Reliance starts up unit at Jamnagar refinery

June 21, 2016
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Mumbai, has commissioned a benzene recovery unit (BRU) at the domestic-tariff area (DTA) refinery of its 1.24 million-b/d Jamnagar refining and petrochemical complex in Gujarat, India.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Mumbai, has commissioned a benzene recovery unit (BRU) at the domestic-tariff area (DTA) refinery of its 1.24 million-b/d Jamnagar refining and petrochemical complex in Gujarat, India.

Designed to reduce the amount of benzene from light naphtha produced from DTA refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) units for upgrading to fuels that meet Euro 3 and 4 quality specifications, the BTU produced its first on-specification raffinate for blending and sales on May 23, RIL said in a filing to India’s BSE Ltd. (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange).

Based on proprietary technology created by RIL and Indian Institute of Petroleum at Dehradun, the new unit uses an extractive distillation process using a robust and selective solvent that enables a 99 vol % or higher benzene-recovery rate (extracted and upgraded to cyclohexane-grade benzene) and raffinate product containing 0.2 vol % or less benzene, RIL said.

While RIL confirmed Technip SA served as detailed engineering contractor for the project, the company did not disclose details regarding the new unit’s capacity.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].