TECHNOLOGY

BPCL’s Kochi Refinery is implementing world class technologies in its operations for improving safety standards, bettering its refining margins as well as to meet the growing market demand of petroleum products.

Major technology absorptions at Kochi Refinery in the last few years are as follows:

• Installed and commissioned State of the art Petrochemical units for production of niche petrochemicals Acrylic acid, Oxo Alcohols and acrylates with capacity of 329 KTPA.
• Installed and commissioned in house developed technology for production of SAP (Superabsorbent polymer).
• Installation of Divided wall column (DWC) technology for separation of high purity stream mixtures for production of Benzene and toluene and for preparation of feed for Isomerisation unit with improved efficiency.
• Installed and commissioned Motor Sprit (MS) block consisting of NHT (Naphtha Hydrotreater) and CCR (Continuous Catalytic Reformer) units for production of feed stock for BS -VI petrol.
• Drone usage for PFCC RRS (including cyclones) & Refinery Furnace Stacks internal refractory inspection for saving maintenance down time during turnaround.
• Installation of ultrasonic flow transmitter in DCU charge pump discharge FT to reduce FLO consumption.
• First in India, Development and Commercialization of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grade diesel reference fuel for US export engines.
• Production of Anode grade Petcoke from DCU (Delayed Coker Unit).
• Energy efficient Crude distillation unit
• State of the art secondary processing units like DHDT, VGO-HDT, PFCCU, DCU, NHT-ISOM etc.
• A unique petroleum coke handling system was installed under aluminum dome for storage and handling of petroleum coke produced from Delayed Coker unit (DCU) commissioned as part of IREP.
• Flare gas recovery system to recover traces of fuel gas before flaring.
• Installation of Plate Type Heat Exchangers in Crude/ Vacuum Residue service in CDU2 to improve Crude Pre Heat Temperature.
• Installation of Power Recovery Turbines and Power Recovery expanders to improve energy efficiency
• Installation of Vapour Absorption Machine in Air conditioning systems of sub-stations and Satellite Rack Rooms (SRR).
• Reverse Osmosis based De-Mineralised water ((RO-DM) plant
• BARC developed Tracer technics for exchanger leak detection.
• Innovative and state of the art technologies like Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing, Long Range Ultrasonic Testing, Drones, under water Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) etc for the inspection and health monitoring of its plant facilities.