Air Products unveils world-scale Kochi Industrial Gas Complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products announced that it has inaugurated its new world-scale industrial gas complex within the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of the BPCL Kochi Refinery located in Kochi, India, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Air Products’ new facility was inaugurated by Dr. K.T. Jaleel, Minister for Local Self-Governments, Kerala, in the presence of Mr. P. Thilothaman, Minister for Food & Civil Supplies, Kerala, Dr. Samir J. Serhan, executive vice president for Air Products, Mr. Richard Boocock, president, Industrial Gases – Middle East, India, Egypt and Turkey for Air Products, and other dignitaries and guests.

Ceremonial “Lighting of the Lamp” for Air Products’ new world-scale industrial gas complex in Kochi, India, by Dr. K.T. Jaleel, Minister for Local Self-Governments, Kerala, in the presence of Mr. P. Thilothaman, Minister for Food & Civil Supplies, Kerala; Dr. Samir J. Serhan, Air Products Executive Vice President; Mr. Richard Boocock, President, Industrial Gases–Middle East, India, Egypt and Turkey for Air Products; and other dignitaries and guests.
Ceremonial “Lighting of the Lamp” for Air Products’ new world-scale industrial gas complex in Kochi, India, by Dr. K.T. Jaleel, Minister for Local Self-Governments, Kerala, in the presence of Mr. P. Thilothaman, Minister for Food & Civil Supplies, Kerala; Dr. Samir J. Serhan, Air Products Executive Vice President; Mr. Richard Boocock, President, Industrial Gases–Middle East, India, Egypt and Turkey for Air Products; and other dignitaries and guests. “Image courtesy of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.”


Air Products has invested several hundred million dollars for the build-own-operate (BOO) project, the largest of its kind in India in terms of investment. Air Products’ Kochi Industrial Gas Complex, which generates hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and steam, is an invaluable constituent of BPCL’s IREP to manufacture auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/Euro-V specifications. The industrial gases manufactured at the complex also enable BPCL to increase refining capacity by nearly two-thirds, from 190,000 to 310,000 barrels per day, while producing cleaner fuels through upgraded fuel specification. The industrial gas complex provides jobs to around 50 employees.

“Air Products is privileged to serve BPCL’s expansion needs at Kochi to provide significantly more high quality, cleaner-burning fuels,” said Serhan. “I am very proud of the team for their excellent work on this project, which achieved a flawless start-up and is now reliably supplying industrial gases to the BPCL refinery. This world-class facility represents true project execution excellence and took more than 10 million man-hours to build without any safety incidents.”

An Air Products team located across four countries, including India, the U.K., the Netherlands, and the U.S., worked on the Kochi project, built on more than 15 acres of land leased from BPCL.

“As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, we are very proud to invest in India and want to continue growing our presence and strong relationships in the region as the safest and most innovative industrial gas company,” said Boocock. The Kochi Industrial Gas Complex houses one of the most efficient and flexible HyCO (hydrogen/carbon monoxide) plants in Air Products’ global plant fleet. This is a technologically-advanced plant, built using Air Products’ proprietary technology, incorporating state-of-the-art safety features which also deliver reliability and environmental performance.”

A unique highlight of the plant is that the gas turbine is integrated into the design of the twin steam methane reformers. These are the first-ever twin steam methane reformers designed and built by Air Products with a combined capacity of 16.4 tonnes per hour of hydrogen production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fujian Gulei Petrochemical Co. (GLPC) has selected Badger Licensing LLC to supply its technologies for a new 600,000 t/y grassroots ethylbenzene/styrene monomer (EB/SM) plant, which will be built in Gulei Economic Development Zone, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, China, reported GV.

The EB/SM facility, which will utilize Badger's EBMax technology integrated with its styrene technology, will be part of the Gulei Refining Integrated Project, one of several integrated refinery and petrochemical complexes being established in China. In addition to technology license, the contract includes process design and start-up services. Basic engineering work is about to begin, with mechanical completion and start-up scheduled in 2020.

"The Gulei Refining Integrated Project is the largest cross-Taiwan Strait cooperation project in the petrochemical industry and we are very proud to be associated with it," noted Badger President Dana Johnson. GLPC is a joint venture of Dynamic Ever Investments Ltd. and Fujian Petrochemical Co.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF-YPC, a 50-50 joint venture of BASF and Sinopec, has restarted its naphtha cracker following a planned shutdown, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company resumed operations at the cracker on May 9, 2018. The cracker remained under maintenance for around three weeks.

Located in Nanjing, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 740,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in February 2016, BASF-YPC began production at its new 40,000-t/y neopentyl glycol (NPG) facility in Nanjing, China.

BASF is the world's leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas.
MRC

According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the local LDPproducerer - Polymir - reduced slightly its capacity utilisation in April. April polyethylene (PE) output was 5,400 tonnes, compared to 5,600 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, Polymir's total LDPE output was almost 20,000 tonnes in January-April 2018, compared to 20,800 tonnes a year earlier.

As reported earlier, Polymir completely shut down its LDPE production for a scheduled overhaul on 5 May. The resumption of production is scheduled for 20 May.

The Belarusian producer also plans to resume some of its ethylene production capacities in August after the forced outage because of fire, which took place in June 2016. When the ethylene unit achieves 100% capacity utilisation, LDPE production capacities will also reach the nominal level of its capacity utilisation.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's imports of polypropylene (PP) slightly exceeded 61,900 tonnes in first four months of this year, up 35% year on year, compared to the same period of 2017. Supply of all grades of PP increased, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

Russian companies decreased volumes PP imports in April, which reached 16,100 tonnes against 16,800 tonnes in March; shipments of homopolymer PP from Turkmenistan decreased. In general, PP imports into Russia exceeded 61,900 tonnes in January-April 2018, compared with 45,700 tonnes year on year. The import for all grades of propylene polymers increased, the greatest increase in supplies accounted on homopolymer PP.

Overall, the structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

April imports of homopolymer PP decreased to 5,200 tonnes against 6,200 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of homopolymer PP raffia from Turkmenistan decreased. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 21,000 tonnes in the first four months of 2018, compared to 14,000 a year earlier.

April imports of PP block copolymers in Russia were about 4,900 tonnes against 4,300 tonnes in March. Local companies increased their purchasing of PP block copolymer for extrusion injection moulding in Europe. Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia rose to 16,200 tonnes in January-April 2018, compared to 13,600 tonnes a year earlier.

April imports of PP random copolymers were about 3,000 tonnes versus 2,500 tonnes a month earlier. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Russia were 10,800 tonnes in January - April 2018, compared with 8,700 tonnes year on year. The greatest increase in supply accounted for pipe propylene copolymers.

Imports of other propylene polymers for the reported period decreased to about 14,000 tonnes compared with 9,500 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

MRC