The Montreal East Refinery () was an

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, ...

located in

Montreal East Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and formerly

Shell Canada Shell Canada Limited () is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a major part of its business, as ...

's largest refinery. In October 2010, refinery operations permanently ceased and the facility was subsequently converted into a storage terminal.

History

The defunct refinery, the second owned by Shell in Canada, opened on 24 March 1933. It began with three units; the distillation unit, a topping unit, and

cracking Cracking may refer to: * Cracking, the formation of a fracture or partial fracture in a solid material studied as fracture mechanics ** Performing a sternotomy * Fluid catalytic cracking, a catalytic process widely used in oil refineries for crac ...

catalytic unit. In 1947 it was expanded with the building of the

alkylation Alkylation is a chemical reaction that entails transfer of an alkyl group. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting al ...

and catalytic cracking refining units, and the refining capacity of was increased. From 1947 to 1960, the

isomerisation In chemistry, isomerization or isomerisation is the process in which a molecule, polyatomic ion or molecular fragment is transformed into an isomer with a different chemical structure. Enolization is an example of isomerization, as is tautomeri ...

, catalytic reforming, chemicals plants were built and the refining capacity was further increased. During 2002 to 2008, desulphuration units were built and the refining capacity was upgraded to its highest level . On January 7, 2010 Shell Canada announced closing the refinery and converting it to a fuel terminal. On June 4, 2010, following the unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer to take over the plant, Shell Canada announced its plans to move forward to downgrade the refinery into a terminal. The conversion commenced in September 2010, with it permanently ceasing operations as a refinery in October 2010. Approximately 800 jobs were lost.

Description

The refinery consisted of two refining units with capacities of and . It had alkylation, hydro-cracking, reforming catalytic, cracking catalytic, thermal catalytic, isomerisation, and desulphiration units. Its processing capacities included: * of

visbreaking A visbreaker is a processing unit in an oil refinery whose purpose is to minimize the quantity of residual oil produced in the distillation of crude oil and to increase the yield of more valuable middle distillates (heating oil and diesel) by the ...

* of fluid

catalytic cracking Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is the conversion process used in petroleum refineries to convert the high-boiling point, high-molecular weight hydrocarbon fractions of petroleum (crude oils) into gasoline, alkene gases, and other petroleum produc ...

* of semi-regenerative

catalytic reforming Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum naphtha, naphthas from crude oil into liquid products called reformates, which are premium "blending stocks" for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydr ...

* of

hydrocracking In petrochemistry, petroleum geology and organic chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking ...

for distillate upgrading * of catalytic hydrotreating for cat reformer feeds * of hydrotreating for kerosene/jet desulfurization * of API Group I base oil * of unfinished wax. The refinery had 154 oil tanks and more than 450 workers. After its conversion to a storage terminal, the facility receives gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels for distribution.

References

External links

Montreal East Refinery
at Shell Canada (archived)
Map of the refinery

Refinery Reform Campaign
{{Shell oil 1933 establishments in Quebec Industrial buildings and structures in Montreal Oil refineries in Canada Shell plc buildings and structures Montréal-Est

History

Description

See also

References

External links