Construction work on the Esso Refinery Rotterdam started in 1958 and, in May 1960, the refinery was officially opened. The plant has been regularly modernized throughout its life and during the last major modernization in the mid eighties a FLEXICOKER was installed. This is a thermal cracker installation that converts the heaviest ground fractions from the vacuum distillation process into lighter products such as gas oil (diesel).

What We Do

The refinery processes different types of crude oil. These are supplied by ship to the tank parks on the Maasvlakte and in Europoort where they are stored and then piped to the refinery for processing. The oil is heated and then separated into different fractions by atmospheric distillation. These fractions are desulfurized and then stripped of various unwanted substances. The different products are brought up to the required specification through a series of subsequent treatment processes.

The FLEXICOKER was constructed in the mid eighties. Flexicoking® is a specially designed process to convert heavy oil fractions into lighter fractions. The FLEXICOKER is fed with the residue from the so-called vacuum distillation, the heaviest oil fraction in the refinery. These are converted at high temperatures in the FLEXICOKER installations into 70% light oil products and cokes. These cokes are then converted into a low calorific gas to heat the different production processes in the company. The very small amounts of cokes that remain are used in the cement industry. Apart from oil products, the refinery also produces the feed for a cracking plant. In 1992, Esso decided to construct a Hydro Cracker plant to process this into high-grade, sulfur-free raw material for the chemical sector and for low-sulfur diesel fuel production.

Useful to Know

As the furnaces at the refinery use low calorific gas, which is produced by the FLEXICOKER, the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, dust and odors into the atmosphere are at a significantly lower level than other refineries in the Netherlands. The refinery has its own combined heat and power plant (Co-generator or COGEN). The heart of this unit is a gas turbine which uses gas that has been produced in the refinery to generate electricity and steam. This installation provides the refinery to a large extent with its own electricity requirements. The refinery's use of energy is extremely efficient, partly thanks to the combined heat and power plant.

Fact Sheet