ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA has commissioned a delayed coker at its 320,000-b/d Antwerp refinery in Belgium (OGJ Online, Dec. 17, 2014).
Designed to convert heavy, higher-sulfur residual oils into transportation fuels such as marine gas oil and diesel, the 50,000-b/d coker will expand the refinery’s capacity to meet demand for cleaner transportation fuels throughout northwest Europe, as well as help the refinery meet anticipated demand for lower-sulfur fuel oil to comply with International Maritime Organization standards scheduled to take effect in 2020, ExxonMobil said.
Part of a $2-billion investment the company has made in the Antwerp refinery over the last 10 years, the coker joins other completed projects at the site, including a 130-Mw cogeneration unit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a diesel hydrotreater, which has increased the refinery’s production capacity for low-sulfur diesel to enable modern diesel engines to achieve lower emissions standards.
ExxonMobil said the newly commissioned delayed coker is the first of several expansion projects designed to strengthen the competitiveness of its European business.
The company is currently constructing a hydrocracker at subsidiary Esso Nederland BV’s 191,000-b/d refinery in Rotterdam that will upgrade heavier hydrocarbon byproducts into cleaner, higher-value finished products such as EHCTM Group II base stocks and ultralow-sulfur diesel (OGJ Online, June 24, 2016).
ExxonMobil also is considering an expansion project at subsidiary Esso Petroleum Co.’s 270,000-b/d Fawley refinery near Southampton, UK, that would include a hydrotreater unit and associated hydrogen plant to increase domestic diesel production and reduce reliance on imported fuel (OGJ Online, Sept. 20, 2018).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
