Can the capacity of a refinery be varied?
Because the refinery is built to meet a certain flow capacity, all vessels, pumps, controls and other processing equipment are sized to meet the design. Accordingly, the refinery cannot be expanded. If additional capacity is later required, we suggest that duplicate processing equipment be purchased and installed at the original site, where the infrastructure, tanks, operations etc. can be shared. The refinery can be operated at a reduced capacity flow by as much as 50% without losing utility efficiencies.
