Rhineland refinery

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Godorf, Rheinland Raffinerie, aerial photo (2019)
Rhineland Refinery, North Plant in Cologne-Godorf (cooling towers dismantled in 2017) (photo 2014)

The Rhineland Refinery is operated by Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH . The refinery consists of two parts, the north plant in Cologne-Godorf and the south plant in Wesseling near Cologne, 6 km away . In total, both plants cover an area of ​​approx. 4.4 km². The refinery is the largest in Germany; it emerged in 2002 from the merger of the two previous works.

history

Wesseling and Cologne-Godorf are on the Rhine . The direct location of the works on the Rhine could thus be used in two ways, namely for the extraction of cooling water and for transport by tankers. Another decisive factor in choosing the location was to be located within one of the largest German federal states and in the middle of a metropolitan area. These were the main reasons for setting up or taking over the refineries. From there, the entire Rhineland should be supplied with fuel and heating oils.

History of the Wesseling plant

Wesseling plant seen across the Rhine

The Wesseling plant (official name: Rheinland Raffinerie Werk Süd 50 ° 48 ′ 52.4 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 21.1 ″  E ) was founded on January 27, 1937 by the Union Rheinische Braunkohlen fuel AG . Conceived as a hydrogenation plant , Union Rheinische Braunkohlen fuel AG (UK) produced synthetic fuels from brown coal here.

After heavy bombing raids in 1944, the plant had to be closed. Reconstruction followed after 1945, but since the production of fuels was initially banned after the war, the UK produced methanol and ammonia for the fertilizer industry here. With its own process for the production of methanol, the plant then became the largest methanol producer in Europe in the 1960s. Fuel production started up again as early as 1949, now based on crude oil. In 1989, the processing and sales activities of the UK were brought into DEA Mineralöl AG and the remaining activities were transferred to RWE-DEA AG. In cooperation with the other DEA refineries, the UK Wesseling plant produced high-quality mineral oil products and petrochemical raw materials from then on. In 2004 the refinery was taken over by Shell Deutschland Oil .

History of the Godorf plant

100 m distillation column of the Godorf refinery

The Godorf plant (official name: Rheinland Raffinerie Werk Nord 50 ° 51 ′ 35 ″  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 4 ″  E, coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 35 ″  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 4 ″  E ) was opened on July 15, 1960 Opened as the largest refinery of Deutsche Shell AG by the Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy and Water Management, Siegfried Balke . At that time, the plant was already the largest refinery of what was then Deutsche Shell AG, with an initial annual throughput of four million tons of crude oil.

During the economic boom of the following years, the demand for crude oil products increased more and more. In 1967, after extensive expansion measures, a second complex of distillation and processing plants was able to start operations. A milestone in the plant's history was the installation of an isomerization system, with the help of which the octane number of the gasoline could be guaranteed even with a low lead content. In the 1980s, a new conversion system was introduced that converts heavy heating oil into lighter products and heavily desulphurised raw materials. The efficiency of the conversion plant was improved in 2005 by expanding the four existing hydrocrackers by two identical crackers from the closed Shell Haven refinery .

Connection of the two parts of the factory

In order to use synergies and to secure the economic future of the two locations, shortly after the takeover of the Wesseling location, considerations were made to connect the two plants with one another using product pipelines. In the so-called "CONNECT project" the connection of the two parts of the plant on the left bank of the Rhine was realized by laying a bundle of lines in the area of ​​the retention area on the right bank of the Rhine between Porz-Langel and Niederkassel-Lülsdorf with two crossings under the Rhine. Among other things, the Connect pipeline transports raw materials for the production of low-sulfur heating oil and gasoline. Construction of the 3.8 kilometer pipeline section began on July 18, 2011. On July 23, 2013, the pipeline was officially put into operation.

Products

Typical products are made in the refinery such as:

Furthermore, petrochemical substances such as:

capacity

  • Godorf plant = 9 million tons per year
  • Wesseling plant = 7 million tons per year

Both refineries have a capacity to process a total of 17 million tons of crude oil per year (as of 2017).

The feedstock ( crude oil ) for both plants is delivered directly from the oil port in Rotterdam via the Rotterdam-Rhine pipeline . In addition, the south plant in Wesseling is connected to the north-west oil pipeline at Wilhelmshaven.

Products are transported by road, rail, barge and pipeline ( Rhein-Main-Rohrleitung RMR , CEPS ).

Employee

Around 1,500 people from a wide variety of disciplines are employed in production and administration in both plants. There are also around 1,500 employees from specialized partner companies, so-called contractors. Overall, they produce around ten percent of the diesel and petrol consumed in Germany, around 15 percent of the kerosene consumed in Germany and products for the chemical industry.

Incidents

Burning toluene tank on January 9, 2014, a few minutes after the explosion.

Accidents

On March 23, 2000, due to a technical defect in one of the two crude oil distillations, a major fire broke out, as a result of which this part of the plant was largely destroyed and the crude oil refining could only be operated with reduced capacity for weeks. Shell put the internal damage at 20 million euros. A hot pump was named as the cause, which suddenly released gases under high pressure and temperature when it burst. These ignited on the hot pump parts in a first explosion and fired a storage container, which burst after a few minutes in a second explosion. Flashes of up to 40 meters high, visible from afar, were reported above the plant. People were not harmed. According to the fire brigade, there was no risk to the population.

On January 9, 2014, shortly before 3 p.m., a fixed roof tank with toluene exploded, followed by fire. The tank could be extinguished by several fire brigades around 16:30.

On January 16, 2015 at around 7:30 a.m. there was a technical malfunction in the north plant in Cologne-Godorf, which meant that production had to be stopped and the corresponding systems shut down. The substances still in the systems had to be flared in a controlled manner. All day long there was odor and noise pollution in the south of Cologne on the left and right of the Rhine.

Environmental damage

In spring 2012, Shell first hit the headlines in the local press when it became known that kerosene (aviation fuel) had leaked into the ground from an underground pipeline at the Wesseling plant (official name: Rheinland Raffinerie Werk Süd) . Employees discovered the damage due to irregularities in the readings. The kerosene seeped into the ground unnoticed for about four weeks. Shell initially stated the size and volume to be 120 m² and around 1 million liters. The quantities removed using pumps did not meet the expectations of the district government and provoked their criticism of Shell's crisis management. In August 2012, groundwater contamination was detected at four measuring points. According to the district government, the expansion in September was 9400 m², about 80 times greater than initially assumed.

Another incident occurred in early October 2012. About 4400 liters of a refined product called Heartcut had run into the ground. It is a middle distillate with a high aromatic content and a benzene content between 30 and 70 percent. The district government thereupon ordered an announced revision of the entire pipeline network. Between 2013 and 2018, Shell checked around 17,500 lines and had several kilometers replaced as a precaution. The general renovation is said to have cost more than 150 million euros and is nearing completion (as of April 2018).

In July 2020, the WDR reported that a leak in a pipeline, which was discovered by chance in April 2020, had leaked up to 450,000 liters of light diesel oil and seeped into the ground. According to the operator Shell, improperly executed road construction work is the cause. To combat the damage, two pumps are already in use to lower the groundwater level, which the Cologne district government wants to expand with two more rehabilitation wells.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shell refinery in Cologne-Godorf: cooling towers are gradually being dismantled. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , November 25, 2016, accessed on January 3, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Brochure on the history of the Rhineland refinery , published by Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH
  3. ^ Special page in the Neue Ruhr Zeitung from July 15, 1960
  4. ↑ Shell Deutschland Oil: Rheinland Raffinerie officially puts “Connect” into operation ( Memento from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed October 16, 2013.
  5. ↑ SASOL contract with CONDEA (PDF; 24 kB)
  6. ↑ About the Shell Rheinland refinery. In: shell.de. Retrieved May 26, 2018 .
  7. ↑ RP-Online v. March 24, 2000 Largest German Shell refinery partially destroyed . Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  8. ↑ Central reporting and evaluation center for incidents and malfunctions in process engineering systems: Datasheets 2000. (PDF; 275 kB) Federal Environment Agency , 2002, pp. 36–38 , archived from the original on June 12, 2012 ; Retrieved October 21, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Explosion at Shell - toxic toluene escaped. RP Online from January 9, 2014.
  10. ↑ Important notice from the Cologne Fire Brigade to the population on the City of Cologne website
  11. ↑ Disturbance in the refinery - stink of rotten eggs over the south of Cologne - Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from January 16, 2015
  12. ↑ Shell Safety Data Sheet Heartcut ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on January 15, 2017 (PDF). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.shell.com
  13. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Shell: Justice determined because of leaks
  14. ↑ Birgit Lehmann: Six years after the kerosene leak: 17,500 lines at Shell checked and replaced. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadtanzeiger , March 1, 2018, accessed on May 26, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Margret Klose: Nordtrasse Shell: New platform offers Wesseling citizens a view of the construction site. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadtanzeiger , May 11, 2018, accessed on May 26, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Up to 450,000 liters seeped away: Shell refinery in Cologne contaminates soil. In: wdr.de. Westdeutscher Rundfunk, July 22, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Rheinland Raffinerie  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ This Federal Ministry was a forerunner of the later Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety .