Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) will receive major heavy equipment ahead of schedule that is to be installed as part of its previously announced program to expand and modernize its 166,700-b/d Vishakhapatnam (Visakh) refinery in Andhra Pradesh on India’s southeastern coast (OGJ Online, Mar. 21, 2017).
Larsen & Toubro Ltd. has completed and flagged off to HPCL a 1,885-tonne hydrocracker reactor—now India’s heaviest—for the Visakh refinery modernization project (VRMP), the service provider said.
This first reactor will join several other hydrocracker reactors weighing more than a combined 2,000 tonnes still being manufactured for the residue-upgradation plant portion of the VRMP, Larsen & Toubro said.
Announcement of the planned delivery—for which a specific timeframe was not disclosed—follows HPCL’s award of a contract to Larsen & Toubro Ltd. subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Ltd. for delivery of engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning services on a 61,300-b/d full-conversion hydrocracker to be added as part of the VRMP (OGJ Online, Dec. 8, 2017).
Since project approval in January 2016, HPCL has let multiple contracts for the brownfield VRMP, which proposes to expand refining capacity of the site to more than 300,000 b/d as well as boost production of low-sulfur fuels conforming to Euro 5 and Euro 6-quality standards. (OGJ Online, Sept. 27, 2018; July 20, 2018; Jun. 11, 2018; Mar. 21, 2018; Mar. 7, 2018; Jan. 5, 2018; Jan. 19, 2016).
The 209.28-billion VRMP remains on schedule for mechanical completion in July 2020, according to HPCL’s web site.
Original project
According to India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, HPCL’s originally proposed 208 billion-rupee VRMP was to add the following units at the refinery:
• A 180,700-b/d crude distillation unit (CDU), which will replace one of Visakh’s three existing CDUs.
• A 66,300-b/d full-conversion, vacuum gas oil hydrocracker.
• A 5,860-b/d naphtha isomerization unit.
• A 62,250 solvent deasphalting unit.
• A 50,200-b/d slurry hydrocracker.
• A 96-tonne/day propylene recovery unit (PRU), which will replace an existing 216-tonne/day PRU.
• Two 113,000-tpy hydrogen generation units (226,000 tpy total).
• Two 360-tonne/day sulfur recovery units (720 tonnes/day total, including tail gas treatment).
• A 36,000-tpy fuel gas pressure-swing adsorption unit.
• A 300-tonne/hr nonhydroprocessing sour-water stripper.
• A 185-tonne/hr hydroprocessing sour-water stripper.
• Two 540-tonne/hr amine regeneration units (1,080 tonnes/hr total).
• A 112,000-tpy sulfur recovery LPG treating unit.
• A 1,000-cu m/hr integrated effluent treatment plant (EFP), which will replace all existing EFPs at the site.
According to the latest project information available from HPCL and general contractor Engineers India Ltd., major processing units at the refinery are scheduled for revamp as follows:
• A 30% capacity expansion of the naphtha hydrotreater in the refinery’s Motor Spirit (MS) block to 30,120 b/d.
• A 35% capacity expansion of the continuous catalytic reforming unit in the MS block to 20, 890 b/d.
• A 30% capacity expansion of the diesel hydrotreating unit to 57,430 b/d.
