Honeywell technology to help Indian Oil Corporation meet new clean fuels specifications

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced that the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) has chosen Honeywell UOP’s Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology to supply high-quality hydrogenat five of its refineries, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Hydrogen is essential to the refining process, where it is used to decontaminate oil and facilitate catalytic processes that produce clean-burning fuels, including those that meet the Indian government’s strict Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) environmental standards.

Under the terms of the agreement, Honeywell UOP will provide new PSA units to IOCL refineries at Gujarat, Panipat, and Mathura, and will upgrade existing hydrogen plants with UOP’s Polybed PSA technology at refineries in Haldia, Guwahati and Gujarat. Together, the six projects will generate 166,000 tons per year of new hydrogencapacity, representing an almost 30 percent increase for IOCL.

"Honeywell UOP’s hydrogen technology is part of IOCL’s efforts to produce BS-VI fuels before the end of 2019," said Mike Banach, regional general manager for Honeywell UOP India. "This is a project of national importance to help India reduce pollution and improve its quality of life."

IOCL chose Honeywell UOP technology due to its performance, superior economics and ability to meet an aggressive delivery schedule driven by India’s BS-VI emissions standards. UOP PSA technology features new UOP adsorbents that recover high levels of hydrogen. The project includes a substantial amount of Indian-made components and domestic fabrication, in line with the government’s "Make in India" program.

When the project is completed, the additional hydrogen produced each year will have a value to IOCL of about USD400 million.

"Hydrogen is as essential to refining as oil, and it’s generated on-purpose and as a byproduct of refining processes," Banach said. "The PSA technology recovers and purifies this hydrogen so it can be used elsewhere in the refinery to remove impurities and to perform catalytic processes that transform crude oil into clean fuels and other products."

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, has interests across the entire hydrocarbon value-chain, including refining, pipeline transportation, marketing of petroleum products, exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1959 and is based in New Delhi, India.

As MRC informed before, last year, IOCL conducted maintenance at its polypropylene (PP) plant at Panipat refinery in northern India from early July to mid-August.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

Fire extinguished at HollyFrontier Tulsa, Oklahoma refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) - HollyFrontier Corp said it did not expect operational disruptions at its 85,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Tulsa West refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a fire in a wastewater plant was put out on Wednesday afternoon, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Our employees and contractors are accounted for and safe,” said HollyFrontier spokesman Craig Biery. “No injuries were reported and we do not anticipate operational disruptions."

The company said the fire broke out at about 1:10 pm local time (1810 GMT) on Wednesday. Firefighters from the refinery put out the blaze.

HollyFrontier has two refineries in Tulsa. The Tulsa East plant has a capacity of 70,300 bpd, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

MRC

LyondellBasell names James Guilfoyle Executive Vice President, Advanced Polymer Solutions and Global Supply Chain

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced it has named James (Jim) Guilfoyle executive vice president, Advanced Polymer Solutions and Global Supply Chain, as per the company's press release.

In this capacity, Guilfoyle will continue to report to Chief Executive Officer Bob Patel.

"Jim has been a key player in our company's success and has provided outstanding leadership for our Intermediates and Derivatives segment," Patel said. "As our company enters its next phase, with a robust slate of growth opportunities before us, I am confident Jim will provide the same strong leadership as we establish our new Advanced Polymer Solutions platform."

LyondellBasell's Advanced Polymer Solutions reporting segment will be created following the company's completion of the A. Schulman, Inc. acquisition. The new segment will include LyondellBasell's existing polypropylene compounding business, the assets acquired from A. Schulman, as well as the company's existing Polybutene-1 and Catalloy businesses. To date, LyondellBasell's acquisition of A. Schulman has been approved by regulators in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, China, the European Commission, Russia, Serbia and Turkey.

Guilfoyle has spent his career at LyondellBasell and its predecessor companies, starting in 1993 as a chemical engineer in La Porte, Texas before attaining several managerial and technical positions within the company. Most recently, Guilfoyle served as the company's senior vice president for Global Intermediates and Derivatives and Global Supply Chain.

As MRC reported previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

Total сreates a digital innovation center in India in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have signed a partnership agreement to create a digital innovation center in India. Based in Pune in the State of Maharashtra, the center will explore disruptive technologies and solutions, as per Total's press release.

"For a large industrial group like Total, it is essential to always stay ahead of these topics", said Marie-Noelle Semeria, Senior Vice President and Group Chief Technology Officer at Total. "After having integrated digital solutions within the Group, we now want to invent those of tomorrow by combining Total's know-how with the agility of TCS."

The partnership will initially focus on refining. Thanks to the intensive use of digital technology, the various building blocks of refining (production units, processes, the supply chain and petroleum product markets) will be driven in a wide-ranging way to improve refinery performance. Real-time data analytics, the Internet of Things, automation, artificial intelligence and agile methodology will be used to improve industrial efficiency, energy performance and availability rates.

"With the digital innovation center, we are positioning ourselves as a pioneer working to develop a smart, connected refinery that will allow us to improve our industrial competitiveness. We want to invent the Refinery 4.0" said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals at Total.

Based on the TCS concept of “entrepreneurship-in-residence,” Total will work with TCS technology and domains experts. TCS will also bring to Total its network, its structured co-innovation approach and its unique Business 4.0 cooperation framework.

"The energy and resources sector is one of TCS’ fastest growing business units. We are delighted to sign this strategic digital innovation partnership with Total for which we will leverage our Business 4.0 framework, with a focus on agile, intelligent automation, internet of things, analytics and cloud-based solutions," said Debashish Ghosh, President of Energy, Resources and EPC Business at TCS.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which had progressively started up in the previous few months.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

August prices of European PVC dropped for CIS markets

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for August shipments to the CIS countries started last week. European producers slightly reduced their export prices amid stability in ethylene prices in the region, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The August contract price of ethylene was agreed at the level of July, which did not affect the net cost of PVC production. However, despite this fact, European producers had to reduce export prices for deliveries to the CIS markets even amid shutdowns for maintenance at several plants.

This month's demand for PVC was weak from the main consumers in the CIS countries, except for demand for resin with K=70. Demand for this PVC is strong, whereas supply is tight.

Some of European producers' production capacities are idle, conducting turnarounds, the others have equipment interruptions because of the heat. And these factors affected export sales of some producers, but there was no acute shortage.

Negotiations over August shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were held in the range of EUR735-790/tonne FCA, whereas deals were done in the range of EUR745-800/tonne FCA a month earlier.
MRC