Hungary’s state-owned MOL PLC, a subsidiary of MOL Group, Budapest, has let a contract to Axens for the upgrade and modernization of the mild hydrocracking unit at its 161,000-b/d Danube refinery in Szazhalombatta, Hungary.
Axens’s scope of work will include the revamp of the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking unit-feed hydrotreater and mild hydrocracking unit using its latest catalyst series, which enables conversion increases without major modifications to reactors and main equipment, Axens said.
The modernization project is aimed at increasing the Danube refinery’s output of vacuum gas oil and diesel, Axens said.
Neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for the project was disclosed.
MOL was evaluating the possibility of the hydrocracking upgrade at Danube earlier in the year as a way for the refinery to adapt to increased regional demand for diesel, according to a January presentation from Marcus Lippold, vice-president of business strategy and regulatory and public affairs for the company.
