CPCL commissions new unit at Manali refinery

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (CPCL) has started up a new unit as part of the second phase of the previously announced Bharat Stage VI (BS VI, equivalent to Euro 6-quality standards) fuels project at its 10.5-million tonnes/year Manali refinery in Tamil Nadu, India (OGJ Online, Feb. 28, 2018).

CPCL commissioned the grassroots 600,000-tpy FCC gasoline desulfurization unit at Manali in late-January 2020, Engineers India Ltd.—which delivered engineering, procurement, and commissioning services on the project—said in a series of posts to its official social media accounts.

Consisting of sections for selective hydrogenation, splitting, two-stage hydrodesulfurization, and stabilizing, the new FCC gasoline desulfurization unit is designed to produce gasoline with less than 10 ppm sulfur in compliance with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MOPNG) of India’s directive of 100% production of BS VI-quality fuels for the country that took effect Apr. 1, 2020, CPCL said in a series of official project documents filed with Indian regulators.

The FCC gasoline desulfurization unit—which was in the precommissioning stage as of August 2020—was scheduled for mechanical completion by second-quarter 2020-21 (July-September), with startup to follow during third-quarter 2020-21 (October-December), CPCL said in its 2019-20 annual report to investors issued on Aug. 17, 2020.

Alongside the newly commissioned FCC gasoline desulfurization unit, Phase 2 of CPCL’s Manali BS VI fuels project also includes ongoing construction of a grassroots sulfur recovery block that—scheduled for mechanical completion by fourth-quarter 2020-21 (January-March)—will house:

• A 200-tonnes/day sulfur recovery unit (two trains, each with a 100-tonne/day capacity).
• An amine treating unit.
• A sour-water stripping unit.

Once in operation, the new sulfur recovery block will treat acid gas generated from the FCC gasoline desulfurization unit as well as the refinery’s recently revamped and expanded diesel hydrotreating unit included in Phase 1 of Manali’s BS VI fuels project.

Completed in November 2019, the Phase 1 upgrading project involved increasing capacity of the refinery’s existing diesel hydrotreating unit to 2.4 million tpy from 1.80 million tpy, as well as works to ensure 100% production of BS VI-compliant diesel containing less than 10 ppm sulfur, according to official project documents and CPCL’s latest annual report.

In August 2020, CPCL estimated overall project cost of the Manali refinery’s BS VI fuels project at 18.58 billion rupees.