MRPL commissions petro fluidised catalytic cracking unit

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, has successfully commissioned petrochemical fluidised catalytic cracking (PFCC) unit on August 27, 2014 in phase-III project of the company. “MRPL yesterday achieved the feed-cut in to PFCC unit, ne of the major secondary process units in its phase III,” said a MRPL press release. With this, the company has increased its production of LPG, light distillates and propylene, which is a feed for polypropylene unit.
 
MRPL’s PFCCU, with design capacity of 2.2 MMTPA, is the second such unit in the country and it can produce about 20% of its product as polymer grade propylene apart from almost 25% of product as LPG. The PFCCU will enable MRPL to triple the LPG production from this 15 MMTPA grassroot refinery. The technology of the process is licensed from Technip Stone & Webster International Inc and the project was executed by Engineers India Ltd.
 
Vijay Joshi, Director - Refinery, MRPL, said, “Currently, the unit is under stabilisation. The products - LPG, naphtha, light cycle oil - have been routed to respective destinations.”
 
In April 2014, MRPL had commissioned the 3 MMTPA delayed coker unit (DCU), another major secondary processing facility of the Phase-III that converts the short residue (bottoms) which is a low value product into high value products viz gasoil, naphtha, LPG.
 
The crude unit, diesel hydrotreater and hydrogen units of MRPL’s Phase III expansion and upgradation project with an outlay of Rs 12,160 crore were already under operation for the past 1.5 to 2 years. In August 2013, SPM was made operational and the first VLCC carrier was received on March 18, 2014.
 
With phase III becoming fully operational, MRPL’s top line and bottom line of the company is expected to improve significantly.