Refinery
noun
A place where a raw material like oil, sugar or metals is processed to be made pure.
The oil refinery processes crude oil into gasoline and other products.
Often appears as...
- oil refinery
- sugar refinery
Usage tips
Technical
noun
A place where a raw material like oil, sugar or metals is processed to be made pure.
The oil refinery processes crude oil into gasoline and other products.
Often appears as...
- oil refinery
- sugar refinery
Usage tips
Technical
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Industrial Scale
Refineries are large industrial complexes, not small-scale workshops or laboratories.
The city's skyline is marked by the massive structures of several refineries.
Pro Tip 2/3Associated with Pollution
Refineries can be controversial due to pollution and environmental concerns.
Local activists are concerned about the proposed refinery near the river.
Pro Tip 3/3Economic Significance
Refineries are critical to the economy, impacting jobs and product prices.
The new refinery is expected to boost the country's fuel production.
Pro Tip 1/3Industrial Scale
Refineries are large industrial complexes, not small-scale workshops or laboratories.
The city's skyline is marked by the massive structures of several refineries.
Pro Tip 2/3Associated with Pollution
Refineries can be controversial due to pollution and environmental concerns.
Local activists are concerned about the proposed refinery near the river.
Pro Tip 3/3Economic Significance
Refineries are critical to the economy, impacting jobs and product prices.
The new refinery is expected to boost the country's fuel production.
Pro Tip 1/3Industrial Scale
Refineries are large industrial complexes, not small-scale workshops or laboratories.
The city's skyline is marked by the massive structures of several refineries.
Pro Tip 2/3Associated with Pollution
Refineries can be controversial due to pollution and environmental concerns.
Local activists are concerned about the proposed refinery near the river.
Pro Tip 3/3Economic Significance
Refineries are critical to the economy, impacting jobs and product prices.
The new refinery is expected to boost the country's fuel production.
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Video examples
Fossil fuel companies...
The simplest option is to capture the carbon dioxide as it's generated from the chimney of a power station, or blast furnace, or refinery. You purify it, compress it, and re-inject it back underground. If you inject it deep enough and into the right rock formations, it stays there, just like the hydrocarbons it came from.
Video examples
Danny Hillis: The...
and software got in there that causes the centrifuges, in that case, to actually destroy themselves. Now that same kind of software could destroy an oil refinery or a pharmaceutical factory or a semiconductor plant. And so there's a lot of -- I'm sure you've read a lot in papers, about worries about cyberattacks
Video examples
Whatever happened to...
Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide can appear naturally as a short-lived byproduct of volcanic eruptions or lightning strikes. But power plants, refineries, and vehicles that use fossil fuels consistently pump large quantities into the air.
Video examples
Kathy Hannun: How to...
to form from dead plankton. So there's that issue. We drill these incredibly deep holes to get it. Then we pipe it, truck it and ship it in tankers across the world to refineries, which are these incredibly expensive industrial facilities
Video examples
Plastics 101 PIPE National...
as they provide a cheap alternative to plastic made from plants. The first step in the production of plastic is the extraction of crude oil and natural gas from the ground. From there, the fossil fuels are sent to refineries
Video examples
The people who caused...
we made our homes alongside landfills, incinerators, oil refineries, power plants and waste-treatment plants. In neighborhoods that serve as the sacrifice zones to fuel the economy of this nation and, oftentimes, the world.
Video examples
Edward Burtynsky:...
But what's really, to me, frightening about the picture and about this billboard is the refinery in the background. So it's like marrying up all the things that we have and it's an adaptation of our way of life, full stop.
Video examples
What would happen if...
So what would happen if suddenly, every human on Earth disappeared? With no one maintaining them, some of our creations backfire immediately. Hours after we disappear, oil refineries malfunction,
Video examples
The Other Side of Essex...
in terms of Industry there's been asbestos here explosives the petrochemical industry obviously up at Curtin with the oil refineries there this is in many senses a toxic place
Video examples
What really happens to...
The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery. The plastic in their bodies was formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together to make monomers.
Video examples
Fossil fuel companies...
The simplest option is to capture the carbon dioxide as it's generated from the chimney of a power station, or blast furnace, or refinery. You purify it, compress it, and re-inject it back underground. If you inject it deep enough and into the right rock formations, it stays there, just like the hydrocarbons it came from.
Video examples
Danny Hillis: The...
and software got in there that causes the centrifuges, in that case, to actually destroy themselves. Now that same kind of software could destroy an oil refinery or a pharmaceutical factory or a semiconductor plant. And so there's a lot of -- I'm sure you've read a lot in papers, about worries about cyberattacks
Video examples
Whatever happened to...
Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide can appear naturally as a short-lived byproduct of volcanic eruptions or lightning strikes. But power plants, refineries, and vehicles that use fossil fuels consistently pump large quantities into the air.
Video examples
Kathy Hannun: How to...
to form from dead plankton. So there's that issue. We drill these incredibly deep holes to get it. Then we pipe it, truck it and ship it in tankers across the world to refineries, which are these incredibly expensive industrial facilities
Video examples
Plastics 101 PIPE National...
as they provide a cheap alternative to plastic made from plants. The first step in the production of plastic is the extraction of crude oil and natural gas from the ground. From there, the fossil fuels are sent to refineries
Video examples
The people who caused...
we made our homes alongside landfills, incinerators, oil refineries, power plants and waste-treatment plants. In neighborhoods that serve as the sacrifice zones to fuel the economy of this nation and, oftentimes, the world.
Video examples
Edward Burtynsky:...
But what's really, to me, frightening about the picture and about this billboard is the refinery in the background. So it's like marrying up all the things that we have and it's an adaptation of our way of life, full stop.
Video examples
What would happen if...
So what would happen if suddenly, every human on Earth disappeared? With no one maintaining them, some of our creations backfire immediately. Hours after we disappear, oil refineries malfunction,
Video examples
The Other Side of Essex...
in terms of Industry there's been asbestos here explosives the petrochemical industry obviously up at Curtin with the oil refineries there this is in many senses a toxic place
Video examples
What really happens to...
The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery. The plastic in their bodies was formed by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together to make monomers.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Franklin Foer
American Writer
Brazil is strewn with ruins of projects - refineries, power plants - begun but never finished. Most of this investment never landed in places or industries that really meshed with the trajectory of the global economy. This wasn't state-of-the art industrial policy. The projects seemed curiously nostalgic.
Quote examples
Dan Coats
American Politician
A major attack on our cyber systems could shut down our critical infrastructure - financial systems, communications systems, electric grids, power plants, water treatment centers, transportation systems and refineries - that allows us to run our economy and protect the safety of Americans.
Quote examples
Craig Venter
American Scientist
Right now, oil is being isolated around the globe, and there is a major effort in shipping, trucking and otherwise transporting that oil around to a very finite number of refineries. Biology allows us to make these same fuels in a much more distributed fashion.
Quote examples
John Shimkus
American Politician
Public-policy-wise, if you want to be consistent, crude oil is a bulk commodity, and you should be able to export it. I would rather the crude go to U.S. refineries to get refined and then export the refined product because we get double, triple the money.
Quote examples
Sherwood Boehlert
American Politician
Having yet another vote on refinery legislation that uses high oil prices as an excuse to weaken environmental protections and to give more legislative gifts to the oil industry is misguided in the extreme.
Quote examples
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
South African Politician
But had they not paid that advance we would have lost much more, we would have started to go and look for the product all over again, the refinery would have stopped working.
Quote examples
Florian Schneider
German Musician
Our studio is in the middle of an oil refinery. There's smoke and fire around it and when you emerge from the studio you hear this hissing sound all around you.
Quote examples
Robert Brady
American Politician
Three quarters of the East Coast's refinery capability is located in the Philadelphia region.
Quote examples
T. Boone Pickens
American Businessman
If you don't have a refinery operating, it's hard to use oil that's available.
Quote examples
Gene Green
American Politician
Refineries are very energy-intensive.
Quote examples
Franklin Foer
American Writer
Brazil is strewn with ruins of projects - refineries, power plants - begun but never finished. Most of this investment never landed in places or industries that really meshed with the trajectory of the global economy. This wasn't state-of-the art industrial policy. The projects seemed curiously nostalgic.
Quote examples
Dan Coats
American Politician
A major attack on our cyber systems could shut down our critical infrastructure - financial systems, communications systems, electric grids, power plants, water treatment centers, transportation systems and refineries - that allows us to run our economy and protect the safety of Americans.
Quote examples
Craig Venter
American Scientist
Right now, oil is being isolated around the globe, and there is a major effort in shipping, trucking and otherwise transporting that oil around to a very finite number of refineries. Biology allows us to make these same fuels in a much more distributed fashion.
Quote examples
John Shimkus
American Politician
Public-policy-wise, if you want to be consistent, crude oil is a bulk commodity, and you should be able to export it. I would rather the crude go to U.S. refineries to get refined and then export the refined product because we get double, triple the money.
Quote examples
Sherwood Boehlert
American Politician
Having yet another vote on refinery legislation that uses high oil prices as an excuse to weaken environmental protections and to give more legislative gifts to the oil industry is misguided in the extreme.
Quote examples
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
South African Politician
But had they not paid that advance we would have lost much more, we would have started to go and look for the product all over again, the refinery would have stopped working.
Quote examples
Florian Schneider
German Musician
Our studio is in the middle of an oil refinery. There's smoke and fire around it and when you emerge from the studio you hear this hissing sound all around you.
Quote examples
Robert Brady
American Politician
Three quarters of the East Coast's refinery capability is located in the Philadelphia region.
Quote examples
T. Boone Pickens
American Businessman
If you don't have a refinery operating, it's hard to use oil that's available.
Quote examples
Gene Green
American Politician
Refineries are very energy-intensive.
Example 1 of 10
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