Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
Dangote Oil Refining Co. (DORC), a division of Nigerian conglomerate Dangote Industries Ltd. (DIL), has let a contract to DuPont Clean Technologies, a division of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., to provide a range of technology licensing, design services, and equipment for a series of units at its grassroots integrated refining complex now under construction in southwestern Nigeria's Lekki Free Trade Zone (OGJ Online, Nov. 25, 2013).
As part of the contract, DuPont will supply its proprietary technology licensing, design, and equipment for a 27,000-b/sd STRATCO alkylation unit as well as a 260-tonne/day MECS sulfuric acid regeneration unit, both of which will enable the refinery to produce high-octane, low-sulfur, low-RVP alkylate containing zero olefins, the service provider said.
DuPont's scope of delivery also includes licensing, design, and equipment for its proprietary MECS DynaWave tail gas scrubbing and BELCO EDV stack scrubbing units to help the refinery meet gasoline-pool octane and emissions requirements.
Designed to meet global standards for particulate matter and SOx emissions, the DynaWave wet gas scrubber will ensure full-time compliance with emissions regulations on both of the refinery's 115-tonne/day sulfur recovery units (SRU). The BELCO EDV wet gas scrubber, which will reduce stack emissions from the complex's fluid catalytic cracking unit, also will provide a purge treatment to condition the scrubber effluent, DuPont said.
The Lekki refinery's SRUs and FCCU, however, will be supplied by other licensors (OGJ Online, Apr. 27, 2017; Mar. 13, 2017; May 13, 2015).
While DuPont disclosed neither the value nor duration of the recent contract, the service company did confirm the refinery remains on schedule to be completed during fourth-quarter 2019.
Alongside a 650,000-b/d crude distillation unit and 3.6 million-tonne/year polypropylene plant, the $12-billion Lekki integrated complex will include a fertilizer plant and a subsea pipeline project.
DIL's privately held DORC refinery joins a series of other projects under way by the Nigerian government to modernize and expand capacities of refineries operated by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. as part of a strategy to meet Nigeria's domestic demand for refined products and reduce its reliance on foreign imports (OGJ Online, June 22, 2017; Jan. 2. 2017).