Bayway Refinery is a refining facility in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York metropolitan area, New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the sy ...

, owned by

Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, assisted in establishing ...

. Located in Linden and

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Morses Creek, it is the northernmost refinery on the East Coast of the United States. The

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

converts

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

(supplied by tanker ships from the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

and by rail from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota) into

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by Gas turbine, gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for ...

propane Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...

and

heating oil Heating oil is any petroleum product or other oil used for heating; it is a fuel oil. Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers for home heating and in other buildings. Home heating oil is often ...

. As of 2007, the facility processed approximately of crude oil, producing of gasoline and of distillates. Its products are delivered to East Coast customers via

pipeline transport A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

s and

tank truck A tank truck, gas truck, fuel truck, or tanker truck (American English) or tanker (British English) is a motor vehicle designed to carry liquids or gases on roads. The largest such vehicles are similar to railroad tank cars, which are also desi ...

s. The facility also houses a

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable s ...

plant which produces lubricants and additives and a

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer Propene, propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefin ...

plant that produces over 775 million pounds of polypropylene per year. The refinery has its own railway

container terminal A container port, container terminal, or intermodal terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land v ...

and heliport. The workers at the plant have been unionized under the

International Brotherhood of Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a diverse members ...

(Local No. 877) since 1960. The refinery has had and continues to have environmental issues, culminating in the major $225 million Exxon Mobil-New Jersey Environmental Contamination settlement. A 2010 investigative report conducted by

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, WABC-TV maintains studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood ...

, the ABC flagship station in New York City, characterizes the Bayway Refinery as a "repeat offender" of environmental regulations.

History

In 1907,

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

founder

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

acquired several hundred acres of the former Morse family estate between Linden and

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.William C. Koehler (c1880-1953). The facility began processing an initial of crude oil per day. Capacity was expanded to an estimated by 1911. Over the next several years the plant continued expanding and increasing capacity and workforce. In 1911, Standard Oil was broken up into smaller units in accordance with the

Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. It was passed by Congress and is named for S ...

. One of these successor companies was Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the precursor to Esso and later Exxon, which retained the ownership of the Bayway facilities. Bayway became a leading research facility within the S.O. New Jersey enterprise. It was the first facility in the United States to employ the use of

hydrogenation Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to redox, reduce or Saturated ...

process to get greater yields from its crude products, and in 1919 scientists at Bayway created the world's first

isopropyl alcohol Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable, organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. Isopropyl alcohol, an organic polar molecule, is miscible in water, ethanol, an ...

. The

Ethyl Corporation Ethyl Corporation is a fuel additive company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. The company is a distributor of fuel additives. Among other products, Ethyl Corporation distributes tetraethyl lead, an additive used to make ...

, a joint venture of

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

and

, built a plant for the manufacture of

tetraethyl lead Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It was widely used as a fuel additive for much of the 20th century, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 192 ...

(TEL, the "lead" in leaded gasoline) at the refinery over the course of three months in 1924. Within the first two months of its operation, the facility had seventeen cases of severe

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...

leading to hallucinations and insanity, and then five deaths in quick succession. The plant was shut down by the state of New Jersey in October, and Standard Oil was forbidden to manufacture TEL there again without state permission.Kovarik, Bill.
Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 Discovery of Tetraethyl Lead In the Context of Technological Alternatives
", presented to the ''Society of Automotive Engineers Fuels & Lubricants Conference'', Baltimore, Maryland., 1994; revised in 1999. During World War II, the plant constructed its first catalytic cracker, or "cat cracker", which went into operation on January 18, 1943. This development proved essential to the production of fuel to support the Allied war effort, especially high-octane aviation fuel, and also allowed the production of synthetic butyl rubber and materials used to manufacture explosives. After the war, the use of coal for heating declined sharply in the United States. In 1947, Esso invested $26 million in a refinery expansion program to meet an increased post-war demand for gasoline and heating oil, and constructed a second, much larger catalytic cracker with an initial processing capacity of , replacing the original 1943 unit. The "Cat" came online in October 1949 and was the largest in the world during the twentieth century, and as of 2008 was the largest in the western hemisphere. In 1965 Enjay Chemical, a subsidiary of the Esso Chemical Company (which later became Exxon Chemical) in the Standard Oil Company New Jersey (known publicly mostly by the Esso, Enco and Humble brands) assumed all of the chemical processing assets and products at Bayway. In 1973, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was renamed

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

, and the facility likewise became known as the ''Exxon Bayway Refinery''. On the night of December 5, 1970 a series of powerful explosions occurred at the refinery, resulting in multiple injuries but no fatalities in and around the plant. Windows were shattered as far away as

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, and the explosion was felt more than thirty miles away. 1976 brought about the installation of the most iconic structure at the refinery, the Wet Gas Scrubber. Visible from the New Jersey Turnpike with its giant plumes of water vapor, this device eliminates 7-8 tons of dust per day as well as gases generated from the catalytic cracking process. To this day it is recognized as one of the most efficient and effective units of its kind in the world. In 1979, another "massive early morning explosion and fire at an Exxon refinery in Linden, N.J., injured seven persons, two seriously, and shook buildings four miles away" including the destruction of a process unit. On the night of January 1–2, 1990, a cracked underwater pipeline leaked about of fuel oil into the Arthur Kill. Because the waterway was already so heavily industrialized, Exxon argued that it should not have to pay any damages. The court disagreed, ordering the company to pay $15 million in reparations. On April 8, 1993, the Tosco Corporation finalized proceedings to purchase the refinery from Exxon for a sum of $175 million, although the Exxon Chemical Company continued to run the Chemical Plant. During this time Bayway was operated by Bayway Refining Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tosco Corporation. Under the direction of Tosco, Bayway was able to reorganize and upgrade the facility, and years of operating at a loss for Exxon in the later 1980s were turned around swiftly. The Morristown and Erie Railway became the contract switcher for the refinery in 1995, and set up the Bayshore Terminal Company to handle the management of 8,000

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American English, American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and International Union of Railways, UIC), also called a tra ...

s full of various refinery products each year. In 1999, the Infineum company (a joint project of Exxon Chemical, Shell International Chemicals and Shell Chemical) took over operation of the chemical plant. Infineum researches and produces

crankcase A crankcase is the housing in a reciprocating engine, piston engine that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, res ...

lubricant additives, fuel additives, and specialty lubricant additives, as well as

automatic transmission fluid Automatic transmission fluid (ATF) is a hydraulic fluid that is essential for the proper functioning of vehicles equipped with Automatic transmission, automatic transmissions. Usually, it is coloured red or green to differentiate it from motor ...

gear oil Gear oil is a lubricant made specifically for transmissions, transfer cases, and differentials in automobiles, trucks, and other machinery. It has high viscosity and usually contains organosulfur compounds. Some modern automatic transaxles ...

s, and industrial oils. Tosco was bought in 2001 by

Phillips Petroleum Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in th ...

, which merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips in 2002 and later spun off downstream, midstream and chemical assets into a new Phillips 66 company in 2012. In 2003 a new

facility went online that produces 775 million pounds per year.

Units

2023 Unit Capacities from the AFPM Survey (also doubles as the US Government EIA Refinery Capacity Survey): Bayway's FCCU is integrated with an onsite polypropylene unit of 775 million lbs per year capacity.

Environmental issues

The refinery was the famous toxic site in question in the 2015 legal settlement between New Jersey and ExxonMobil. In late 2003, the refinery came under scrutiny for a possibly abnormal

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

rate among its work population. As a result, local ABC affiliate

(Channel 7), New York, ran a feature about the refinery. The refinery has since been subject to scrutiny by the

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is a government agency in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is responsible for managing the state's natural resources and addressing issues related to pollution. NJDEP now has a staf ...

and the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...

(OSHA). The refinery has consistently been ranked among the worst polluters in the nation, and has been cited almost 200 times since 2005 for violation of state environmental laws. It is also ranked as the 32nd worst water polluter in the country.

2005 environmental control measures

Thanks to the terms of a settlement with the Department of Environmental Protection, ConocoPhillips stated that it would take the following actions at their Bayway facilities: * Install a cover on the wastewater separator or a new covered separator, and controls, by December 2008. This measure, which would cost approximately $8 million, would reduce emissions of

volatile organic compound Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. They are common and exist in a variety of settings and products, not limited to Indoor mold, house mold, Upholstery, upholstered furnitur ...

s, (VOCs) at the treatment unit by 95 percent. * Install a new fuel gas system by December 2010 to burn cleaner natural gas instead of fuel oil, reducing SO2 emissions by thousands of tons per year. This would cost $28 million to $38 million. * Install new pollution controls on heaters and boilers by December 2010 at cost of $20 million, reducing annual NOx emissions by approximately 900 tons. * Reduce emissions of VOCs by implementing an enhanced leak detection and repair program. * Reduce VOC and acid gas emissions by minimizing flaring. * Audit and reduce benzene emissions.

References

External links

state.nj.us January 27, 2005
"ConocoPhillips to Spend $60 Million to Reduce Pollution at Bayway Refinery" *
The Center for Public Land Use: Bayway RefineryPhillips 66 website
*https://www3.epa.gov/region02/waste/exxon750.pdf {{Phillips 66 Phillips 66 Buildings and structures in Elizabeth, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Union County, New Jersey Energy infrastructure completed in 1909 Energy infrastructure in New Jersey Linden, New Jersey Oil refineries in the United States Port of New York and New Jersey 1909 establishments in New Jersey