Pine Bend Refinery
Location: Rosemount
Owner: Flint Hills Resources, a unit of Koch Industries.
Employees: 950
Capacity: 320,000 barrels per day
Crude oil source: Canada, North Dakota.
Products: Gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, asphalt, propane, butane, heating fuel, sulfur for fertilizer.
THROUGH THE YEARS
1955: Refinery opens.
1969: Koch Industries purchases controlling interest, renames it Koch Refining.
1990s: Refinery expands.
1998: State fines refinery $6.9 million for spills and oil leaks; Koch launches multiyear cleanup, plus an effort to cut air emissions by 50 percent.
2000: Koch begins restoring 1,600-acre Pine Bend Bluffs nature area on Mississippi River.
2002: Renamed Flint Hills Resources.
2006: Completes $350 million upgrade to produce ultra-low-sulfur diesel and to increase diesel-to-gasoline conversion; begins reusing wastewater to reduce well-water consumption.
2010: Receives Governor's Safety Award for fourth year in a row for protecting workers from injury.
2011: Reduced flaring of waste gases to a record low of eight hours per year.
Source: Flint Hills, Star Tribune research
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Pioneering surgeon has run afoul of Fairview Health Services, though, which suspended his hospital privileges amid an investigation of his patient care.
