Water Conservation The refineries' aggregate water usage increased 52.0% when compared with 2007. The water usage on a normalized basis (gallons per barrel of crude throughput) increased 61.9% compared to 2007.
The largest increase in water usage was at the Philadelphia Refinery due to a process unit expansion. Increased production capacity at the Philadelphia Refinery FCCU began in 2007 with 2008 being the first full year of operation. Included in the project was the installation of a new wet gas scrubber. The wet gas scrubber, used to reduce SOx and NOx emissions, uses large quantities of water as it has a very large evaporation rate. For the other four refineries, aggregate water usage increased 4.1% and normalized usage increased 10.7%.
Water usage at the chemical plants in 2008 decreased 17.8% on an aggregate basis and decreased by 13.9% on a normalized basis when compared with 2007. All six chemical plants reduced their aggregate and five of the six decreased their normalized water usage when compared with 2007.
