum refinery includes many unit operations and unit processes . The first unit operation in a refinery is the continuous distillation of the petroleum crude oil being refined. The overhead liquid distillate is called naphtha and will become a major component of the refinery's gasoline (petrol) product after it is further processed through a catalytic hydrodesulfurizer to remove sulfur -containing hydrocarbons and

840-405: A significant part of the hydrogen used elsewhere in the refinery (for example, in hydrodesulfurization processes). The hydrogen is also necessary in order to hydrogenolyze any polymers that form on the catalyst. In practice, the higher the content of naphthenes in the naphtha feedstock, the better will be the quality of the reformate and the higher the production of hydrogen. Crude oils containing

924-597: A success and subsequently further buoys and beacons were lit by Trinity House using the same system, in the Estuary and beyond. Today the Port of London Authority's Thames Navigation Service (established in 1959) is responsible for buoyage, beaconage and bridge lights on the Tideway. Trinity House remains responsible for aids to navigation in the wider estuary (and beyond). Download coordinates as: This table shows, from west to east,

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1008-461: A twice-weekly visit by a boatman for cleaning and maintenance). Broadness was lit by Pintsch gas , and Stoneness by a Lindberg light (which burned petroleum naphtha ). At the same time Trinity House began experimenting with the application of lamps to buoys, using Pintsch's oil-gas system, beginning with three in the Thames Estuary (East Oaze, Ovens and Sheerness Middle); the experiment was deemed

1092-416: A typical semi-regenerative catalytic reforming unit. The liquid feed (at the bottom left in the diagram) is pumped up to the reaction pressure (5–45 atm) and is joined by a stream of hydrogen-rich recycle gas. The resulting liquid–gas mixture is preheated by flowing through a heat exchanger . The preheated feed mixture is then totally vaporized and heated to the reaction temperature (495–520 °C) before

1176-548: A unit is referred to as a semi-regenerative catalytic reformer (SRR). Some catalytic reforming units have an extra spare or swing reactor and each reactor can be individually isolated so that any one reactor can be undergoing in situ regeneration while the other reactors are in operation. When that reactor is regenerated, it replaces another reactor which, in turn, is isolated so that it can then be regenerated. Such units, referred to as cyclic catalytic reformers, are not very common. Cyclic catalytic reformers serve to extend

1260-565: Is a generic term rather than a specific term. The table just below lists some fairly typical straight-run heavy naphtha feedstocks, available for catalytic reforming, derived from various crude oils. It can be seen that they differ significantly in their content of paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics: Some refinery naphthas include olefinic hydrocarbons , such as naphthas derived from the fluid catalytic cracking and coking processes used in many refineries. Some refineries may also desulfurize and catalytically reform those naphthas. However, for

1344-473: Is also dependent on the feedstock. However, independently of the crude oil used in the refinery, all catalysts require a maximum final boiling point of the naphtha feedstock of 180 °C. Normally, the catalyst can be regenerated perhaps 3 or 4 times before it must be returned to the manufacturer for reclamation of the valuable platinum and/or rhenium content. The sensitivity of catalytic reforming to contamination by sulfur and nitrogen requires hydrotreating

1428-463: Is an archetypal, well-developed economy urban, upper river estuary with its sedimentary deposition restricted through manmade embankments and occasional dredging of parts. It is mainly a freshwater river about as far east as Battersea , insofar as the average salinity is very low and the fish fauna consists predominantly of freshwater species such as roach , dace , carp , perch , and pike . It becomes brackish between Battersea and Gravesend , and

1512-550: Is available. The heavy reformate is high in octane and low in benzene, hence it is an excellent blending component for the gasoline pool. Benzene is often removed with a specific operation to reduce the content of benzene in the reformate as the finished gasoline has often an upper limit of benzene content (in the UE this is 1% volume). The benzene extracted can be marketed as feedstock for the chemical industry. Most catalytic reforming catalysts contain platinum with or without some rhenium on

1596-431: Is currently being remediated by Hydrock as part of the redevelopment to an industrial and distribution park. The Refinery was used as a location in the film Quatermass 2 . Crude Oil Tanks The Crude that was brought in by oil tankers was then pumped into 100,000 ton capacity tanks seen in the back of the photo. The buildings in front of the tanks were the refinery Workshops and Stores. Crude Distiller 1 Crude

1680-445: Is one of the largest of 170 such inlets on the coast of Great Britain . It constitutes a major shipping route , with thousands of movements each year, including: large oil tankers , container ships , bulk carriers (of loose materials/liquids), and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries. It is the accessway for the Port of London (including London Gateway, associated Tilbury and Purfleet) and

1764-433: Is quite different from and not to be confused with the catalytic steam reforming process used industrially to produce products such as hydrogen , ammonia , and methanol from natural gas , naphtha or other petroleum-derived feedstocks. Nor is this process to be confused with various other catalytic reforming processes that use methanol or biomass-derived feedstocks to produce hydrogen for fuel cells or other uses. In

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1848-518: Is rapidly increasing. Many of the earliest catalytic reforming units (in the 1950s and 1960s) were non-regenerative in that they did not perform in situ catalyst regeneration. Instead, when needed, the aged catalyst was replaced by fresh catalyst and the aged catalyst was shipped to catalyst manufacturers to be either regenerated or to recover the platinum content of the aged catalyst. Very few, if any, catalytic reformers currently in operation are non-regenerative. The process flow diagram below depicts

1932-495: Is undesirable because governmental environmental regulations in a number of countries limit the amount of aromatics (most particularly benzene ) that gasoline may contain. There are a great many petroleum crude oil sources worldwide and each crude oil has its own unique composition or "assay" . Also, not all refineries process the same crude oils and each refinery produces its own straight-run naphthas with their own unique initial and final boiling points. In other words, naphtha

2016-588: The Maplin Sands (1841) and at Gunfleet (1856). Meanwhile, one of the outlying sandbanks of the Estuary was marked by a lightvessel at Kentish Knock (in 1840); and in due course the southern approach was marked by lightvessels at the Tongue (1847) and Girdler (1848) sands, with another being added (between these two) in the Princes Channel (1856). In 1851 two more screw-pile lighthouses were built further upriver, on

2100-473: The Medway Ports of Sheerness , Chatham and Thamesport . The traditional Thames sailing barge worked in this area, designed to be suitable for the shallow waters in the smaller ports. A 2000s-decade-built wind farm is 8.5 km north of Herne Bay, Kent , on a shoal south-west of Kentish Knock . It is 30 wind turbines generating typically 82.4MW of electricity. The much larger 630 MW London Array

2184-925: The Shell Oil Company . In 1895, the ammunition firm Kynochs purchased Borley Farm, to the east of Shell Haven Creek, to build an explosives factory . This opened in 1897, with a small estate called Kynochtown. Kynochs also built the Corringham Light Railway (CLR), with a passenger branch from the works to Corringham and a goods branch to the LT&;SR at Thames Haven. The Kynoch works closed in 1919. The site and CLR were taken over by coal merchants Cory Brothers Ltd of Cardiff to build an oil storage depot, with Kynochtown being renamed Coryton. The oil depot eventually became Coryton Refinery (run from 1950 until recently by Mobil and its antecedents), which remains in production, between Shell Haven Creek and Hole Haven to

2268-521: The 1596 edition of Saxton's Map 'Essexiae Comitat' Nova vera ac absaluta descriptio' It was possibly mentioned earlier. Shell Haven was mentioned in Samuel Pepys ' Diary on 10 June 1667. The site, historically also referred to as Shellhaven was originally an inlet on the north bank of the Thames, about a mile to the west of Canvey Island . This was the mouth of Shell Haven Creek , which runs east and south of

2352-515: The 1940s, Vladimir Haensel , a research chemist working for Universal Oil Products (UOP), developed a catalytic reforming process using a catalyst containing platinum . Haensel's process was subsequently commercialized by UOP in 1949 for producing a high octane gasoline from low octane naphthas and the UOP process become known as the Platforming process. The first Platforming unit was built in 1949 at

2436-757: The East and West Barrows, the Nob, the Knock, Kentish Knock , the John, the Sunk, the Girdler, and Long Sand/the Long Sands. Shallow-bottomed barges and coasters would navigate the swatchways at flood tide, and would cross the sand banks at spitways, points where the water was least shallow, and just deep enough at that point of the tide. If they missed the moment they would heave to (lay anchor) and wait for

2520-629: The Essex marshes. His The Mirror of the Sea (1906) contains a memorable description of the area as seen from the Thames. He refers to this area in the first pages of his novel Heart of Darkness , describing it as both the launching place of England's great ships of exploration and colonization and, in ancient times, the site of colonization of the British Isles by the Roman Empire. The form of speech of many of

2604-502: The Netherlands, for example). Instead, coastal navigators and pilots relied on the use of transits (the alignment of prominent structures or natural features on land) for guidance. In 1566 Trinity House of Deptford (which oversaw pilotage on the Thames) was empowered to 'make, erect and set up [...] beacons, marks and signs for the sea' (albeit at its own expense). Not long afterwards,

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2688-702: The Princes-Queens Channel and the South Channel to the south, to a lesser extent the Kings Channel and the Swin to the north. The Swin was used by barges and leisure craft from the Essex rivers, and coasters and colliers from the north east. These channels were made up of natural troughs; Yantlet Channel (Sea Reach), Oaze Deep, Knock John Channel, Black Deep/ Black Deep Channel which have been much-marked. These are separated by slow-moving sandbanks with names such as

2772-541: The Sulphur recovery were controlled from here. The Tank Farm and Waterfront were controlled from Road 6A Control Room. The Boilerhouse had its own Control Room. The process plant in the background of the photo is the Hydrocracker. The Flare System was designed to deal with any excess gas produced by the process units. The process units that produced gas exported that to either the high pressure gas main run at 10 bar or

2856-452: The best naphtha for reforming are typically from Western Africa or the North Sea, such as Bonny light oil or Norwegian Troll . The most commonly used type of catalytic reforming unit has three reactors , each with a fixed bed of catalyst, and all of the catalyst is regenerated in situ during routine catalyst regeneration shutdowns which occur approximately once each 6 to 24 months. Such

2940-464: The carbon number of the reactants remains unchanged, except for hydrocracking reactions which break down the hydrocarbons. The hydrocracking of paraffins is the only one of the above four major reforming reactions that consumes hydrogen. The isomerization of normal paraffins does not consume or produce hydrogen. However, both the dehydrogenation of naphthenes and the dehydrocyclization of paraffins produce hydrogen. The overall net production of hydrogen in

3024-418: The catalyst can be periodically regenerated or restored by in situ high temperature oxidation of the coke followed by chlorination. Semi-regenerative catalytic reformers are regenerated about once per 6 to 24 months. The higher the severity of the reacting conditions (temperature), the higher the octane of the produced reformate but also the shorter the duration between two regenerations. Catalyst's cycle duration

3108-486: The catalytic reforming of petroleum naphthas ranges from about 50 to 200 cubic meters of hydrogen gas (at 0 °C and 1 atm) per cubic meter of liquid naphtha feedstock. In the United States customary units , that is equivalent to 300 to 1200 cubic feet of hydrogen gas (at 60 °F and 1 atm) per barrel of liquid naphtha feedstock. In many petroleum refineries, the net hydrogen produced in catalytic reforming supplies

3192-644: The coastline. Where higher land reaches the coast, there are some larger settlements, such as Clacton-on-Sea to the north in Essex, Herne Bay, Kent , and the Southend-on-Sea area within the narrower part of the estuary. The Thames Estuary is the focal part of the 21st-century toponym, the " Thames Gateway ", designated as one of the principal development areas in Southern England. The Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission report published in June 2018 identified

3276-455: The company taking its name from the site. In the 1850s, a branch line was constructed from the London Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) to a new port immediately to the east of Shell Haven, to be known as Thames Haven (sometimes written Thameshaven). The name of Shell Haven would probably have been eclipsed, but for the failure of Thames Haven to prosper, and the later arrival of

3360-418: The conversion of normal octane to 2,5-dimethylhexane (an "isoparaffin"): The dehydrogenation and aromatization of paraffins to aromatics (commonly called dehydrocyclization) as exemplified in the conversion of normal heptane to toluene: The hydrocracking of paraffins into smaller molecules as exemplified by the cracking of normal heptane into isopentane and ethane: During the reforming reactions,

3444-420: The crude oil distillation is often further distilled to produce a "light" naphtha containing most (but not all) of the hydrocarbons with 6 or fewer carbon atoms and a "heavy" naphtha containing most (but not all) of the hydrocarbons with more than 6 carbon atoms. The heavy naphtha has an initial boiling point of about 140 to 150 °C and a final boiling point of about 190 to 205 °C. The naphthas derived from

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3528-507: The decay of the steeple of Margate Church (an important landmark for negotiating 'the Narrows', a complex route between sandbanks used by vessels sailing to or from London along the North Kent coast) led to Trinity House marking the Narrows with buoys in the late 16th century. In his coastal survey of 1682-93, Greenvile Collins records five buoys around the Narrows, just north of Reculver , on

3612-446: The desired reaction severity, the reaction conditions range from temperatures of about 495 to 525 °C and from pressures of about 5 to 45 atm . The four major catalytic reforming reactions are: The dehydrogenation of naphthenes to convert them into aromatics as exemplified in the conversion methylcyclohexane (a naphthene) to toluene (an aromatic): The isomerization of normal paraffins to isoparaffins as exemplified in

3696-455: The distillation of crude oils are referred to as "straight-run" naphthas. It is the straight-run heavy naphtha that is usually processed in a catalytic reformer because the light naphtha has molecules with 6 or fewer carbon atoms which, when reformed, tend to crack into butane and lower molecular weight hydrocarbons which are not useful as high-octane gasoline blending components. Also, the molecules with 6 carbon atoms tend to form aromatics which

3780-402: The distillation residue. In 1956, a catalytic reforming 'Platformer' was brought into service and in the same year, a petroleum chemicals unit to manufacture alkylbenzenes , the basis of household detergents. A second crude distillation unit was commissioned in 1959, and a second catalytic reformer in 1967. A kerosene hydrotreater was commissioned in 1972 and in 1977 a third reformer. In 1979,

3864-538: The diversity of freshwater fish is smaller, primarily roach and dace. Euryhaline species then dominate, such as flounder , European seabass , mullet , and smelt . Further east salinity increases and conditions become fully marine and the fish fauna resemble that of the adjacent North Sea , a spectrum of euryhaline and stenohaline types. An alike pattern of zones applies to the aquatic plants and invertebrates. Joseph Conrad lived in Stanford-le-Hope close to

3948-525: The east. Shell Oil first arrived in the form of the Asiatic Petroleum Company , a sales company formed by Royal Dutch Petroleum and the British company Shell Transport and Trading Company, prior to their merger as Royal Dutch Shell. A licence was obtained in 1912 to store petroleum at Shell Haven, in iron tanks, each containing not more than 4,000 tonnes. The maximum storage allowed for the whole site

4032-608: The economic potential of the region. In 2020 the Thames Estuary Growth Board was appointed, led by government-appointed Envoy Kate Willard OBE, to unlock the potential of the UK's number one green growth opportunity. Entrepreneurs and investors have looked at the greater estuary as a possible place for a new airport , and have expanded Southend Airport in the 2010s, which has a rail link to Liverpool Street station , London among others. The Thames flowing through London

4116-551: The established local accents. The term London Accent is generally avoided, as it can have many meanings. Forms of "Estuary English", as a hybrid between Received pronunciation and various London accents, can be heard in all of the New Towns, all of the coastal resorts, and in the larger cities and towns along the Thames Estuary. For commercial shipping rounding the Nore sandbank and thus accessing Greater London, main deep-water routes were

4200-423: The gas-to-liquids (GTL) units. The reformate has a much higher content of benzene than is permissible by the current regulations in many countries. This means that the reformate should either be further processed in an aromatics extraction unit, or blended with appropriate hydrocarbon streams with low content of aromatics. Catalytic reforming requires a whole range of other processing units at the refinery (apart from

4284-402: The hydrocracking reactions as explained in the above discussion of the reaction chemistry of a catalytic reformer, and it may also contain some small amount of hydrogen. That offgas is routed to the refinery's central gas processing plant for removal and recovery of propane and butane. The residual gas after such processing becomes part of the refinery's fuel gas system. The bottoms product from

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4368-532: The limits of the Thames Estuary have been defined differently at different times and for different purposes. This limit of the estuary has been defined in two main ways: The transition between the Thames Estuary and the North Sea has been located at various notional boundaries, including: The estuary just east of the Tideway has a tidal range of 4 metres. Winds excluded, it moves at 2.6 knots (4.8 km/h; 3.0 mph) in bi-monthly spring tides. The estuary

4452-404: The low pressure gas main run at 4 bar. The process units could also export directly to the flare system. Relief valves set to protect linework or equipment also would open into the flare system should the pressure exceed the set pressure. There were two flare stacks, each with its own knock out vessels. These were designed to remove any hydrocarbons from the gas. There was a compressor in

4536-425: The most part, catalytic reforming is mainly used on the straight-run heavy naphthas, such as those in the above table, derived from the distillation of crude oils. Many chemical reactions occur in the catalytic reforming process. All require the presence of a catalyst, almost always platinum-containing, and a high partial pressure of hydrogen. Depending upon the type or version of catalytic reforming used as well as

4620-436: The naphtha before it enters the reformer, adding to the cost and complexity of the process. Dehydrogenation, an important component of reforming, is a strongly endothermic reaction, and as such, requires the reactor vessel to be externally heated. This contributes both to costs and the emissions of the process. Catalytic reforming has a limited ability to process naphthas with a high content of normal paraffins, e.g. naphthas from

4704-443: The naphtha feedstock to a catalytic reformer is always pre-processed in a hydrodesulfurization unit which removes both the sulfur and the nitrogen compounds. Most catalysts require both sulphur and nitrogen content to be lower than 1 ppm. The activity (i.e., effectiveness) of the catalyst in a semi-regenerative catalytic reformer is reduced over time during operation by carbonaceous coke deposition and chloride loss. The activity of

4788-606: The navigation lights of the River Thames between London Bridge and Yantlet was transferred by Act of Parliament from the Thames Conservancy to the Corporation of Trinity House ; responsibility for buoyage was transferred likewise in 1878. In 1885 the beacons at Broadness and Stoneness were replaced with iron-frame experimental lighthouses, each lit by a novel system which would allow the light to function unattended (except for

4872-417: The next tide. Recreational craft are expected use channels most suited to the size of their vessel. Their main guide says to use when navigating to or from: To cross the south-east quarter of the estuary large vessels use Fisherman's Gat , and small vessels to were expected to use Foulger's Gat . Provision of buoys and beacons for the purpose of navigation came relatively late to England (compared to

4956-807: The northern foreshore of Sea Reach: at Mucking and on the Chapman sands (just off Canvey Island ). Prior to 1684 beacons were set up on the mudflats north of the Swin channel, to help vessels approaching the Thames from the north to navigate the sands. Pan-sand Beacon was set up by Trinity House in 1774 to mark a dangerous sandbank on the southern approach. Similar daymarks were set up on other nearby sandbanks in later years, including on Margate Hook (1843), Middle Ground (1844) and Shingles (1846). Trinity House also maintained beacons further upriver, including at Broadness (established in 1821), Stoneness (1839), Erith (1830) and Tripcock (1832). In 1864 responsibility for maintaining

5040-552: The original refinery. In 1948, financial sanction was approved by the board of Shell Petroleum Co Ltd for the construction of a new large crude oil refinery, based primarily on the processing of Kuwait crude. The facilities were to include: In 1950, the Crude Distillation Unit, the Doctor Treater and MP Boilers 3, 5 and 6 were commissioned. Subsequently, various units were added to produce valuable hydrocarbons from

5124-434: The people of the area, principally the accents of those from Kent and Essex, is often known as Estuary English . The term is a term for a milder variety of the "London Accent". The spread of Estuary English extends many hundreds of miles outside London, and all of the neighbouring home counties around London have residents who moved from London and brought their version of London accents with them, leading to interference with

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5208-486: The period between required shutdowns. The latest and most modern type of catalytic reformers are called continuous catalyst regeneration (CCR) reformers. Such units are defined by continuous in-situ regeneration of part of the catalyst in a special regenerator, and by continuous addition of the regenerated catalyst to the operating reactors. As of 2006, two CCR versions available: UOP's CCR Platformer process and Axens' Octanizing process. The installation and use of CCR units

5292-495: The pressure off the defences and main watercourses. There are many smaller estuaries in Essex, including the rivers Colne , Blackwater and Crouch . Small coastal villages depend on an economy of fishing, boat-building, and yachting. The Isle of Sheppey , the Isle of Grain , Canvey Island , Two Tree Island , Havengore Island , New England Island , Rushley Island , Potton Island , Foulness Island and Mersea Island are part of

5376-578: The principal navigation lights, buoys and other marks to the north (port) and south (starboard) of the main deep-water channels of the River Thames from Gallions Reach to the Sunk Light Float. The Thames is in IALA region A so port buoys are red and starboard buoys are green. Racon T Racon T Notes wiki 51°30′N 0°35′E  /  51.500°N 0.583°E  / 51.500; 0.583 Catalytic reforming In addition to

5460-488: The refinery flare system to be recovered and burnt as fuel in the refinery furnaces. The High Vacuum Unit was originally designed to process 3,500 tonnes/day of Kuwait Long Residue. The Vacuum was produced using steam ejectors with salt cooling water condensers. The HVU produced three streams. Short Residue, Waxy Distillate and Blowing Flux. Short Residue was either feed for the Bitumen or used to blend fuel oil. Blowing Flux

5544-541: The refinery of the Old Dutch Refining Company in Muskegon , Michigan . In the years since then, many other versions of the process have been developed by some of the major oil companies and other organizations. Today, the large majority of gasoline produced worldwide is derived from the catalytic reforming process. To name a few of the other catalytic reforming versions that were developed, all of which utilized

5628-405: The reforming reactions is exported for use in the other refinery processes that consume hydrogen (such as hydrodesulfurization units and/or a hydrocracker unit ). The liquid from the gas separator vessel is routed into a fractionating column commonly called a stabilizer . The overhead offgas product from the stabilizer contains the byproduct methane, ethane, propane and butane gases produced by

5712-483: The rest of the UK. In May 2008, the Department for Transport issued a 'Harbour Empowerment Order' for London Gateway , which provided official and statutory powers for the new port and established London Gateway as a legally recognised authority. DP World is now set to invest over £1.5bn to develop the project over the next 10 to 15 years. The Bitumen Unit was in the process of being decommissioned in 2010. The site

5796-404: The same time, the amount of reheat required between the reactors becomes smaller. Usually, three reactors are all that is required to provide the desired performance of the catalytic reforming unit. Some installations use three separate fired heaters as shown in the schematic diagram and some installations use a single fired heater with three separate heating coils. The hot reaction products from

5880-470: The site was purchased by DP World , one of the largest marine terminal operators in the world, as part of the company's purchase of P&O . In May 2007, DP World received outline planning consent for a major new deepwater port on the site, known as London Gateway . In addition to the new port, the development will include one of Europe's largest logistics parks, providing access to London, the South East and

5964-571: The southern approach to the Thames. The Swin (the northern approach) was marked with buoys at the easternmost points of the Gunfleet, Middle and Buxey sands, and by beacons on the Whitaker, Shoe and Blacktail spits. A buoy marked the easternmost point of the Nore sandbank at this time, and three more buoys marked sandbanks in the middle part of the estuary (Spaniard, Red Sand and the Oaze). The Nore Lightship ,

6048-423: The stabilizer is the high-octane liquid reformate that will become a component of the refinery's product gasoline. Reformate can be blended directly in the gasoline pool but often it is separated in two or more streams. A common refining scheme consists in fractionating the reformate in two streams, light and heavy reformate. The light reformate has lower octane and can be used as isomerization feedstock if this unit

6132-610: The stacks. Cooling Water Pumphouse Abbreviated CWPH. The long thin building is the Cooling Water Pumphouse. Some of the process units used water from the Thames to cool the process streams through heat exchangers . The water passed through rotating screens prior to being pumped to the units. The pumps then fed the water into underground ducting which had offtakes to each of the process unit that used it. The more modern units had fin fan cooling. The CWPH also provided water to

6216-431: The system downstream of the knock out vessels that sent any gas back to the refinery gas mains. Should the refinery furnaces be unable to deal with this gas, it would then be burnt via the stacks. When this happened steam at a preset ratio would be injected with the gas to allow it to burn cleanly. The priority of these stacks were determined by a water level in the vessels that the gas passed through prior to entering

6300-428: The third reactor are partially cooled by flowing through the heat exchanger where the feed to the first reactor is preheated and then flow through a water-cooled heat exchanger before flowing through the pressure controller (PC) into the gas separator. Most of the hydrogen-rich gas from the gas separator vessel returns to the suction of the recycle hydrogen gas compressor and the net production of hydrogen-rich gas from

6384-420: The vaporized reactants enter the first reactor. As the vaporized reactants flow through the fixed bed of catalyst in the reactor, the major reaction is the dehydrogenation of naphthenes to aromatics (as described earlier herein) which is highly endothermic and results in a large temperature decrease between the inlet and outlet of the reactor. To maintain the required reaction temperature and the rate of reaction,

6468-413: The vaporized stream is reheated in the second fired heater before it flows through the second reactor. The temperature again decreases across the second reactor and the vaporized stream must again be reheated in the third fired heater before it flows through the third reactor. As the vaporized stream proceeds through the three reactors, the reaction rates decrease and the reactors therefore become larger. At

6552-441: The village of Fobbing , and originally separated Corringham Marsh from Fobbing Marsh. To the east was Shell Haven House . Sources differ on when Shell Haven first became associated with the oil industry; the first edition Ordnance Survey map of the early 19th century shows Oil Mill Farm a mile or so up Shell Haven Creek. Shell Haven was for over 80 years the site of a large Shell oil refinery, but there seems to be no evidence for

6636-718: The workforce to carry out decommissioning and oversee the demolition of the refinery. Shell Haven Refinery was decommissioned and demolished, apart from The Bitumen Plant and some Storage Tanks. The two reactors from the Hydrocracker Unit were transferred to the Shell Rhineland Refinery in Cologne, Germany in July 2004 and added to an already existing unit of four crackers of the same type. The two Shellhaven reactors continued operation in 2005 and are operational until today. In 2006,

6720-609: The world's first lightvessel , was established in the Estuary as a private venture in 1732 to mark the 'best position for entering the Thames and Medway, and to clear the Nore Sand'. The coastwise approach from the north was aided by the establishment of the Sunk lightvessel in 1802 'to mark the north-east entrance to East Swin, and to guide vessels round Long Sand'. Later, the Swin channel was further marked by lightvessels at Swin Middle (1837) and Mouse (1838), and by screw-pile lighthouses on

6804-480: Was 80,000 tonnes. Refinery operations began on a 40 hectares (99 acres) site in 1916 with a distillation plant which produced fuel oil for the Admiralty . In 1919, this unit was converted to manufacture road surfacing bitumen . In 1925, a bench still was erected for the manufacture of lubricating oils ; the first high viscosity oils were produced in 1937. Other plants were erected before the outbreak of war, including

6888-571: Was brought in by oil tankers to the jetties, usually 'B Jetty'. This was then pumped into 100,000 ton capacity tanks. Once the tanks had been checked for water it was then pumped to the Crude Distiller. It was passed through a Desalter unit which washed out salt from the crude oil before it entered the distillation unit. The distiller produced long residue, waxy distillate, butane , propane , kerosene , gas oil (Heavy and Medium)and naphtha . methane and other waste gasses produced went to

6972-575: Was inaugurated in 2013. The term Greater Thames Estuary applies to the coast and the low-lying lands bordering the estuary. These are characterised by the presence of mudflats, low-lying open beaches, and salt marshes , namely the North Kent Marshes and the Essex Marshes. Human-made embankments are backed by reclaimed wetland grazing areas, but rising sea levels may make it necessary briefly to flood some of that land at spring tides , to take

7056-508: Was used in the production of Blown Bitumen. In later years the HVU run on North Sea Long Residue. When the Hydrocracker was commissioned in 1979 the HVU's Waxy Distillate became the HCU's feed. The operators called the HVU, feed prep. The Central Control Room was commissioned in 1992. It was built to provide better control and communications between the process units. Most of the process units apart from

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