PJSC Gazprom Neft will invest more than 5.2 billion rubles on a project to upgrade and modernize the existing 767,000-tonne/year delayed coking unit (DCU) at its 21.4 million-tonne/year Omsk refinery in Western Siberia as part of its ongoing modernization program to reduce environmental impacts and improve processing capacities, conversion rates, energy efficiency, and production qualities at the site (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2013).
Alongside increasing overall DCU efficiency as well its ability to further process heavy oil residues, the overhaul project specifically will equip the coker with new technology to enable production of 38,700 tpy of raw needle coke, a highly structured, low-metal, low-sulfur carboniferous raw material used in the metallurgical, nuclear, chemical, and space industries, Gazprom Neft said.
The project—for which Gazprom Neft has selected JSC Giprogazoochistka, Moscow, to deliver engineering design—will include the following:
• Complete replacement of three aging coke drums with new bimetallic steel drums manufactured by JSC Volgograndneftemash, Volgograd, that will be equipped with a sliding (opening-closing) valve system.
• Construction of an additional storage facility for needle coke production.
• Installation of a new column for treatment of secondary raw materials.
• Construction of a new explosion-proof control room.
• Installation of automatic gas-analysis resources, fire safety equipment, and an automated steam-supply system.
The project also will reduce environmental impacts from operations at the site by 75% as a result of deeper treatment of coker gas, Gazprom Neft said.
Once completed, the revamped DCU will become Russia’s first plant capable of producing needle coke, which will be sent to a petroleum coke calcination facility for further processing into finished product for production of graphite electrodes.
The modernized DCU, however, will continue to produce anode coke alongside needle coke, according to the operator.
Gazprom Neft, which will begin installation of large-size equipment for the DCU revamp in 2018, did not disclose a definitive timeframe for when it will commission the modernized coker.
As part of its second-phase Omsk modernization works, the operator recently completed installation of major equipment for a new 2 million-tpy advanced oil refining complex (AORC) as well as began construction of a grassroots 2 million-tpy DCU at the site (OGJ Online, July 26, 2017; July 12, 2017).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].