BPCL’s new crude distillation unit in Mumbai dedicated to nation
28 Dec 2015
Bharat Petroleum's new state-of-the-art crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Mumbai refinery was dedicated to the nation today by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan today.
The unit with a capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum, built at a cost of Rs1,419 crore, replaces the old crude and vacuum units of the refinery.
This BPCL refinery was commissioned in 1955 by Burmah Shell Refineries Ltd with a capacity of 2.2 MMTPA. Post-nationalisation in 1976, the refinery has progressively expanded through low-cost revamps and adoption of new technologies. Currently, it has an installed capacity of 12 MMTPA with three crude and vacuum distillation units with matching secondary processing and treatment facilities.
The commissioning of the new CDU would ensure cleaner environment and efficient use of energy with lower emissions and reduction in energy consumption. The sulphur dioxide emission from this new unit would be less than 10.5 mt per day - the lowest in the country amongst all the refineries.
Tightly heat integrated with furnaces of higher efficiency, the reduction in energy consumption in terms of liquid fuel equivalent (LFE) is expected to be about 30 per cent, which results into estimated savings of Rs128 crore per annum on fuel consumption.
The integral part of this new CDU is its superior design and safety features. This has resulted in significantly lesser number of equipments as compared to older units and facilitates better turnaround management during shutdown and routine maintenance. The unit is designed with the latest safety features like blast-proof control room and closed drainage system, thus making it an efficient, intrinsically safe and sustainable unit, with higher distillate yield of 3% and thus contributing to higher refining margins.
The stabilisation of this unit would help in dismantling the old 1955 CDU units, thereby creating space for refinery modernisation to meet future auto fuel norms and other profitability enhancing projects.
Speaking on the occasion the Pradhan announced the plan for setting up of a new refinery in Maharashtra and the chief minister assured to provide land and other facilities for the proposed new refinery.
