CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Co. Ltd., the refining arm of China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), has completed successful performance testing of a diesel liquid-phase hydrogenation (DHT) unit for production of China VI diesel at subsidiary CNOOC Huizhou Petrochemicals Co. Ltd.’s two-phased 440,000-b/d Huizhou refinery in China’s Guangdong province.
CNOOC completed calibration of the 68,300-b/d DHT unit—based on E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. division DuPont Clean Technologies’ proprietary IsoTherming technology—at 100% load during third-quarter 2018, with the system meeting all design requirements and product quality targets, DuPont said.
Earlier in 2018, the refinery also successfully started up a 52,200-b/d IsoTherming vacuum gas oil hydrogenation unit, the service provider said.
The DHT unit consumes only 4.55 kg of oil equivalent/tonne of raw materials, far lower than the traditional trickle-bed unit energy consumption, said Chen Chun, chief engineer of CNOOC’s refining and marketing division.
This latest unit follows DuPont Clean Technologies’ previous licensing of its proprietary emissions-lowering technology at the refinery, including its BELCO wet-scrubbing catalytic cracking flue gas desulfurization technology for two fluid catalytic cracking flue gas dedusting units with capacities of 24,000-b/d and 96,400-b/d, respectively.
The Huizhou refinery also includes a DuPont Clean Technologies-licensed 3,200-b/d STRATCO alkylation unit to convert low-value isobutane and olefins into high-value alkylate, a key ingredient for the production of clean gasoline, the service provider said.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].