BPCL taps Lummus technologies for Bina refinery’s petrochemical project

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) has let a contract to Lummus Technology LLC to deliver a suite of technologies for the operator’s previously approved project to add ethylene and downstream petrochemical production capacity at its 7.8-million tonne/year (tpy) refinery at Bina, Madya Pradesh, India (OGJ Online, May 17, 2023).

Per the Aug. 14 contract, Lummus will license its proprietary ethylene, low-pressure recovery, total C4 hydrogenation, pygas hydrogenation, and wet air-oxidation technologies for BPCL’s proposed grassroots ethylene plant and associated downstream units for the Bina petrochemicals and refinery expansion plan (BPREP) project that, once completed, will be able to produce 1.2 million tpy of ethylene and 550,000 tpy of propylene, the service provider said.

Alongside acting as licensor of Sulzer Ltd.’s extractive distillation technology for the project, Lummus said its scope of work on BPREP also includes detailed engineering of the ethylene plant heater, advisory engineering services, and training.

Without revealing a value of the contract, Lummus said licensing of its technologies for BPREP will ensure sustainable water-treatment solutions, drive reliable and efficient light olefins production, and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Bina in alignment with BPCL’s goals of sustainably strengthening its future role in India’s petrochemical market.

Updated project details

Approved in 2023 an investment of 490 billion rupees (nearly $6 billion), BPREP will expand processing capacity of the Bina refinery to 11 million tpy to primarily cater to feed requirements for the new petrochemical units’ production of polymer-grade ethylene and propylene to supply downstream polymer production units, BPCL said in its 2023-24 annual report released on Aug. 8.

Following laying of the project’s foundation stone in mid-September 2023, BPCL confirmed that, as of early August 2024, technology licensors for all BPREP critical packages, as well as project management consultants for refinery expansion and downstream units, have been onboarded.

With contractors for project site grading also finalized, BPCL began work at the BPREP site during the first week of July 2024 to keep the project on track for overall completion in May 2028, according to the report.

At a revised anticipated cost of 433.67 rupees (about $5.2 billion) as of Aug. 8, the BPREP complex will be able to produce downstream polymer products including 1.15 million tpy combined of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 550,000 tpy of polypropylene, as well as aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and mixed xylenes, the operator said.

As of August 2024, overall physical progress on BPREP had reached 1.8%, BPCL said.