Euro-4 Gasoline at Lavan Refinery
In the strategic island of Lavan, morning starts sooner than in other cities. When the Sun rises service workers at Lavan oil refinery have already started work.
Built in 1976 as a distillation facility, this old refinery recounts sweet and bitter memories of the history of petroleum in Iran. This distillation unit was in fact part of Shiraz refinery and ran at a capacity of 20,000 b/d or crude oil. Its main feedstock was supplied from Salman and Balal oil reservoirs.
During the imposed war (1980-1988), when most big refineries in the country stopped production, Lavan was extended as it was the supplier of fuel to the Iranian Navy. After the end of the war, this trend continued up to the half the 2000s. When sanctions were imposed on Iran and gasoline imports were reduced, all Iranian refineries including Lavan started supplying domestic needs for fuel.
But that’s not all. Lavan refinery was not content and it operated projects in order to upgrade the quality of its product and reach a higher profitability. Production of euro-4 gasoline is one of these projects. Mohammad-Ali Akhbari, CEO of Lavan oil refining company, has said that the inauguration of a new gasoline production project, known as isomerization unit, and increasing the capacity of Lavan refinery to 2.8 ml/d by next March are being pursued.
After startup of the isomerization unit, the gasoline production capacity of Lavan refinery will rise from 2.1 ml/d to 2.8 ml/d. Furthermore, its quality will increase from euro-2 grade to euro-4 grade.
After these projects are operational all oil and gas products will be conformed to euro-4 standards.
Akhbari said the catalysts of this unit became available to the refinery last March, adding that they were being loaded in the run-up to the startup of the facility up to next March which marks the end of Iranian calendar year.
This project has been delayed on several occasions. The complexity of under-license projects, restrictions for the purchase of equipment and its delayed import are to blame for the long delays in the startup of the project. However, an output capacity enhancement project is under way at the refinery. According to Akhbari, the progress made, has been good. Once this project is implemented the octane number of gasoline will increase while the sulfur content of gasoil and other petroleum products will be cut.
Furthermore, after the implementation of the isomerization project, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production will increase 200,000 tons, gasoline output will grow 3 ml/d, jet fuel will increase 1ml/d, while fuel oil output will see a 3 ml/d output hike. Therefore, after launching capacity enhancement projects and upgrading the quality of Lavan refinery products, the isomerization process would be used for converting light oil to isomerite.
Akhbari said the main idea behind this process was to enhance the octane number of feedstock, adding: "By launching this unit, the main section of product quality enhancement, i.e. isomerite gasoline production, will be ready and gasoline production will increase up to 700,000 l/d."
Referring to the costs of projects, he said: "The cost in rials for the construction of under-license units adds up to IRR 599.5 billion, while the hard currency costs amount to 108.61 million euros. Moreover, construction of the utilities is estimated to cost more than IRR 801 billion plus 83 million euros."
Sour Naphtha Output
Of course, this is not the sole achievement of Lavan refinery. Lavan refinery was a state-owned facility up to 2013 and one of low-value products of this refinery was fuel oil. Therefore, the refinery's was not profitable. But after its privatization in 2013, this refinery decided to broaden its activities and produce high-value products in a bid to increase its profitability.
Last March, it added its feedstock mix by adding gas condensate. The refinery shifted its focus from fuel oil to other products after around 900,000 b/d of condensate was added to its feedstock mix. Therefore, in addition to gasoline, sour high-density naphtha started to be produced by this facility. The condensate used in the refinery is supplied from Assaluyeh, Kangan and Kharg to Lavan.
Fuel oil production had a share of more than 24% in 2014. After gas condensate was fed into the refinery, the share fell to below 17%. Akhbari said that these figures showed that fuel oil production in Lavan was lower than in other refineries in Iran.
He also referred to the details of fuel oil reduction plan, saying that during the first half of the last Iranian calendar year, some 385,000 ton of fuel oil was produced. But, he added, fuel oil production fell to 285,000 tons during the first half of the current calendar year and the rest was converted into products of higher value.
Bitumen to Replace Fuel Oil
Two other basic projects have been envisaged for Lavan in order to be able to supply special products and generate more value-added for the refinery's fuel oil. Distillation unit and bitumen production unit are the two projects whose relevant feasibility studies have been conducted. The company has so far used domestic financial capacity for operating these projects. Akhbari said some 30 companies have so far voiced their readiness to invest in this project. Initial estimates put the cost of this project at $30 million. "We plan to carry out this project by using domestic banking facilities. Since the return of investment in such projects is often quick, we estimate that investment in the construction of this project would return in one to two years."
He said that fuel oil would be converted to bitumen, lube-cut and gasoil.
Energy Saving
Another project at Lavan refinery has been the manufacturing of back-pressure turbines. Different degrees of steam at different refineries have their own specific consumption. In older systems, water steam has a pressure of around 600 pounds. Therefore, when it is to be used in other sections which would need lower pressure, the steam pressure declines and such a process would waste a large amount of energy. Therefore, it was decided that turbines would be used for reducing pressure and generating electricity.
This method is estimated to generate 7 to 8 megawatts of electricity to be used at the refinery.
Lavan refinery has received a certificate for capping environmental pollution. In addition to helping the protected Shidour island, the refinery has installed sensors on the chimneys of furnaces in a bid to keep a tab on the level of pollution.
Lavan refinery has also made huge efforts for reducing wastes. According to the latest data, the refinery wastes amounted to 0.036%, much lower than 1.93% a year ago.
These figures show that the objective pursued at Lavan refinery is to avoid environment pollution. Another activity to that effect that would also help save energy has been to prevent the gas flaring. Flare gas is converted to liquefied gas. The wastes are minimized and liquid fuel consumption is increased.