Neste Corp. is rebuilding the wastewater treatment plant at its 10.5 million-tonne/year Porvoo refinery in the Kilpilahti Industrial Area, about 20 miles east of Helsinki, Finland.
Under execution in cooperation with Borealis AG subsidiary Borealis Polymers Oy—the plant’s other user—the €50-million euro project involves renewing the chemical and biological treatment systems of the wastewater plant as part of the companies’ plan to reduce the site’s emissions into waterways, Neste said on Mar. 5.
"Thanks to the plant, the amount of oil emissions into the sea is already very low, about 10% of the amount permitted for wastewater treatment plants under refinery's environmental permit," said Marko Pekkola, Neste’s vice-president of production.
Alongside improving efficiency of wastewater treatment at the site, changes incorporated during rebuilding of the plant also will help ensure the refinery maintains its nameplate processing capacity, according to the operator.
The wastewater project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
Integration program
Reconstruction of the wastewater plant follows Neste’s completion in fourth-quarter 2017 of a €500-million investment plan to integrate its 3 million-tpy Naantali refinery with its Porvoo refinery into a single Finnish refining system as part of the company’s plan to improve the competitiveness of its overall refining operations (OGJ Online, Aug. 9, 2017; Oct. 7, 2014).
Neste also completed commissioning of a an associated €200-million solvent deasphalting (SDA) feedstock pretreatment unit and asphaltene pelletizer in the area of PL4 at Porvoo in second-half 2017, the company said.
Designed to enable Porvoo to increase production of higher-quality fuels such as diesel by decreasing the content of asphaltenes present in crude feedstock processed at the site, the SDA unit also will help the refinery to reduce output of heavy fuel oil as well as ensure compliance of its fuel production with the International Maritime Organization’s global sulfur cap of 0.5% for marine fuels, which takes effect in 2020 (OGJ Online, Mar. 2, 2017; Sept. 22, 2016).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
