Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
India has granted Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) environmental clearance to proceed with a project to modernize and expand its 7.5-million tonne/year Mumbai refinery in Maharashtra State.
Following a series of hearings on the proposal that date back to 2014, India's Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (EFCC) approved HPCL's Mumbai refinery expansion project (MREP) on Jan. 31, according to documents recently posted to EFCC's web site.
A brownfield project, MREP will include installation of new units and revamps of existing units to expand the Mumbai refinery's processing capacity by 2 million tpy to 9.5 million tpy.
According to EFCC, the project specifically will involve the following:
• Expansion of crude distillation unit-vacuum distillation unit 1 (CDU-VDU 1) to 6 million tpy.
• Expansion of naphtha hydrotreating (NHT)-isomerization unit to 300,000 tpy.
• Expansion of NHT-continuous catalytic reforming (CCR) unit to 654,000 tpy.
• Expansion of Prime G+ unit to 570,000 tpy.
• Revamp of existing diesel hydrotreating (DHT) unit.
• Addition of new 36,000-tpy hydrogen generation unit (HGU 2).
• Addition of new 565,000-tpy visbreaking-residue upgradation unit (VBU).
• Addition of 100,000-tpy propylene recovery unit (PRU).
• Overhaul and replacement of existing 39-Mw gas-based thermal power plant with new 81-Mw cogeneration combined-cycle captive power plant (CPP).
Intended primarily to boost the refinery's production of fuels conforming to Euro 4 and Euro 5-quality standards, the 36-month Mumbai expansion project will require a total capital investment of about 38.45 billion rupees to complete, HPCL said in documents filed with EFCC.
HPCL has yet to confirm an official date for when it will begin work on the project.