Phillips S Zorb Clean Fuels Project

Fluor provided the design, engineering and procurement for a new low sulfur gasoline unit to be installed at Phillips Petroleum Company's refinery in Borger, Texas. This 6,000-barrels-per-stream-day unit was the first commercial scale application of the Phillips S Zorb process for reduction of sulfur in gasoline.

Client's Challenge

The S Zorb process was a new desulfurization technology developed by Phillips to meet the latest governmental regulations for low sulfur gasoline.

This project served as a demo plant to test the proprietary S Zorb technology to prove the technical and operational viability of the unit and provide test data for licensing and marketing efforts.

Fluor's Solution

During the Approved for Design phase, Fluor developed a detailed plan and cost estimate for the project. Long lead equipment was purchased to support the fast track schedule. Fluor prepared the detailed design and deliverables necessary to construct the unit during the EPC phase. All purchases were placed, and the cost estimates and schedules were updated as required.

The project was both cost and schedule driven. Several million dollars of capital cost savings, representing a significant portion of the plant's original capital cost estimate, were saved through the efforts of the joint Phillips/Fluor team. As the unit was a first-of-its-kind technology, Phillips' research & design personnel made a design change to accommodate their findings during fluidization testing while the detailed design effort was underway. This change was absorbed by the team without a significant schedule impact.

Conclusion

Fluor completed the S Zorb demo plant project in 2000.