It was Foreland Refining as of January 1, 2007. It had 2,000 BPD crude atmospheric distillation capacity. Their website address is now up for sale, so I am guessing that the refinery is closed, or perhaps sold.
You can search this list for similar sized refineries.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/refinery_capacity_data/current/refcap07.pdf
__If this link works, **http://www.mapquest.com/maps/Wood+River+IL/#a/maps/l:::Wood+River:IL::US:38.861099:-90.097504:city:Madison+County/m:hyb:10:38.862735:-90.084733:0::/io:0:::::f:EN:M:/e**__
…you can see a big refinery, as well as the remnants from another. The defunct refinery was Standard Oil. Zoom in a little, and scroll around. There is a LOT of stuff there, and used to be a lot more, when I lived there as a kid.
It was a great happening when the refinery would get hit by lightning and catch fire. There would be people parked next to the refinery fence, sitting on cars, watching the fire.
Rotor
It appears that, like most other industrial facilities, oil refineries come in a wide variety of sizes. Probably the most useful types of refineries (to those of us who want to model a full size refinery in a reasonable space) would be the prefabricated “mini-refineries” currntly on he market or small, used refineries built decades ago that are relocated to third-world countries (usually). Generally the ones that would fit would be less than 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity.
Here are a few items that might be of use in planning a refinery:
Oil & Gas Journal, March 18, 1996 pages 68-70 “Siberian company starts up modular refinery”
This artical has an isometric cadd drawing on the upper half of page 70 (but not in perspective fortunately, so easy to accurately measure off of) of a small skid-mounted modular mini-refinery. I used the 3’-7" height from the bottom of a tower platform to the top of its railing (from a petroleum refining handook) to scale the drawing. It is complete with crude and vacuum towers (65 feet tall each) a reformer unit (which produces hydrogen to create and stabilze gasoline by hydrotreating naptha and kerosene coming from from the crude unit). The crude unit does the initial separation of the crude oil into gases, “light ends” (to reformer) and heavier residues (to the vacuum tower). There are 7 small vertical “common heaters” which are 38-ft tall max including stack, and between 6’-6" and 10’-3" in diameter. I’m guessing the smallest 3 heaters would go with the reformer and at least one each of the larger ones would be with the crude and vacuum towers. The drawing doesnt show any piping though. This looks to be a relatively simple scratchbuilding project except for the cones on top of the heaters. A good idea is to save the sprues from other kits to use as piping (many nice 90-degree curves and Tee connections if you look closely).
T
I would guess the Walthers refinery’s capacity to be around 7,500 BPSD, perhaps up to 10,000 BPSD. Compare it with this aerial photograph of a relatively simple 25,000 BPSD refinery (http://www.sjr.com/capabilities.asp). Another problem with it is that it is little more than a crude distillation unit, you can’t model many more processes with just it.
While these guys don’t have refinery details per se, except for tanks, they do have some pretty nice stuff for the loading facilities and other details. A little more expensive than plastic by just another option.
Rick
The Walther’s kits are actually pretty good, they are just way too small. (For the record, the N scale Walther’s kit should still be available; for the HO kit, you will have to search online.) I have 3 of these kits, and yes, the handrails are too big. Note though, that there was a deluxe version that came with brass handrails that looks a lot better; one of my kits is the deluxe version. I also have one of the Volmer kits. I’m not impressed with it and I don’t think it looks appropriate (even with several kits) by itself. However, it will look okay added to the Walther’s kits. The Plastruct kit looks okay, but is still not appropriate by itself, no matter how many kits you use. Also, the Plastruct and Volmer kits are a bit expensive, at least for what you get.
I will put the deluxe version in the foreground, the two regular versions slightly behind (along with the Volmer kit), and then maybe use various PVC products to make some background structures. And of course I want to find a good backdrop to use as well. I may use N scale kits near the backdrop to represent distant refineries…have not decided yet.
As far as tanks go, I found a large diameter PVC pipe (8 or 10 inch) at Lowe’s that is almost identical in diameter to the Walther’s tall tank; you will have to add the roof of the tank though. These work great for tanks in the background.
bnsf76
IIRC, Plastruct got their start manufacturing miniature parts to be used by petroleum and structural engineers needing to assemble three dimensional models of refineries to make sure everything would fit before assembling the 1:1 scale version.
On a slightly different note, the larger modern refineries, like container ports and steel mills, are probably best modeled as photo murals on the backdrop, with loading racks or similar being the only three-dimensional space consumers.
John Armstrong attacked from the other direction. He put the loading racks, a couple of tanks and a maze of plumbing between the tracks and the fascia line - and ‘modeled’ the (virtual) refinery in the aisleway…
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I had a friend recently do this, he’s building a refinery module set. He took the large diameter PVC pipe and measured for equal horizontal weld lines then used a large hose clamp around the pipe and the back of an exacto blade to scribe them. He added the the vetical lines with a straight edge after he marked the placement. His tanks using floating roofs so he added the stairs with wheels so that as fuel level raises and lowers, so would the stairs. I may be able to post some pics if anyone is interested.
Rick
Edit: Here’s teh pick of the tanks, the one in foreground was built from PVC as were the cluster of 3 towards the back. Agian, these are on a friends module.
Years ago I made a small chemical plant using aluminum cigar tubes for frac columns and variety of shapes like Leggs pantyhose containers for tanks so they can be done fairly cheaply if one wishes to spend the time necessary. That being said I have changed my total approach to modeling large scale plants of any kind at this point. I think they need to modeled in absentia. Put a picture of a large refinery from a distance on your backdrop. Put trees or a hill so only the tops of the various structures show and model the interchange between the plant and the railroad with a track disappearing that the plant switcher would come to the yard to get the cars. The Whiting Indiana BP refinery must get 2-300 tank cars a day as well as catylysts and equipment. The same thing can be done for an auto plant or steel mill much more realistically then trying to compress everything. Peoples imagination will be far more effective than an actual plant leaving room for two or three interchange tracks and will be far better in my opinion.
RedGrey62
Thanks for posting the pic of the tanks. I have been trying to figure out how to scribe lines on them, and I will definately use the hose clamp idea. I love the floating roof.
bnsf76
I had been thinking of adding a bulk oil plant to my layout to generate a need for specialized cars. But after reading about the idea of locating a picture of a refinery as a backdrop and placing the tank loading/unloading rail cars faciltiies in the foreground and for the matter one could also place tanker truck facilities in the foreground as well.
Remember you have very limited real estate at your disposal on most layouts so make the best of backdrops.
There is a prototype for everything.Here is a refinery that has its rail loading/unloading racks a few hundred feet from the rest of the plant.
Or, you could model the refinery, or in this case NGL plant, a few miles from the rail loading/unloading racks, http://www.inergypropane.com/midstream_WC/index.asp.