Essar Oil Ltd, a subsidiary of Essar Energy, on Monday announced the successful commissioning of the amine regeneration unit (ARU), a part of the Phase-I expansion at its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, whose completion will increase the refinery's capacity from the existing 14 million tonnes per annum (300,000 barrels per day) to 18 mtpa (375,000 bpd).
The completion of expansion will also increase its complexity from 6.1 to 11.8.
(The Refinery Complexity Index is a cost-based index. It provides insight into such things as refinery construction costs, replacement value, conversion capability and product slate.)
The project is nearing completion and increased throughput of 18 mtpa will commence by March, the company said here.
An optimisation project is also under execution at the refinery to further increase the capacity to 20 mtpa (405,000 bpd) by September. The capacity expansion, complexity enhancement and subsequent optimisation will give the Vadinar Refinery the capability to process nearly 87 per cent ultra-heavy crudes, which are lower cost than light crudes.
In terms of product yield, the expanded Vadinar Refinery will have the flexibility to produce higher value products, including pet coke, Mr Lalit Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, Essar Oil, said.
The ARU, with 8 mtpa design capacity, is one of the largest such units in the world. Essar Oil is the first refinery in India that will use in the ARU a specially-formulated amine UCARSOL, from Dow Chemicals, that helps achieve better efficiency in gas treating and reduces energy consumption in the ARU.