Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) has let a contract to Dastur International Inc. and Lummus Technology LLC to jointly execute a feasibility study for a petcoke gasification project at BPCL’s 15.5-million tonne/year (tpy) Kochi refinery at Ambalamugal, Ernakulam district, in the Indian state of Kerala.
Funded by the US Trade and Development Agency as part of its mission to promote development of sustainable infrastructure projects and foster economic growth in partner countries, the feasibility study will evaluate various options to arrive at the most appropriate and economically viable blueprint and technology architecture for the proposed project, which aims to enable the refinery to produce high-value petrochemical products and clean fuels like hydrogen in a cost-competitive and sustainable manner from its delayed coker’s more than 1.2-million tpy production of petcoke, Dastur said on July 7.
As lead contractor, Dastur, Ridgewood, NJ, will execute the project using its teams across the US and India, including Austin, Tex.-based affiliate Dastur Energy, which will provide knowhow and operating frameworks around gasification, carbon engineering, and low-carbon energy models, as well as expertise in the areas of intellectual property, energy engineering, energy supply chains, energy economics, energy policy, low-carbon fuels, and carbon capture used in conception and design of clean-energy systems. Affiliate MN Dastur & Co. also will participate in the project.
The feasibility study comes as part of BPCL’s strategy to transform its petcoke output into an environmentally friendly feedstock for production of clean-energy products ahead of what are likely soon-to-be increased regulatory restrictions on the refining byproduct.
“Refinery capacity and output is rapidly growing in India. With the increasing use of heavier and sour crudes, sustainable utilization of petcoke from refineries is a concern,” said Murali Madhavan, BPCL’s executive director for the Kochi refinery.
Earlier in the year, BPCL’s Kochi refinery became India’s first exporter of very low-sulfur fuel oil that complies with the International Marine Organization’s new regulations requiring ships to use marine fuels with a sulfur content below 0.5% (OGJ Online, Feb. 11, 2020).
BPCL also is proceeding with a project to build an integrated petrochemical complex at the Kochi refinery that, once completed, will transform the manufacturing site into India’s largest public sector unit refinery (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2020; Aug. 19, 2019).
Aimed at reducing India’s dependence on chemical imports, the integrated refinery expansion complex (IREC) at Kochi will double the site’s production of LPG and diesel, as well as enable production of feedstock for petrochemical projects at the plant. The proposed IREC petrochemical complex is scheduled to come on stream sometime during 2023-24.
