India’s BPCL lets contract for Kochi refinery

Oct. 1, 2015
Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL), Mumbai, has let a contract to Porvair Filtration Group Ltd. to supply filter technology to be implemented at its 9.5 million-tonne/year (tpy) Kochi refinery at Ambalmugal, in the Indian state of Kerala, as part an ongoing integrated expansion project designed to boost the plant’s crude processing capacity to 15.5 million tpy by 2018.

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL), Mumbai, has let a contract to Porvair Filtration Group Ltd. to supply filter technology to be implemented at its 9.5 million-tonne/year (tpy) Kochi refinery at Ambalmugal, in the Indian state of Kerala, as part an ongoing integrated expansion project designed to boost the plant’s crude processing capacity to 15.5 million tpy by 2018 (OGJ Online, July 16, 2012).

Porvair Filtration’s scope of work under the contract includes delivery of three of its proprietary Pulsejet blowdown filter systems—which include spent and fresh hopper vessels, Pulsejet valves and reservoir, tube sheets, and control system—that the refinery will use for recovery and containment of catalyst fines, the service provider said.

Porvair Filtration, which will execute the order in partnership with GR Engineering Projects Pvt. Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd., said it expects to complete delivery and installation of components for the Pulsejet blowdown systems by yearend.

In addition to catalyst-fine recovery and containment, the Pulsejet blowdown filter technology will provide the Kochi refinery improved emission controls to help achieve the plant’s environmental regulatory requirements for particulate emissions of less than 50 mg/normal cu m, according to Porvair Filtration.

A value of the contract was not disclosed.

Once completed, the integrated expansion project at Kochi will include a new crude distillation unit, FCCUs, and a delayed coker to enable the production of fuels that meet Europe’s latest emissions standards (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2014; Nov. 19, 2013).

The project also will enable a diversification in the refinery’s output of niche petrochemicals, which will be produced from polymer-grade propylene supplies that result from increased crude processing at the site (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2014).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].