The Kochi Refinery presently has a Crude oil processing capacity of 15.5 MMTPA (Million Tons per Annum) in its two Crude Distillation units (CDU-II and CDU-III) and its major products include LPG, Motor Spirit, Naphtha, Aviation Turbine Fuel, Kerosene, Special Boiling Point Spirit (SBPS), Mineral Turpentine Oil (MTO), High Speed Diesel, Light Diesel Oil, Furnace Oil, Bitumen, Natural Rubber Modified Bitumen, Aromatic products like Benzene & Toluene and petrochemical like Propylene. The Refinery currently processes about 6% of Indigenous and 94% Imported crude oils. Crude oil is transported in ships from the point of origin to Kochi and is received through a Single Point Mooring (SPM) facility. Kochi SPM, located approximately 20 km off the shore of Puthuvypeen, is capable of handling Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) with crude oil carrying capacities up to 300 TMT. Crude oil from SPM is received in offshore tanks in Puthuvypeen and is then pumped to the Refinery.
Apart from the Crude Distillation Units, major secondary processing facilities in the Kochi refinery include a Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Unit, Diesel Hydro Desulphurization (DHDS) unit, Naphtha Hydro-Treater (NHT)/Continuous Catalytic Regeneration(CCR) Reformer Unit, VGO Hydro Desulphurization (VGO-HDS) Unit, Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (PFCC) Unit, Diesel Hydro Treater (DHDT) unit, Naphtha Hydro-Treater (NHT)/Isomerization Unit, VGO Hydro Treater (VGOHDT) Unit, Delayed Coker Unit(DCU)Kerosene Hydro Desulphurization (KHDS) unit, Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU), Aromatics Recovery Unit (ARU) and Biturox Unit.
Crude oil is first processed in the Crude Distillation Unit where it is heated up to around 360 to 380 Degree C depending on the type of crude oil after removing impurities, water and other sediments. Crude oil is then fractionated in a distillation column where lighter fractions such as LPG, Naphtha, Kerosene and Diesel are separated. The products are routed to respective storage locations after cooling to atmospheric temperature.
LPG is treated using Di-Ethanol Amine (DEA) to remove the impurities before being stored as product LPG. Part of the Kerosene is treated either in a MEROX unit or in KHDS to produce Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and Mineral Turpentine Oil (MTO). Diesel from the CDU is processed in DHDS unit to produce BS-IV/BS-VI grade Diesel.
Remaining heavier portion of the crude oil is further distilled under vacuum in a Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) to separate Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) and Vacuum Residue (VR) as major fractions. The VGO is hydro-treated in VGO-HDS to reduce sulphur content and fed as feed to FCCU where the heavier molecules are broken down to produce LPG, Gasoline and Diesel component. Refinery is currently capable of producing both BS-IV and BS-VI grade Petrol.
Vacuum Residue (VR) from VDU is routed to Delayed Coker Unit(DCU) to improve the distillate yield or to Biturox Unit to produce Bitumen or to produce Furnace Oil (FO). State of the art Sulphur Recovery Units (SRU) recover sulphur from the gases produced within the refinery before it is consumed as fuel gas.
BPCL Kochi Refinery power generates from five Gas Turbines and a Turbo Generator (TG) to meet the total power requirements of around 120.0 MW. The steam requirement of around 1100 MT/hr is met from various boilers, apart from small steam generators installed in process units.
Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP) takes care of the liquid effluent from the process units and other off site areas. The treated effluent after meeting the MINAS (Minimum National Standards) is discharged to inland rivers. A Reverse Osmosis DM Plant of 1060 m3/hr capacity is installed for maintaining zero discharge effluent.
Other Utilities and Off-site facilities such as tankage, flare system and connected pipelines are installed in the refinery to match with the requirements of processing, storage and products dispatch.