Key Points

• A Marathon Pipe Line site achieved its first EPA ENERGY STAR® Challenge for Industry, a first in the pipeline industry, by cutting energy intensity by 17.1% in one year.
• A pump modification at a booster pump station delivered 6.375 billion Btu in annual energy avoidance.
• The project team noted that this concept can be replicated at other locations with oversized equipment.

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Marathon Pipe Line’s (MPL) LA Basin Area site has achieved the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR® Challenge for Industry. Meeting the Challenge requires industrial facilities to reduce their energy intensity by at least 10% within a five-year period. MPL’s Mobil booster pump station in Southern California surpassed the target with a 17.1% reduction from its established baseline within one year. This is MPL’s first ENERGY STAR® Challenge for Industry and a first for the pipeline industry.

“Our teams were able to identify a project to significantly reduce energy consumption per barrel of product moving through the pipeline,” said MPLX Environmental Manager Sue Barto.

This success came from modifying a pump by removing an impeller stage, so the pump wouldn’t use more energy than required for its function. This project delivered an annual energy avoidance of 6.375 billion Btu, increasing competitiveness of the site by reducing electrical costs.

“By de-staging the Mobil booster pump, we achieved the same flow rate with less energy input,” said Reliability Engineer Tim Hochstettler. “There are other instances where we have oversized impellers, and we can apply this concept to further improve energy usage rates.”

Hochstettler was part of a project team that included Logistics & Storage Central Monitoring Desk Manager Kyle Brown, Lead Reliability Engineer George Lixey and Reliability Engineering Manager Henry Matthews.

A pump modification at the booster pump station delivered 6.375 billion Btu in annual energy avoidance.

Barto noted that pursuing the Challenge for Industry, along with other energy efficiency efforts, provides both environmental and operational benefits.

“From a sustainability standpoint, reducing your need for electricity makes the equipment more efficient and more useful over time.”  

The ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry is a national call-to-action for industrial sites to reduce energy intensity. MPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX LP. MPL’s Mobil booster pump station joins more than a dozen facilities within MPLX that have achieved the Challenge for Industry.