VOCATIONAL TRAINING REPORT

INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD.

GUJARAT REFINERY

Submitted by:
Shashank Jha
Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, 2nd year
Department Of Chemical Engineering
Jadavpur University
Kolkata-32

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Mr. Sukumar Ray, DGM (PN), Gujarat Refinery, IOCL,
for giving me the opportunity to interact with experts of the industry at
Gujarat Refinery. I sincerely express my gratitude to Mr.Ashwin Kumar
for guiding me in my study of the subject and for his valuable
suggestions. We would also like to thank the other staff members at the
company for creating an environment conducive for undertaking this
kind of a study. Finally we would like to express my sincere gratitude to
my parents, for helping me to undertake this training and constantly
encouraging me to interact with the experts and make the best use of
the immense opportunities available at the refinery.

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

Table Of Contents
Content
Cover Page
Acknowledgement
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Gujarat Refinery, Overview
Units at GR, IOCL
Product-uses
Block Flow Diagram, GR, IOC
GRSPF
FPU
FCC
PFD-FCC
Product-Processing
GHC
H2 Unit
Hydro-Cracker
VDU
LAB

Page Number
1
2
3
4-5
7-8
9
10
11
12
12
13-17
18
19
20
20-21
22-26
27-28
33-37

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

1. INTRODUCTION
Indian Oil, the largest commercial enterprise of India (by sales
turnover), is Indias sole representative in Fortune's prestigious listing
of the world's 500 largest corporations, ranked 189 for the year 2004.
It is also the 17th largest petroleum company in the world. Indian Oil
has a sales turnover of ` 1, 20,000 crore and profits of ` 8,000 crore.
Indian Oil has been adjudged second in petroleum trading among the
15 national oil companies in the Asia-Pacific region. As the premier
National Oil Company, Indian Oils endeavor is to serve the national
economy and the people of India and fulfill its vision of becoming "an
integrated, diversified and transnational energy major."
Beginning in 1959 as Indian Oil Company Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation
Ltd. was formed in 1964 with the merger of Indian Refineries Ltd. (Est.
1958). As India's flagship national oil company, Indian Oil accounts for
56% petroleum products market share, 42% national refining capacity
and 67% downstream pipeline throughput capacity. IOCL touches every
Indians heart by keeping the vital oil supply line operating relentlessly
in every nook and corner of India. It has the backing of over 33% of the
countrys refining capacity as on 1st April 2002 and 6523 km of
crude/product pipelines across the length and breadth of the country.
IOCLs vast distribution network of over 20000 sales points
ensures that essential petroleum products reach the customer at
the right place and at the right time
Indian Oil controls 10 of India's 18 refineries - at Digboi, Guwahati,
Barauni, Koyali, Haldia, Mathura, Panipat, Chennai, Narimanam and
Bongaigaon - with a current combined rated capacity of 49.30
million metric tones per annum (MMTPA) or 990 thousand barrels per
day (bpd).
Indian Oils world-class R&D Center has won recognition for its
pioneering work in lubricants formulation, refinery processes, pipeline
transportation and bio-fuels. It has developed over 2,100 formulations
of SERVO brand lubricants and greases for virtually all conceivable
applications - automotive, railroad, industrial and marine - meeting
stringent international standards and bearing the stamp of approval of
all major original equipment manufacturers. The center has to its credit
over 90 national and international patents. The wide range of
brand lubricants, greases, coolants and brake fluids meet stringent
international standards and bear the stamp of approval of all major
original equipment manufacturers.
4

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

Indian Oil operates 17 training centers throughout India for upskilling, re-skilling and multi-skilling of employees in pursuit of
corporate excellence. Among these, the foremost learning centers -the Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management at Gurgaon, the
Indian Oil Management Center for Learning at Mumbai, and the Indian
Oil Management Academy at Haldia -- have emerged as world-class
training and management academies. Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum
Management, the Corporation's apex center of learning, conducts
advanced management development programmes in collaboration with
reputed institutes. It also offers a unique mid-career International MBA
programme in Petroleum Management.
Indian Oil aims at maintaining its leadership in the Indian hydrocarbon
sector by continuous assimilation of emerging Information Technology
and web-enabled solutions for integrating and optimizing the
Corporation's hydrocarbon value chain. It is currently implementing an
IT re-engineering project titled Manthan, which includes an Enterprise
Resource planning (ERP) package which will standardize and integrate
the Corporation's business on a common IT platform through a robust
hybrid wide area network with appropriate hardware.
Refineries
Digboi Refinery, in Upper Assam, is India's oldest refinery and was
commissioned in 1901. Originally a part of Assam Oil Company, it became part
of IndianOil in 1981. Its original refining capacity had been 0.5 MMTPA since
1901. Modernisation project of this refinery has been completed and the
refinery now has an increased capacity of 0.65 MMTPA.

Guwahati Refinery, the first public sector refinery of the country, was built
with Romanian collaboration and was inaugurated by Late Pt. Jawaharlal
Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on 1 January 1962.
Barauni Refinery, in Bihar, was built in collaboration with Russia and Romania.
It was commissioned in 1964 with a capacity of 1 MMTPA. Its capacity today is
6 MMTPA.

Gujarat Refinery, at Koyali in Gujarat in Western India, is IndianOils largest

refinery. The refinery was commissioned in 1965. It also houses the first
hydrocracking unit of the country. Its present capacity is 13.70 MMTPA.

Haldia Refinery is the only coastal refinery of the Corporation, situated

136 km downstream of Kolkata in the Purba Medinipur (East Midnapore)
district. It was commissioned in 1975 with a capacity of 2.5 MMTPA, which has
since been increased to 5.8 MMTPA

Mathura Refinery was commissioned in 1982 as the sixth refinery in the fold
of IndianOil and with an original capacity of 6.0 MMTPA. Located strategically
5

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

between the historic cities of Delhi and Agra, the capacity of Mathura refinery
was increased to 7.5 MMTPA.

Panipat Refinery is the seventh refinery of IndianOil. The original refinery with
6 MMTPA capacity was built and commissioned in 1998. Panipat Refinery has
doubled its refining capacity from 6 MMT/yr to 12 MMTPA with the
commissioning of its Expansion Project.

Bongaigaon Refinery is the eight refinery of Indian Oil. It became the eighth

refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited after merger of Bongaigaon Refinery

& Petrochemicals Limited with IOCL w.e.f. 25th March 2009. It is located at
Dhaligaon in Chirang district of Assam, 200 Kms west of Guwahati.The present
crude processing capacity of the refinery is 2.35 MMTPA. The refinery has two
Crude Distillation Units of 1.35 MMTPA and 1.00 MMTPA capacities, two Delayed
Coker Units each of 0.5 MMTPA capacity, one Coke Calcination Unit of 0.075
MMTPA and Catalytic Reformer of 160,000 MTPA naphtha feed capacity and an
LPG Bottling Plant.
It is believed that the future IOCL refinery Will be Paradeep Refinery. It is
expected to be handover at 2012.
Subsidiary refineries Chennai Petroleum (9.5 MMTPA)

Indian Oil controls 10 of India's 18 refineries with a current combined

rated capacity of
49.30 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA). All refinery units are
accredited with
ISO 9002 and ISO 14001
certifications.

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

GUJARAT REFINERY:
OVERVIEW

AN

The Gujarat Refinery at Koyali in Gujarat in Western India is

Indian Oils largest refinery. The refinery was commissioned in 1965.
Its facilities include five atmospheric crude distillation units. The
major units include CRU, FCCU and the first Hydro- cracking
unit of the country. Through a product pipeline to Ahmedabad and a
recently commissioned product pipeline connecting to BKPL product
pipeline and also by rail wagons/trucks, the refinery primarily serves
the demand for petroleum products in western and northern India.
When commissioned, the Gujarat refinery had a design capacity of
3.0 MMTPA. The capacity has since been increased to its present
capacity of 13.70 MMTPA by low cost debottlenecking. The company
has already commissioned the facilities for MTBE and Butene-1
production. The refinery also produces a wide range of specialty
products like Benzene, Toluene, Food Grade Hexane, solvents, LABFS,
etc. The Gujarat Refinery achieved the distinction of becoming the first
refinery in the country to have completed the DHDS (Diesel Hydro Desulphurisation) project in June 1999, when the refinery started
production of HSD with low sulphur content of 0.25% wt (max.).
A project for production of high value LAB (Linear Alkyl Benzene -which is one of the major raw materials used in manufacturing
detergents) from kerosene streams has been completed recently and
started on 15th August, 2004. In order to meet future fuel quality
requirements, MS quality improvement facilities are planned to be
installed by
200
6.
Some of the salient features of Gujarat
Refinery are:
1) First Riser Cracker FCCU in the
country
2) First Hydro Cracker in the
country
3) First Diesel Hydro Desulfurisation Unit in
the country
4) First spent caustic treatment plant
in refineries
5)
First
automated
rail
loading gantry
7

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

6) First LPG mounded bullets in Indian

refineries
7) State-of-the-art
CETP
8) Quality Management System (ISO9001:2000)
9) Environmental Management System
(ISO 14001)
10) International Safety Rating System (ISRS) LEVEL
9(Highest) First organization in country; one
amongst 30 refineries in world

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

UNITS AT GUJARAT REFINERY

1) GR1
Atmospheric Distillation Units, AU1 & AU2 :
AU5
:
Catalytic Reforming Unit, CRU
:
2) GR2
AU3
UDEX
Food Grade Hexane, FGH
Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, MTBE
BUTENE 1
MMTPA
Pilot Distillation Fraction, PDF

:
:
:

3) GRE
AU4

4.2 MMTPA
3.0 MMTPA
0.33 MMTPA
:
2.7
MMTPA
0.166 MMTPA
0.03 MMTPA
47 MMTPA
:

3.8

:
MMTPA
: 1.2

Vacuum Distillation Unit, VDU

MMTPA
Bitumen Blowing Unit, BBU
Visbreaker Unit, VBU

:
:

0.5
1.6

MMTPA
MMTPA

4) GRSPF
Feed Preparation Unit, FPU-1
Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit, FCCU

:
:

2.0
1.5

MMTPA
MMTPA

5) GHC
FPU-2
:
Hydrogen Generation Unit, HGU-1
:
Hydro Cracking Unit, HCU
:
HYDROGEN-2
:
Diesel Hydro De-Sulfurization Unit, DHDS :
Sulphur Recovery Unit, SRU
:
Nitrogen Unit

2.97 MMTPA
38,000 MTPY
1.2 MMTPA
10,000 MTPY
1.4 MMTPA
88
MMTPD

6) POWER GENERATION & EFFLUENT TREATMENT

Cogeneration Plant, CGP
: 30*3
MW
Thermal Power Station, TPS
:
12*2 + 12.5 MW
10

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

 Combined Effluent Treatment Plant, CETP :

PRODUCT

LPG
Benzene
Toluene
Naphtha
Motor Spirit (90 Octane)
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF)
Superior Kerosene (SK)
High Speed Diesel (HSD)
Light Diesel Oil (LDO)
Low Sulphur Heavy Stoke (LSHS)
Fuel Oil (FO)
Bitumen
n-Heptane
ARO
Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB)
Butene
Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether
(MTBE)
Food Grade Hexane (FGH)

Sulphur

1500 M3/H

END USES

Cooking Gas (marketed as

INDANE)
Raw
material for petrochemicals
Raw material for petrochemicals
Raw material for petrochemicals
Petrol for vehicles
Fuel for jet aircraft
Illuminant, domestic purpose
Diesel locos, trucks, buses, ships
Small engines attached to irrigation
pumps
Fuel
in thermal power stations
Industrial Furnaces/Boilers
Road surfacing
As solvent
Used in aluminium rolling industries
Detergent Manufacture
Co-polymer for producing
polyethylene and
Polypropylene
Blending
in gasoline for increasing
octane
number for
andoil
oxygen
content
Solvent
seed extraction.
Glues/Adhesives for foot wear
Polymerization reactions in
industries like Pharmaceuticals &
printing ink. Retreading of car
Sulphuric
acid and tyre
tyres
manufacture

GUJARAT REFINERY (A Mother Industry)

IPCL
LAB, Cracked LPG
Naphtha, FGH

11

NIRMA
LAB

IFFCO
Naphtha

GSFC
Benzene,
Naphtha
Sulfur,

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

Gujarat Carbon Chemical Ind. Aluminium Ind.

PowerPlants
BUTENE-2

12

Toluene

LARO

LSHS

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

GAS
SR
U
PDF

SULPH
SU PH
UR

FG
H

NHEP/LARO
HEXANE(F
G)

UD E X

BENZENE
TOLUENE
XYLE N E
R EFOR. LPG

CR
U

CRUDE
DISTILLAT IO
N UN ITS I-V

MTB E
NAP HTH

SG

A MS
SK/ATF

CRUD E
NG
CRUD E
BH CRUD E
IMP
CRUD E

VAC UUM
DISTILLATIO
N U NITS I-3

H2U2
VGO

RC O

F L UIDIZ E
D
CATALYTI
C
CRACKIN G
U NIT

D HDS
HSD

LDO
VB U

IndianOi
l
B lo
lock flo w dia g ram
of
Gujar
jara t
Re fin
finery

13

2
H2U1

H2

LSH S / FO

HYDRO
CRACKE R
UNIT
BB
U

BITUMEN

VR

Vocational Training Report | Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Refinery

2. GUJARAT REFINERY
SECONDARY PROCESSING
FACILITIES (GRSPF)
2.1 FEED PREPARATION UNIT
(FPU)
INTRODUCTION:

Feed P r e p a r a t i o n U n i t ( FPU), a p a r t o f
Gujarat Refinery
Secondary Processing Facilities (GRSPF) was originally designed with
a throughput of
1.66 MMTPA of RCO. The primary function of this unit was to produce
700,000 T/year of vacuum gas oil for feed to FCCU along with vacuum
diesel and vacuum residue. Later on, it was decided to revamp the
Feed Preparation Unit (FPU) to meet the increased VGO feed
requirement in Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU), which
was also revamped, to 1.5 MMTPA.

FEED:

mixed

RCO

(MAX)

PRODUCTS:
Heavy Diesel

1.

2. Vacuum Gas
Oil

PROCESS: The process is same as that for vacuum

distillation unit of GRE. Four side draw products are obtained

from the column:
1) Heavy diesel is obtained as the topside
draw product.
2) Light vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO) is obtained as the second side
draw product. The
LVGO pump around is used to generate LP steam after which it is
returned to the column.
3) Heavy vacuum gas oil (HVGO) is obtained as the third side draw
product. A pump around reflux is also drawn off at this point. The
HVGO product exchanges its heat with RCO after which it is used to
generate LP steam.
4) Slop Distillate is drawn as the fourth side draw product. The
recycle stream is also drawn off at this point and is mixed with RCO at
the entry to the Vacuum furnace. The Slop Distillate mixes with
Vacuum Residue downs tream of MP steam generator or cooled in
slop distillate cooler and sent to GRE FO Pool.

2.2 FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKING

(FCC)
INTRODUCTION: During 80's with increased processing of the

North Gujarat and Bombay High Crudes, the production of LSHS had
gone up. This increased production of LSHS should have been suitably
disposed off to enable the refinery to operate at its maximum
throughput for meeting requirements of the petroleum products. This
LSHS, which is presently being supplied as fuel for burning, has a
good potential of being refined into high priced distillates, which are
in great deficit in our country. The steep increase in the prices of
crude oil and petroleum products in the past few years and
governments policy of conservation of petroleum energy has
changed the situation totally and it became necessary to review the
utilization of LSHS more economically and profitably.
Based on the above consideration, the various alternatives of
Secondary Processing Schemes were examined and it was
decided to install Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCC) at Gujarat
Refinery. In 1982 Gujarat Refinery FCC Unit was commissioned with a
capacity of 1 MMTPA.

HISTORY OF FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKER: Cracking is a

phenomenon in which large oil molecules are decomposed into small

lower boiling molecules. At the time certain of these molecules, which
are reactive, combine with one another to give even larger molecules
than those present in the original stock. The more stable molecules
leave the system as cracked gasoline and reactive ones polymerize
forming fuel oil and even coke. Although primary objective in
development of the cracking process had been to get more and more
of gasoline, all other oils having boiling ranges intermediate between
fuel oil and gasoline is also produced. The originally developed process
of cracking was Thermal Cracking. Use of catalyst for cracking was
first investigated by HOUDRY in 1927. Catalytic cracking has many
advantages over Thermal cracking viz.
1) Catalytic cracking gives more stable
products
2) For corresponding yield and quality of gasoline, catalytic cracking
unit operates under less severe conditions
3) Catalytic cracking gives high-octane gasoline
(viz.91-94 octane).
4) It yields less gas viz. Methane, Ethane
and Ethylene.
1) BATCH PROCESS: The first commercial Catalytic Cracking Unit was
put into operation in 1936. It was a Fixed-bed Catalytic Cracking Unit. It
consisted of a series of chamber / reactors, wherein one of them is on-

stream, the others will be in the process of cleaning, regeneration etc.

This type of process has a disadvantage of being an
intermittent process having a high initial investment and operating
cost.
2) CONTINUOUS PROCESS: The advantages of continuous process
led to the development of the idea of a moving bed catalyst. Examples
of this type are Thermofor Cracking; Thermofor Catalytic Cracking
and Houndry Airlift processes. In the Thermofor Catalytic cracking,
the palletized catalyst was conveyed between the reactors and
regenerator by means of Bucket Elevators. Higher investment by
capacity limitations of Elevators/Air lift systems together with other
engineering and process difficulties led to the development of latest
concept in moving bed catalytic cracking i.e. Fluidized Catalytic
Cracking.

FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKING: The radical development was

made by Standard Oil Co., New Jersey, M.W.Kellogg and UOP in early
1940s in which the catalyst in the form of fine powder was held in
suspension in gas stream. It was found that by carefully controlling the
catalyst particle size and the velocity of gas moving through it, a
fluidized bed of catalyst would form which has the properties of liquid.
In the fluidized system, finely powdered catalyst is lifted into the
reactor by incoming oil, which immediately vaporizes upon contact with
the hot catalyst and after reaction is complete, it is lifted into the
regeneration zone. Catalytic crackers using powdered catalyst in this
way are known as FLUIDIZED CATALYTIC CRACKING UNITS.

FEED: VGO and VR from FPU. The feed is characterized

by following:
1) CARBON RESIDUE: Carbon residue of the feedstock is determined
by CCR and it indicates the coke-forming tendency of feed. Values
for good cracking feedstock are
0.2% wt or
less.

2) METAL CONTENT: Most crude oils contain metallic compounds which

can enter the catalytic cracker either by entrainment or because the
compounds are themselves volatile and actually distilled in the feed
preparation units. Ni, Fe, Cu are particularly harmful.
Cleanliness of a charge stock with respect to metals is judged by its
metal factor, which is defined as: FM = Fe +V +10(Ni+Cu)
where, Fe ,V , Ni and Cu are the concentrations of these metals in
ppm in the feedstock. FM below 1.0 represents acceptable feedstock.
3) SULPHUR: It is undesirable in catalytic cracker charge as it is in the

feed to any refining unit since it causes corrosion of the equipment.

Also it increases difficulty of treating products and lower lead response
of catalytic cracker gasoline.

CATALYTIC
REACTIONS:

CRACKING

C2H4
C6H6
Gas oil feed

Iso-octane branched
paraffin
(30 - 50 C atoms)
Cetane
Coke(60 % aromatics)
Catalytic cracking reactions produce unsaturated short chains like
ethylene, excellent
high-octane components like benzene and iso-octane and lower
molecular weight gas oils like cetane. During cracking, apart from basic
reaction of breaking of big molecules to small ones, other reactions like
isomerization, cyclization, alkylation, polymerization etc also take place.

CRACKING CATALYST: The catalyst used in catalytic cracking

process is a fine powder made up primarily of Alumina and Silica.
Basically there are two types of catalyst
-amorphous and zeolite. Zeolite catalyst contains molecular sieves
and varying quantities of rare earths. These are formed through
reaction of reactive forms of Alumina and Silica.

PRODUCTS: The FCC unit catalytically cracks the vacuum gas oil

(VGO) from vacuum distillation unit (VDU) and feed preparation unit
(FPU) to various high priced hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbon vapors
are separated into the following products in the fractionating and gas
concentration sectiona) Fuel
Gas b)
LPG
c) Gasoline of high octane
number d) HSD components
e) LDO components
f) Fuel oil components

PROCESS: FCC consists of three

sections:
1)
Catalyst
section
2)
Fractionating
section
3) Gas concentration
section

Catalytic section consists of the Reactor and the Regenerator. Feed to

the Reactor is obtained by the vacuum distillation of atmospheric
residues in FPU. Hot feed from FPU and balanced cold feed from the
storage tank is collected in a Raw Oil charge drum. The raw oil from
the surge drum passes through a series of heat exchangers where it
gets heated against hot products i.e. heavy naphtha, LCO, HCO, CLO
and slurry. The temperature of the feed is raised to around 300- 315
deg C. The combined feed enters the reactor riser at the bottom. The
hot regenerated catalyst at 600 deg C from regenerator vaporizes the
feed, raises it to reaction temperature and supplies the necessary
heat of cracking.
REACTOR: The reactor riser is a vertical pipe in which all the cracking
reactions take place. Hot catalyst enters the cold wall wye section at
the bottom of the riser, and meets the raw oil and riser steam. The
flow of catalyst is controlled to maintain the desired reaction
temperature. The raw oil and the riser steam are premixed in a feed
distributor to form an emulsion. The raw oil /riser steam emulsion
vaporizes upon contacting the hot regenerated catalyst, accelerating
the catalyst and hydrocarbon vapors up the riser. Cracking reactions
are carried essentially to completion in the riser with a minimum of
over cracking and coke formation. Catalyst and oil contact time using
this system is approximately 3 seconds. Catalyst and hydrocarbon
vapors exit the riser into the reactor through the down turned
disengaging arm. The disengaging arm provides the quick method of
separating the catalyst and hydrocarbon vapors. Catalyst falling from
the disengaging arm combines with the catalyst recovered from the
reactor cyclones to enter the reactor stripping section.
Reactor is a cylindrical vessel with a conical bottom. It provides
disengaging space for the separation of catalyst from the oil vapor.
Catalyst after disengaging from oil vapors falls down and enters the
stripper. Oil vapor along with the catalyst particle travels up and enters
two single stage cyclones provided at the top of reactor. Entrained
catalyst is separated in Cyclones and returned to reactor bed
through cyclone dip legs. Flapper valves are provided at the end of
dip legs to avoid entry of vapors through dip legs. Vapors from top
of both the cyclones leave the reactor separately and join vapor line,
which carries vapors to the fractionator.
Catalyst disengaging from the down turned arm disengager and reactor
cyclones dip legs passes into the catalyst stripper, which surrounds the
upper portion of the riser, where it flows over stripping grids, counter
current to riser steam .The stripping steam displaces the oil vapor
from the catalyst particle and returns the vapor to the reactor for
separation in the cyclones.

REGENERATOR: Coke is deposited on the circulating catalyst in the

reaction zone. Spent catalyst flows from the reactor to the regenerator
through the spent catalyst slide valve (SCSV). The pressure difference
across SCSV is around 0.4 kg/cm2. In the regenerator coke is burnt off
with controlled combustion air. Air from air blower is sent to a direct
fired air heater where it is heated to around 230 deg. C by fuel gas
combustion. This air burns off the coke to CO2 and CO. The heat of
combustion raises the catalyst temperature to 640 - 660 deg. C range.
This hot catalyst supplies heat to the reactor. The catalyst is
recirculated to the reactor through a regenerated catalyst slide valve
(RCSV). The pressure drop across RCSV is 0.3 kg/cm2. The regenerator
also houses 3 sets of 2 stage cyclones, which separates any entrained
catalyst particle from the overhead flue gas.
ORIFICE CHAMBER: The purpose of orifice chamber is to reduce the
pressure drop across the flue gas slide valve. The high-pressure drop
across the slide valve would cause excessive noise and erosion
problems. Orifice chamber helps to reduce these problems and brings
down the flue gas pressure from 3.4 to 0.3 kg/cm2, which is just
sufficient for CO boiler. The gases CO and CO2 come out of 3 sets of
stage cyclones in regenerator and leaves from the top. The gases pass
through the orifice chamber where a series of restriction orifices
reduces the gas pressure. A two-port slide valve (TPSV) installed at
the bottom of the orifice chamber diverts the flue gas either to CO
boiler or to stack.
CO BOILER: The CO boiler is just like any other conventional water
tube boiler consisting of two drums and one superheater disposed at
the flue gas path. It is a front wall fired, medium pressure (MP) &
temperature, natural circulation boiler.
The upper drum, which is called steam drum but essentially contains
steam and water both, is fed with hot feed water (130-140C) supplied
through a feed control valve. The colder water form the upper drum
flows to lower water drum through a bunch of tubes called Down
Comers which are disposed at the lower temperature zone of the
furnace. The water contained in the furnace wall tubes or riser tubes is
heated by the heat released in the furnace on combustion of fuel. The
heated water in the riser tubes becomes lighter and moves up into the
upper drum. These riser tubes are disposed in such a fashion that it
makes a closed envelope of the furnace covering all the six sides of the
furnace so as to pick-up maximum possible heat. In this way the water
circulates from the upper drum to the lower drum through the down
comers and from the lower drum to the upper drum through the
water wall or riser tubes. This circulation in a boiler is called of
natural circulation, which is based upon the principal of
Thermosyphon.

The furnace where the combustion of fuel takes place is an integral part
of the boiler. The boiler tubes are used to make the enclosure for the
furnace followed by insulation and outer sheeting. The space between
the tubes is closed with the help of metallic strips, which are welded
to the tubes. Hence entire furnace is of welded construction.

FURTHER PROCESSING OF PRODUCTS: The main products

from FCC unit are gasoline and LPG. After these products are
separated through fractionation and stabilization section, they are
given some chemical treatment like caustic wash and water wash to
remove the impurities still present.
Following chemicals are used in
FCC/GCU:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Caustic Soda.
Tri-Sodium Phosphate
Hydrazine
Ahuralan

1) CAUSTIC SODA: Caustic soda is

wash. It removes H2S and lighter
Caustic with approximately 40-45
station through a 2 line into tank.
by adding water to tank.

used for LPG and gasoline caustic

mercaptans from these streams.
% strength is received from LPG
This caustic is diluted to (10-15 %)

2) TRI SODIUM PHOSPHATE (TSP): Tri-Sodium phosphate is added to MP

steam generators. It helps in reducing scale formation in the steam
generators by forming sludge with the scale forming salts. This sludge
goes out of the system during blow down operations. Solid TSP is
received in gunny bags. Required quantity of TSP is added to chemical
mixing tanks and solution is prepared by adding DM water and mixing
with the help of motor driven mixer provided on the tank. The normal
strength of the solution is
5%.
3) HYDRAZINE (N2H4): While major portion of dissolved oxygen is
removed from boiler feed water in deaerator, residual oxygen in boiler
feed water is scavenged with the help of hydrazine.
N2H4 + O2 2H2O + N2
23 % solution of hydrazine is received in drums/jerry cans of 50 kg.
Hydrazine solution of 5 % strength is prepared in chemical mixing tank
by adding DM water. The tank is provided with a motor driven mixer.
4) AHURALAN: It is an organic chemical, which acts as a corrosion
inhibitor by forming a continuously renewable monomolecular layer on
the metal surface with corrosive elements, present in the system.

3. GUJARAT HYDRO-CRACKER UNIT

(GHC)
3.1
UNIT

HYDROGEN

INTRODUCTION: Gujarat Hydrogen plant with a capacity of 38000

tonnes per annum and producing 99.99% pure hydrogen has come up
as a part of Gujarat Hydrocracker Project. Hydrogen is generated in this
unit by steam reforming of naphtha employing M/s LINDES technology.
Hydrogen generated in the plant is consumed in Hydrocracker unit for
various chemical reactions. These reactions need very high purity
hydrogen to maintain requisite partial pressure of hydrogen in the
Hydrocracker reactor. The fall purity results in the lowering of the
hydrogen partial pressure, which adversely affects the quality of
products from Hydro cracker unit.

FEED:
Naphtha

PRODUCT: Hydrogen (99.99%

pure)

PROCESS: The process for hydrogen generation involves the

following four steps.
g) Sulphur Removal
h) Steam Reforming
i) High Temperature Shift Conversion.
j) Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) purification.

Different types of catalysts are used in each of the above four

sections. As the process involves high temperature condition in steam
reforming and high temperature shift conversion, waste heat is utilized
for generation of large quantity of steam. The steam generated in the
unit satisfies the requirement in the unit and surplus steam is offered
to other units for consumption. The unit is unique in the country due to
following:

k) 10 bed Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) system for

the purification of
Hydrogen
product.
l) Special design of steam reformer involving use of low pressure
and low calorific value PSA purge gas as the major fuel.
m) The microprocessor based process control of the PSA system.
SULPHUR REMOVAL: The nickel-based catalyst used in steam
reforming of hydrocarbons is sensitive to poisoning by sulphur
compounds. Typically the sulphur concentration in the feedstock
must be reduced to less than 0.2 ppm before it is acceptable.
This is usually achieved by converting the sulphur compounds, e.g.
thiophene mercaptanes, to hydrogen sulfide, which is then removed by
an absorbent.

The hydrogenation reaction for conversion to hydrogen sulfide is

achieved in a reactor, bed of cobalt-molybdenum catalyst or
nickel-molybdenum catalyst.
R SH + H 2
RH +
H 2S
R is radical; it may be CH3,
C2H5
Hydrogen sulfide reacts with zinc oxide to produce zinc sulfide and
water according to following reaction.
ZnO + H2S

ZnS + H2O

The rate of reaction is a function of temperature pressure and diffusion

processes. Each molecule of hydrogen sulfide must diffuse to the zinc
oxide before reacting to produce the sulfide ion and water. The water
must diffuse away from reaction zone, while sulfide ion diffuses into
the interior of the granule to replace the oxide ion. This process
continues until the whole structure is converted into zinc sulfide.

STEAM REFORMING/SHIFT CONVERSION: The objective of the

catalytic steam reforming process is to extract the maximum quantity

of hydrogen held in water and the hydrocarbon feedstock. The
treatment or purification of reformed gases from steam reformer
depends on the purpose for which the reformed gas is to be used.
The common uses
are:
n) Synthesis gas
o) Hydrogen and carbon monoxide for oxo-alcohols
p) Hydrogen for refineries hydrogenation
reactions and q) Reduced gas for direct
reduction of iron ore.
The reforming of Natural Gas utilizes two simple
reversible reactions:
r) The reforming reaction
CH4 + H2O
C O + 3H2
s) The water-gas shift reaction. CO + H2O
C O 2 + H2
The reforming reaction is strongly endothermic, so the forward
reaction is favored by high temperature as well as by low pressure
while the shift reaction is exothermic and is favored by low
temperature but is largely unaffected by changes in pressure.

To maximize the overall efficiency of the conversion of carbon to

carbon-di-oxide and the production of hydrogen, reformers are
operated at high temperature and pressure. This is followed by the
shift process, which by using catalyst permits the shift reaction to be
brought to equilibrium at as low a temperature possible.
In our case, reforming of naphtha/steam mixture takes place in the
heated high-alloy reformer tubes, which are filled with a nickel-based
catalyst. The steam reforming reaction along with side reactions is as
under:
CnHm +
CO +
CO +

nH2O
3H2
H2O

nCO +
CH4 +
CO2 +

(No Details+ m/2)

H22O-------------------------------------(i)
(ii)
H
2 -----------------------------(iii)
The reaction equilibrium is controlled by partial pressure of H2, CO,
CO2, CH4 and H2O. Reaction (i) is highly endothermic. Reaction (ii) and
( iii) are reversible reaction and are influenced by hydrogen and steam.
Most of the carbon monoxide of the reformed gas is reacted with
excess steam to produce addition hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This is
achieved in high temperature CO shift converter. The catalyst available
is in the form of ferric oxide Fe2O3 ( haematite); it is to be reduced to
ferrosoferri Fe3O4 ( Magnetite) in presence of hydrogen as reducing
agent.

4.2
UNIT

HYDROCRACKER

INTRODUCTION: Residue up gradation into middle distillates and

light distillates is currently being done in the Indian Refineries primarily

by employing FCC process, delayed coking process & visbreaking.
Visbreaking is adopted primarily to reduce the viscosity of the residue
thereby making it marketable. Delayed coking is adopted if coke is
also to be a product. The quality of products obtained from FCC,
delayed Coker & Visbreaker are relatively poor in quality with respect
to stability, & sulphur and have to be blended with other straight run
products to be able to market them. Otherwise, product treatment
would be necessary (Hydro-treatment, Merox treatment etc.). In view
of these problems Hydro cracking process is gaining more and more
popularity for upgrading residues into higher value products
Hydrocracking is an extremely versatile catalytic process in which
feedstock ranging from Naphtha to Vacuum Residue can be processed
in presence of Hydrogen and catalyst to produce almost any desired
products lighter than the feed. Thus if the feed is Naphtha, it can be
converted into LPG and if feed is Vacuum Gas Oil as in our Refinery, it
can produce LPG, Naphtha, ATF, Diesel in varying proportions as per
design requirement. Primary function of Hydrocracker unit is to
maximize middle distillate production in Gujarat Refinery.
The Hydrocracker is made-up of three major sections: the
make-up
hydrogen compression section, the reactor section (two
stage) and the distillation section.
Reactor Section: The feedstock is combined with hydrogen at high
temperatures & pressures and is catalytically converted to lighter
transportation fuels. The reactor section is composed of the first stage
reactor and the second stage reactor.
Make-up Hydrogen Compression Section: It provides hydrogen to
each reactor section;
the reaction products are separated
and cooled.
Distillation Section: It consists of the atmospheric fractionation,
light ends recovery, LPG treating and a vacuum column.
Hydrocracker Unit operates under two different catalyst conditions viz.
Start of Run (SOR) & End of Run (EOR). When the catalyst is new
or freshly regenerated, it is SOR condition. The catalyst gets
deactivated due to coke deposition (about 12-18 months) and requires
regeneration to operate under design stipulations. The operating
condition just before regeneration is called EOR operation.

FEED: Feed consists of VGO

from FPU

PRODUCTS: The primary products from

HCU are:
t) L.P.G
u) Stabilized Light
Naphtha v) Heavy
Naphtha
w) Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF)/ Superior Kerosene (SK)
x) High Speed Diesel (HSD)

PROCESS
DESCRIPTION:
In Hydrocracker, the VGO feed is subjected to cracking in 2 stage
reactors over catalyst beds in presence of Hydrogen at pressure of 170
kg/cm2 & temperature raging from 365 to 441 deg. C. The cracked
products
are
separated
in
fractionator.
Light
ends
are
recovered/stabilized in debutanizer column. The process removes
almost all sulfur and nitrogen from feed by converting them into H2S
& Ammonia respectively. Thus the products obtained are free of sulfur
& nitrogen compounds & saturated. Therefore, except for mild caustic
wash for LPG, post treatment is not required for other products.
The unit consists of the following
sections: (i)
First stage
Reactor section.
(ii)
Second stage Reactor
section
(iii)
Fractionation
Section
(iv)
Light Ends Recovery
section
1) FIRST STAGE REACTOR SECTION: Vacuum Gas oil feed is
supplied from FPU and heated in exchangers and brought to the
pressure of 185 Kg/sq.cm by feed booster pumps. It is mixed with
recycle hydrogen and pure hydrogen from make-up compressors and
further heated in reactor effluent exchanger followed by furnace up
to 385 Deg. C before it enters the First Stage Reactor. The first stage
reactor contains three catalyst beds with two intermediate quench
zones which use recycle gas as quenching medium. The reactor
effluent is cooled in exchangers, steam generators and finally in an air
fin cooler up to 65 deg. C. It is flashed in the High Pressure Separator
(HPS) from which Hydrogen Rich gas is recycled back to the reactor.
The liquid product from the separator flows through a Power Recovery
Turbine (PRT) to the Cold Low Pressure Separator (CLPS). The first
stage reactor converts approximately 40% of the feed to middle
distillates and lighter products.
2) SECOND STAGE REACTOR SECTION: Converted feed from the
first stage reactor is removed in the fractionator section and
unconverted material from the first stage forms the feed to the second
stage. Feed from vacuum column bottom is boosted up to 185
kg/cm2 and mixed with recycle gas and pure hydrogen from make up
compressors and is heated in the reactor effluent exchanger followed
by 2nd stage reactor furnace up to 345

Deg. C before it is sent to the reactor. This reactor also contains three
catalyst beds with two intermediate quench zones, which use recycle
gas as quenching medium. The reactor effluent is cooled in the
exchangers and steam generators up to 204 deg. C and is fed to Hot
High Pressure Separator (HHPS). Liquid from HHPS flows through
a power recovery turbine, which drives the feed pump, and goes to
Hot low pressure separator (HLPS) before going to fractionation
section. The hydrogen rich gases are cooled in exchangers followed by
air cooler up to 65 deg. C before entering into Cold High Pressure
Separator (CHPS).

3) FRACTIONATION SECTION: Liquid from HLPS is heated in the

exchangers and finally in a furnace up to 345 Deg. C before it is
sent to fractionator column. The overhead products are off-gases and
light naphtha. Off gases are washed with Amine to remove H2S and
are sent to the Fuel Gas System. Heavy Naphtha is withdrawn at
146
Deg. C as first draw off. The second draw off is ATF at 188 Deg. C. The
third draw off is
HSD at 286 Deg. C. The bottom of the fractionator is pumped to
Vacuum Column. The bottom temperature of the column is maintained
at 377 deg. C using a reboiler furnace. HSD is withdrawn as a side cut
of vacuum column and blended with diesel from fractionator after
cooling in exchanger and cooler. The bottom of the vacuum column is
feed for second stage reactor.
4) LIGHT ENDS RECOVERY SECTION: Light Naphtha from the
fractionator is sent to de-ethanizer, where gases are removed and
sent to Amine Absorber where the H2S is absorbed in the Amine and
H2S free fuel gas is sent to Fuel Gas system. Rich amine with dissolved
H2S is sent to Amine Regeneration Unit in Sulfur Recovery Unit Block.
The bottom of de-ethanizer is sent to de-butanizer, for the recovery of
LPG. LPG is taken out from the top and sent to treating section where it
is washed with caustic for removal of H2S. The stabilized Naphtha from
the bottom of the stabilizer is sent to Hydrogen Unit for production of
Hydrogen.
CHEMICAL
DOSING:

1) DIMETHYL DISULFIDE (DMDS) INJECTION SYSTEM: Sulfiding is

required to stabilize fresh or regenerated catalyst, which in turn
promotes a smooth start-up, better activity and lower fouling rate. For

sulfiding of catalyst Dimethyl Disulfide (DMDS) is injected in recycle

gas, going to reactor.
2) ANTISTATIC ADDITIVE DOSING SYSTEM: Antistatic additive
(Stadis-450)
is dosed in ATF, which gives it the property to dissipate the build up
static electricity during its transportation in pipes. The dosing rate is
adjusted to meet the specifications of electrical conductivity of 50 450 Ps/m. The dosing is done in the ATF rundown line downstream of
the cooler.
HYDROCARBON
CHEMISTRY:

REACTION

Hydrocarbons are classified into four major groups according to the

types of carbon-to carbon bonds they contain:
1) Aromatics- They contain one or more benzene nuclear
unsaturated, six member rings in which some electrons are shared
equally by all the carbon atoms in the ring. If some
of the rings share two or more carbon atoms, the compounds are
referred to a condensed ring, or polycyclic, or polynuclear aromatics.
As a group, aromatics have higher carbon- to-carbon ratios than any
other group. They have relatively low API gravities and tend to produce
smoke when burned so they make poor jet fuel. Aromatics have good
antiknock properties and make excellent high-octane gasoline.
2) Naphthenes- They are ring compounds without any benzene
nuclei. The rings are typically five or six membered saturated rings.
Naphthenes have intermediate API gravities and burning qualities.
3) Paraffins- They are straight chain or branched-chain. Straight
paraffins are called normal paraffins and have very high freeze points
so they make poor jet fuel. Branched- chain paraffins are called isoparaffins. They make excellent high smoke, low freeze jet fuel. As a
group, paraffins have the highest API gravities.
4) Olefins- They are reactive molecules, which contain one or more
double bonds in an otherwise paraffinic structure. Olefins do not
occur naturally in crude oil because any olefins would have long since
reacted to form other molecules during the age long underground
aging process in which crude oil is formed. Olefin can be formed as
reaction intermediates
during
hydrocracking,
but
the
high
hydrogenation activity of the catalyst prevents any olefins from
showing up in reactor products. Hydrocracker feeds also have lesser
amounts of molecules, which contain chemically bound sulfur or
nitrogen atoms in aromatic or naphthanic structures. The following
molecules are typical of the kinds present in hydrocracker feeds and
products:

y) Paraffins
z)
Naphthenes
aa)
Aromatics
bb) Sulfur
Compounds
cc) Nitrogen
Compounds
CATALYST
CHEMISTRY:
Hydrocracking catalysts are dual functional, which means that they
have both acid cracking sites and metal hydrogenation sites. The
hydrogenation sites provide olefin intermediates and saturated olefin
products. They saturate some of the aromatic rings and prevent the
accumulation of coke on the acid sites by hydrogenating coke
precursors. The acid sites provide the carbonium ion intermediates and
the isomerization activity that result in the dominance of isoparaffin
products. More acidic catalysts produce a lighter yield distribution of
higher iso-to-normal ratio products. Higher hydrogenation activity
catalysts produce more saturated products with a heavier yield
distribution.
CATALYST
SULFIDING:
Sulfiding is done to regenerate strong acid sites on catalyst, which
were neutralized by nickel salts during catalyst manufacture. An
unsulfided catalyst has much lower cracking activity and produces
products of low iso-to-normal ratio. Sulfiding itself proceeds as two
separate reactions.
The cracking of
DMDS:
CH3-S-S-CH3 + 3H2

2CH4 +

2H2S Followed by the sulfiding proper:

2H2S + 3 NiO +
3 H2O.
CATALYST
REGENERATION:

H2

Ni3S2 +

Catalyst Regeneration consists primarily of burning off accumulated

coke on the catalyst during the oxidation phase:
4C1H1 + SO2
2H2O

4CO2

As an unwanted side reaction, some of sulfur (from sulfiding)

is also oxidized: Ni3S2 + 4O2

NiSO4 + 2NiO +

SO2,
to yield nickel sulfate, nickel oxide, and sulfur dioxide. In the reduction
phase, the nickel sulfate is eliminated to prevent temperature runaway
during subsequent sulfiding:
3NiSO3 + 10H2

Ni3S2

+ SO2

+ 10 H2O
Since some of the sulfur is retained as nickel sulfide, the subsequent
sulfiding uses less DMDS than used for sulfiding of fresh catalyst. As a
side reaction during reduction, metal oxides are converted to metals:
NiO + H2
H2O

Ni +

5.2 VACUUM DISTILLATION UNIT

(VDU)
INTRODUCTION: The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was designed
to process
8,00,000 TPA of RCO (370C + 50:50 North Rumaila & Arab Light).
After low cost

1999 revamp VDU can process 1.2 MMTPA of RCO, Heavy Diesel as
top product is
used as HSD, LVGO+HVGO used as VGO for FCCU feedstock. Presently
there is a provision for withdrawal of three side cuts.

FEED:

The Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) was originally

designed to process Reduced Crude Oil (RCO) obtained ex CDU
(Crude Distillation Unit) while processing imported crude (50: 50
mixture of North Rumaila and Light Arabian Crude Oils). However, RCO
obtained from various imported crudes and indigenous crudes (Bombay
High, North Gujarat, and South Gujarat Mix.) has been processed
successfully.

PRODUCTS: By distilling the RCO under vacuum in a single

stage column, it produces Light vacuum Gas Oil (LVG0), Heavy

Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO) and Vacuum Residuum (VR). Slop cut
(distillate between HVGO and VR) production facility has been provided
since 1988.
LVGO - used as blending component for LDO or HSD or as feed
component for FCCU
along
with
HVGO.
HVGO - used as a feed component
for FCCU.
VACUUM RESIDUUM (VR) - (Imported) is used as feed for
Bitumen Unit.
Excess VR and HVG Oil can be used as feed components to the
Visbreaker Unit. Surplus BH VR (while processing Bombay High RCO in
VDU) is used as blending component for LSHS.

PROCESS
DESCRIPTION:

FLOW

Reduced crude oil, RCO is received in feed surge drum from storage
tanks. Hot RCO can be received from CDU. RCO is pumped by
charge pumps to a series of preheat exchangers and then to
furnace from where feed goes to column. At the end of preheating by
preheat exchanger train feed gets heated up to 305C in case of hot
feed and up to
292C in case of cold
feed.
Preheated RCO is split into two passes and introduced to Vacuum
Heater/Furnace under pass flow control for each pass. MP steam is
injected in each pass to encourage vaporization of feed in the coils.
Coil outlet temperature of 395 -398C is maintained. The partially
vaporized RCO is introduced in flash zone of column.
LP
s t ea m superheated up to 350C in the heater is used as stripping

steam in the stripping section of the vacuum column. Vaporized RCO

along with steam rises through the vacuum column and is fractionated
into two side withdrawals.
VR along with quench stream is withdrawn from the column bottom
by pumps. After

preheating feed, a quench stream is routed back to the column to

maintain bottom temperature of 355C to avoid coking in the column
boot. Further VR goes to LP steam generator and gets cooled up to
150 0C. VR routing is as follows: (1) Hot VR to BBU, (2) Hot VR to VBU,
(3) Hot VR to VR burning facility, (4) Hot VR to IFO drum, (5) Direct VR
injection in BBU after cooling, & (6) After cooling in tempered water
cooler VR is routed to storage at 150C.
The desired vacuum is created in the vacuum column by the vacuum
system
consisting
of
multistage
ejectors,
precondenser,
intermediate condenser, after condenser and hot well. The hot well is
located at grade level and correspondingly ejectors are elevated to
provide barometric legs.
Small amount of oil carried over with
steam from the column is removed from the seal pot by pump and is
routed to slop or to HSD. Sour water from the seal pot is pumped out
by pumps to sour water system.

5. LINEAR ALKYL BENZENE (LAB)

LAB plant has seven units:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Prefactionation Unit
Distillate Unionfining Unit
Molex Unit
Hot Oil Unit
Pacol Unit
PEP Unit
DETAL Unit

Process Flow Of Pre Fractionation Unit

The feed to this unit is straight run kerosene containing c-7 c-17
hydrocarbon. The unit contains two columns
1. Stripper Column
2. Return Column
6) Heated fed is introduced into the stripper column; lighter boiling
kerosene fraction rich c-7 c-9 paraffin is separated from the top.
7) The net column bottom is pumped into the rerun column.
8) The rerun column fractionate the stripper column bottom into
kerosene heart cut c-10
- c-17 paraffin.
9) The column is operated under the vacuum by vacuum pump.
10) Kerosene heart cut c-10 c-13 normal paraffin are used as feed for
the
UNIONFINING unit.
11) Kerosene heart cut c-14 c-17 normal paraffin are collected from
the bottom of the rerun column. These paraffin are reboiled and
recycled to the column.

Distillate Union Fining Unit

6) Petroleum fraction contains various amount of naturally
occurring contaminants including organic, sulfur, nitrogen &
metal compound.
7) Feed to the MOLEX unit is nitrogen & sulfur free.
8) The process does saturating olefins & aromatic compound reducing
Conradson carbon.
9) Removing other contaminants such as oxygenates & organo metallic
compound.
10)The feed for the unit is taken from kerosene heart cut from
fractionation unit.

11)The unionfining process is fixed bed catalytic process

developed by UCP for hydrotreating a wide range of
feedstock.

12)Process uses a catalytic hydrogenation method to remove the

sulfur, nitrogen , aromatics, metal , halide etc. to < 1 ppm level
with a negligible effect on the boiling range of the feed.
13)Treated heart cut to MOLEX unit is product.
14)Unionfining is carried out at elevated temp & pressure in a
hydrogen atmosphere pressure & temperature are in the range
of 92.50 Kg/cm^2 & 325 deg. C.
15)Catalyst consist of oxides of nickel & molybdenum impregnated on
an alumina base.
The catalyst is be either as sphere or extrudate with special shapes.

Molex Unit
The UOP MOLEX process is an effective method of continuously
separating normal paraffins from a stream of co- boiling
hydrocarbon.
The feed stock is separated into a high purity normal paraffin
fraction at high recoveries and a non-normal paraffin.
The process simulates counter-current contact between a fixed bed
adsorbent &
the feed stream.
It uses a solid adsorbent, liquid desorbent and flow directing devices
called the
CMI or Coplanner Manifolding Indexer.
Feed consists hydrotreated kerosene ( c10-c13).
The extracted normal paraffin to the pacol unit is the product.
The feed is then sent through the CMI to the adsorbent chamber. The
chamber has a seven stream.
The stream entering the chambers are the feed, desorbent, zone flush,
flush line in.
The stream exit, the chambers are extract, raffinate & flush
line out. After the CMI chamber feed comes in Extract &
Raffinate column.
Form the Raffinate column non-normal paraffin is separated from the
desorbent. From the extract column, normal paraffin is separated from
the desorbent.

Pacol Unit
The pacol section is fixed bed catalyst process to selectively
dehydrogenate a high purity, normal paraffin feed to mono-olefin
product.
Catalyst should be selective for reaction like cyclisation; skeletal
isomerization diolefin product & cracking are minimized by proper
operating condition.

Pacol involves following

step: Paraffin converted
to olefins. Diolefin
removal.
Light end removal by fractionation.

4) Reaction is promoted in a low pressure.

5) CATALYST: DEH 11.
It
contains:
1. Platinum<
1wt%

2. Silicon oxide 40-60 wt%

3. Aluminium oxide 40-60 wt%

Life: 6 to 7 tons LAB/Kg of catalyst

Feed: Paraffin
Product: c10-c13 or c11-c14 mono olefins.
Process conditions are temperature sh0uld be 450-500 deg. C &
pressure should be
1.5 Kg/cm^2.

Pacol Enhancement Process (PEP)

dd) PEP is fixed bed adsorption unit for the selective removal of
aromatics from the pacol product stream.
ee) The primary source of aromatics in the pacol product.
1. Aromatics in the fresh n-paraffin feed to the pacol unit.
2. Aromatics produced in the pacol reactor.
3. Light alkylate in the recycle paraffin from detal unit.
The feed to the PEP unit l stripped c10-c13 linear paraffin &
olefin from pacol unit.
The feed passes through adsorbers where most of the aromatics
are removed & the treated feed then leaves the unit & goes to
detal unit.
Benzene (desorbent) comes into unit passes through adsorber
on the desorption cycle & goes to the desorbent column.
The overhead of the desorbent column goes to the detal unit.
Pentane from the depentanizer overhead passes through
adsorber a purge cycle and return to the depentanizer column.

Detergent Alkylation (Detal)

5) Reacting treated from PEP & bezene using heterogeneous noncorrosive catalyst to form LAB produces LAB.
6) The dtal process is a catalytic process to alkylate benzene with
linear olefins to form linear benzene.
7) LAB (linear alkyl benzene) is main product, HAB (heavy
alkylate benzene) is byproduct.
8) LAB & HAB are surface-active compound (surfactants) which
combined with various builders to make up a detergent formula.

Oil Movement and Storage ( OM & S)

The objective functions of OM & S are follows:
11)To receive crude oil and uninterrupted to supply to processing
unit after proper accounting and tank operation.
12)To receive intermediates and finished product streams to unit
to prepare quality product in a safe and environment friendly
manner.
13)Timely supplying the quality products to the marketing as
per the palning and schedule to meet the market demand.
14)To meet the saturatory requirement of central excise &
customs w.r.t crude and petroleum product storage and
movement.
15)To maintain safe and pollution free environment. To strive for
internal and external customer satisfaction.
16)To conserve energy by losses.
17)To ensure safety of personnel and equipment by adopting safe
practices.
18)To continuously upgrade and asses the knowledge and skills of
operating personnel.

Dispatch of Products in Gujarat Refinery:

4) A product becomes ready for dispatch only after getting the
quality certificate from laboratory and after complying with the
necessary excise formalities.
5) There are three modes of transport operating in the refinery
for the dispatch of products.
1. Pipeline
2. Road
3. Rail

1. Dispatches
pipeline:

by

Product by pipeline is dispatched to the following

destination. a. IPCL, Jawaharnagar,
Vadodara-LAB, Naptha, LSHS.
b. GSFC, Fertilizernagar, Vadodara LSHS.
c. Sabarmati installation of IOCL near Ahemdabad MS, SK, ATF,
HSD.
d. Other marketing companies, terminal at Nandesari, Vadodara
MS, SK, HSD. e. GIPCL, Vadodara-Naphtha.
f. LAB to Nirma.
g. MS/SKO/HSD dispatch to IOTL,
Dumad. h. MS/SKO/HSD dispatch to
KNPL.
i. FO/LDO dispatch to ASOJ
terminal. j.
LPG to Dumad
terminal.

2. Dispatches by road:
The following products are dispatched
by roads. a. Toluene.
b. Mineral
turpentine Oil. c.
ATF
d. Food Grade
Hexane. e.
Naphtha
f. Army HSD.
g. Light diesel
Oil. h. Furnace
Oil.
i.
LSHS.
j.
Bitumen.
k.
Butene1&2
l. Light Aluminium Rolling
Oil. m. IOC Solvent -90.
n. HCU
Bottom. o.
MTBE.
p. LAB-LMW

q.
LABHMW r.
NParaffin
s.
Heavy
Alkylate
t.
Off spec
LAB.

3. Dispatches by
rail
The bulk of dispatches from this refinery moves by rail. For this
reason elaborate facilities have been provided for this mode of
dispatch.
The following product moves
by rail. a. Naphtha
b. LPG (both bulk and packed)
c. Motor Spirit (N-MS and X-premium)
d. ATF
e. Kerosene
f. Diesel (Army, N-HSD)
g. Light Diesel
Oil h. LSHS
i. VGO
j. Bitumen