PKN Orlen lets contract for Plock refinery

Sept. 13, 2019
PKN Orlen let a contract to Honeywell UOP to provide process technology designed to increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve flexibility of gasoline production at its 327,300-b/d integrated refining complex in Plock, Poland.

PKN Orlen SA has let a contract to Honeywell UOP LLC to provide process technology designed to increase production of ethylene and aromatics, as well as improve flexibility of gasoline production, at its 327,300-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Plock, Poland.

As part of the project, which is currently in the basic engineering stage, Honeywell UOP will license its proprietary MaxEne process, which separates full-range naphtha into a stream of normal paraffins ideal for steam crackers because they produce high yields of light olefins, and a second stream of isoparaffins, naphthenes, and aromatics ideal for catalytic reforming units because they produce high yields of aromatics.

Specifically, UOP MaxEne technology is designed to improve molecule management and increase the production of light olefins by as much as 30% and production of aromatics by as much as 12%.

PKN Orlen will be the first refining and petrochemicals company in Europe to use the Honeywell UOP MaxEne technology.

Honeywell UOP disclosed neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for the project’s implementation.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].