History  Teesside refinery built 1966  40 hectare site  Acquired by Petroplus in 2000  7 major sites across UK & Europe

What do They do?  3000 staff across UK and Eurpoe  produce 117,000 barrels  A key strength of the Teesside refinery is their ability to produce low sulphur diesel.  The refinery supplies approx. 17% of all commercial diesel demand in the UK 17%

The Chemistry  Crude oil (mixture of different length hydrocarbon chains)  Imported & heated to around 400 °C  Sent to distillation column.  The column has a temperature gradient (hot at the bottom & cooler at the top)

The column is filled with collecting trays, set at different levels, set into these trays are bubble caps, which are used to prevent fractions from condensing and dropping back into the bottom of the column. The most volatile components, with the lowest boiling points will reach the top of the tower and will be channeled away to be used as bottled and refinery gases. Next, the components with larger hydrocarbon chains will rise up the column, passing through the bubble caps and into the next fractions until the temperature becomes cool enough for condensation. They will then be carried away from the column and stored.

PetroPlus Teesside specialises in Middle distillates, which are sent all over the UK Upper distillates get are sent to refineries and chemical plants in Europe Lower Distillates are sent to refineries and chemical plants in Europe

What else?  Petroplus are a leading company in the manufacturing of Biodiesel!  Branded as Bio Plus  Mineral oil Diesel with methyl esther derrived from renewable sources

Renewable sources Rapeseed oil Palm Oil Soya Used cooking oil