By Julie Ann Madden

“This will be one of the premiere refinery projects in the United States,” Hyperion Project Executive J.L. “Corky” Frank told the Union County Planning & Zoning Commission at their Jan. 10 meeting. “It will set the benchmark on environmental standards in the United States,” said Frank. “Any new refineries that will be built tomorrow will be established by this one. Modifications to existing refineries will fall into the same category.” “It will end up being a showplace for United States, South Dakota, Elk Point,” he said. “It will be something that is highly regarded as something to emulate within the industry.” “It takes a long time to design it,” said Frank, explaining one of the key features is the gasification unit which converts by-products into electricity, steam and hydrogen. The final product will be ultra low sulfur gasoline and diesel fuels, said Frank. “There will be no asphalt or no heavy fuel oils as such.” “That is one thing that makes it very good mating of the processes to make something environmentally friendly,” he said, adding they have also eliminated the fluidized catalytic cracker, which is the largest emitter in the refinery of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide  carbon dioxide and particulates.  To create such a facility, it requires a lot of engineering, including a feasibility study to determine if it’s practical and profitable to do so, said Frank, adding the feasibility study is completed as well as the detailed engineering needed to file the air permit. “The next step will be starting a preliminary engineering study to develop the front-end engineering,” said Frank, explaining the final design work will take about two years -- 2010. Then there will be a construction phase of about four years in length. “There is a long planning and engineering piece that goes into the project before you ever start building this thing,” said Frank, “and we won’t start building anything in the process of doing this until we get the permits to be sure that we can build it.”  “We don’t want to have stranded capital by starting to build something and not be able to get the permits,” said Frank, adding the process starts with the rezoning through Union County officials and the state air permit process. “This entire process will then lead to startup of the refinery to start production in 2014.”  The crude oil Hyperion will use will be Canadian crude oil from near Hardisty, Canada, said Frank, adding there will be a pipeline to the site and another to haul transportation fuels to markets. There will also be a rail system, he said, adding the refinery will need an electricity source to provide what their gasification process won’t generate. Other infrastructure will include an onsite fire department and medical facilities, said Frank. “We’d also like to the extent we could know what surrounding communities could make available to us in those types of situations.” Traffic is estimated to be about 100 trucks and one rail delivery each day during construction, he said. The truck traffic will decrease to about 50 once the refinery is operating and rail service will be once every other day. “Approximately 35 of the 50 truck would be gasoline or diesel fuel transports that would take product to service stations in the area,” said Frank. He reiterated there will be an average of 4,500 construction workers with peaks up to a range between 8,000 and 10,000 workers for the length of the construction phase. Once operational, the facility will employ about 1,800 people: pipefitters, welders, carpenters, electricians and “instrument men,” said Frank. “These jobs will be high value jobs in the range of $25 to $30 an hour.” Refinery workers will work 12-hour shifts while office personnel will have “more conventional hours,” he said. “That would generate the big economic impact for the community,” said Frank. “There would be a considerable number of support jobs to support the operation of the refinery as well as other jobs that would be necessary to support the additional people in Union County.” “But in the operation of this facility, our plans are in the development of the structures that we plan to use as far as the community’s concerned, we would plan to create an advisory committee,” said Frank. “Get people involved and try to decide the best process or application to be utilized in running the facility, what should be built, how it would operate, what would be necessary and how we could best come to the decisions together of what we should do to be good corporate citizens within Union County and achieve the goals we have consistent with the community.” “In summary of this, I’ll make the same point as when I started,” said Frank. “This will be a site, a facility that Elk Point would be proud of. As Preston (Phillips) pointed out, there will be no odor. There will be no noise.” “It’ll be something this community can be proud of and can be proud to use as a showpiece,” he added.