MRPL commissions unit at Mangalore refining complex

March 3, 2015
Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) has started the process of commissioning an integrated polypropylene unit at its refinery in Mangalore, India, following the recent completion of a modernization project designed to increase the capacity and flexibility of crude oil processing at the plant.

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) has started the process of commissioning an integrated polypropylene unit at its refinery in Mangalore, India, following the recent completion of a modernization project designed to increase the capacity and flexibility of crude oil processing at the plant (OGJ Online, June 8, 2010).

The first propylene feed entered the polypropylene unit on Feb. 27, MRPL said in a filing to India’s BSE Ltd. (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange).

The unit is due to begin commercial production of polypropylene shortly, according to the BSE filing.

Commissioning of the 440,000-tonne/year polypropylene unit, which will use the Mangalore refinery’s fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) production of LPG, light distillates, and propylene as feedstock, remains on schedule with MRPL’s most recent timeframe for the project, which targeted the unit’s start-up for late February (OGJ Online, Feb. 13, 2015).

Earlier in the year, MRPL confirmed start-up of other units in the refinery’s Phase 3 expansion, including the 2.2 million-tpy FCC (OGJ Online, Aug. 27, 2014), a 650,000-tpy coker heavy gas oil hydrotreating unit (OGJ Online, May 15, 2014), and a 3 million-tpy delayed coking unit (OGJ Online, Apr. 4, 2014).

MRPL wrapped the long-delayed Phase 3 expansion and upgrading project in late 2014 after it completed start-up of the third train of a three-train sulfur recovery unit, a raw water treatment system, LPG mounded bullet storage tanks, and other related offsite facilities (OGJ Online, Nov. 13, 2014).

Announced in February 2010, the Phase 3 expansion project was designed to increase the refinery’s complexity and profitability by increasing refining capacity to 15 million tpy as well as equip the plant to process lower-cost heavy, sour, and high-TAN crudes.