New Catcracker Commissioning Continues
This week Gazprom neftekhim Salavat proceeded to the final stage of commissioning the Catalytic Cracking Complex, the start-up of which will increase the Company’s production of commercial gasoline.
One of the tensest moments was the adjustment of the centrifugal compressor — a mandatory procedure which implies various tests (dynamic, mechanical and anti-pumping tests, etc) with the design process gas, i.e. the gas received directly from the process. At the site of the Complex there were representatives of the compressor manufacturer’s engineering support, SIEMENS, 24 hours a day. They together with the operating staff performed tuning of compressor parameters in accordance with the plan-schedule of the initial start-up.
During the commissioning works in order to comply with the environmental legislation Gazprom neftekhim Salavat carries out industrial ecological control both on the border of the sanitary protection zone and in the residential area of Salavat. Monitoring is done by an accredited environmental laboratory of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, which has a unique record of accreditation in the register of accredited entities. During the start-up operations of the Catalytic Cracking Complex, the Company arranged additional air monitoring in the area adjacent to the perimeter of the plants, no exceedances of maximum permissible pollutants’ concentration in the ambient air were recorded.
The Catalytic Cracking Complex is aimed to deepen raw hydrocarbons processing by increased volume of vacuum gasoil processing while obtaining a high-octane number of Class 5 commercial gasoline with sulfur content less than 10 ppm.
The start-up of this state-of-the-art Complex will improve the environmental situation at the site and constitute one of the Company’s stages for promising development of the refinery.
In the future, the Catalytic Cracking Complex will replace two obsolete Units: Catcracking-1 and Catcracking-2, which were built in the 1950s.
Today, the current technological scheme of the Company’s refinery includes two Catalytic Cracking Units operating on a ball catalyst. The Complex under construction will use a microspherical catalyst. Its capacity is three times higher than that of the existing Units combined. Commissioning of the new equipment will ensure production of more than 600 thousand tons of additional Class 5 gasoline per year.
The construction of the new Catcracking Complex created 243 additional workplaces.
For reference
Gazprom neftekhim Salavat is one of the largest oil refining and petrochemical complexes in Russia. The Complex was founded in 1948.
The Company is integrated into the Gazprom system. It has the basic advantage: consolidating on a single site a full cycle of crude hydrocarbons processing, petrochemistry and mineral fertilizers production. The Company comprises the Oil Refinery, Gas & Chemical Plant and the Monomer Plant.
Gazprom neftekhim Salavat produces more than 150 items, over 50% of which are bulk products including motor gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, styrene, polystyrene, low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, DOP plasticizer, butyl alcohols, sulphur, ammonia, urea, acrylic acid, butyl acrylate etc.
The products are shipped to all federal subjects of the country. Export supplies of oil products are mainly directed to European and CIS countries. Petro- and gas chemicals are exported to over 30 CIS and non-CIS countries and the largest volumes are shipped to Kazakhstan, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Finland etc.
High quality of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat output is confirmed by certificates of conformity to ISO 9001 and 14001, the international standards of quality and environmental safety.
Enlarged photo (JPG, 1 MB)