A Russian refinery has approved a contract for a community-based delayed coking facility

Lummus Technology LLC has been awarded a contract by Surgutneftegas PJSC subsidiary LLC Kirishinefteorgsintez to supply equipment for the development of a new delayed coking complex at the operator's 20.1 million tonnes per year refinery in Kirishi, Leningradskaya Oblast, Russia.

Lummus will design and deliver two proprietary fired heaters for installation in the new facility as part of the deal, which will be used to transform heavy oil residues—which would otherwise end up in fuels—into lucrative lighter goods, according to the service provider.

This latest contract for the grassroots delayed coking complex builds on KINEF's previous award in 2018 to Chevron Lummus Global (CLG), a Chevron USA Inc.-Lummus Technology joint venture, to license CLG's proprietary delayed coking technology for the project, according to Lummus.

Lummus did not provide any additional information about the equipment supply deal or the prior technology award to CLG, which appears to have been kept hidden from the public until now.

While KINEF has yet to reveal proposed capacities or specific units for the delayed coking—or heavy oil residue refining—complex, Surgutneftegas confirmed in its most recent annual report to investors that KINEF began planning for the project's implementation in 2020, which included completing preliminary site work and selecting licensors.

In a separate release dated Dec. 31, 2020, KINEF's director-general, Vadim Evseevich Somov, stated that the new complex would mark the start of a new stage of technological development for the refinery, as part of the operator's ongoing and phased modernization of its refining processes to improve product quality, lower operating costs, ensure health and safety, and protect the environment.

According to the operator's website, the Kirishi refinery completed construction of a grassroots advanced oil refining complex (AORC) in December 2013, allowing the manufacturing site to produce more than 2 million tpy of ultralow-sulfur Euro 5-quality diesel and kerosene, as well as 600,000 tpy of feedstock for the production of high-octane gasoline.

The AORC's main unit—the atmospheric residue deep conversion plant—is equipped with the flexibility to operate for maximum production of diesel, kerosene, or both depending on market conditions. It contains the following unit capacities:

• 4.9 million tpy vacuum distillation
• 2.9 million tpy hydrocracking
• 1.9 million tpy Visbreaking
• 112,000 tpy of hydrogen production

The AORC also has a 570,000-tpy wastewater recovery and sour water stripping plant, as well as a 75,000-tpy Klaus sulfur recovery unit, which produces granulated sulfur with a hydrogen sulfide content of less than 0.001%.

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