atmospheric

The US has more refining capacity than any other country (17MMb/d) and nowhere are refineries as sophisticated. In the past two years US refineries in the Midwest region have been running close to full capacity and refineries in the Gulf Coast region have led a refined product export boom. At the same time, refineries on the East Coast have been shuttered or saved only by a combination of last-minute deal-making and government subsidies. What makes one refinery better than another? Today we walk through the first distillation process in a complex refinery.