OREANDA-NEWS. The Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery has completed the thoroughgoing reconstruction of its AT-9 primary distillation unit, resulting in a 12-percent increase in its annual capacity, to 5.1 million tonnes. This initiative ensures the production of additional volumes of quality feedstock, to be used in isomerization, gasoline reforming, and deep refining process units, increasing the production of diesel fuels and high-octane gasoline. Reconstruction has also allowed energy efficiency to be improved, and a range of outdated process facilities decommissioned. Total investment in reconstruction of the complex stands at more than RUB7.5 billion.

Reconstruction of the AT-9 marks the first single-column facility at the Omsk Refinery, bringing together the processes of electric de-salting and oil dehydration, primary distillation, stabilisation and secondary distillation of gasolines, under a single production cycle. Organisation of a single-column rather than two-column atmospheric distillation unit maximises recovery of light fractions and increases fuel depletion (“fuel burnup”). In addition to which, a single-column facility allows energy efficiency to be improved and operating costs reduced, with the result that heat energy consumption at the facility is halved.

Oleg Belyavsky, General Director of the Gazprom Neft Omsk Refinery, commented: “This marks the completion of one of the most significant projects of the year. Major refurbishment of the primary crude distillation unit — in fact, reconstruction of the facility from scratch — has allowed the Omsk Refinery to resolve a range of problems identified in the course of the thoroughgoing modernisation of the plant, optimising technological processes, and improving energy efficiency and product quality. Light fractions now constitute only two to three percent of the atmospheric residue — a figure that had previously reached five to eight percent.”

The modernisation of the Omsk refinery has seen the implementation of game-changing new standards in workplace and environmental safety. In particular, the project has included the implementation of a zero-discharge scheme allowing water and oil products to be returned to the production cycle. One technology utilised at the At-9 facility (and one unique to Russia) is closed flaring, replacing the flaring traditionally utilised in oil refining and petrochemicals enterprises, ensuring workplace and environmental safety in crude oil distillation. The advantages of a closed-flaring system include the elimination of smoke and fumes, lower noise levels, and a simpler and more reliable management system.