Kochi Refinery-Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is all set to commission its premier petrochemical venture called Propylene Derivatives Petrochemical Project (PDPP), which was set up at a cost of ₹5,246 crore.
Upon the commissioning of PDPP, Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) will become the first Indian refinery to produce ‘niche petrochemicals’, which are being imported in large quantities at a huge cost to the national exchequer. The project will help the refinery manufacture niche petrochemicals like acrylates, acrylic acid and oxo-alcohol. It will considerably lessen the import of such products, and the expected saving per year is approximately ₹4,500 crore, Prasad Panicker, executive director, KRL, told the media here on Thursday.
Three major units and associated utilities have been “mechanically completed”. A sequence of activities has to be carried out to bring the facilities on stream.
The acrylic acid unit is the largest single train unit in the world, with a capacity of 160 kilo tonnes per annum (KTPA) and is the first of its kind in India. The oxo-alcohol unit, with a capacity of 212 KTPA, is the largest and the second such unit in the country. The acrylates unit is the first such facility in India with a capacity of 190 KTPA.
The products have applications in paints, coating, adhesives, water treatment, plasticisers, and solvents and will attract several ancillary industries to Kochi. In view of the availability of products from PDPP and the proposed petrochemical ventures of BPCL, the State government is planning to set up a petrochemical park in the vicinity. The facilities have come up in an area of 132 acres, contiguous with the present refinery.
Products from the digitally-controlled unit will be on sale by March 2020. The plant will provide direct employment to 250 people and indirect jobs to 800 people.
Pollution-control
As part of PDPP, Kochi Refinery is installing modern eco-friendly processes and systems. The waste water generated in the process will be treated initially at PDPP and routed to the refinery’s effluent-treatment facility for final treatment and disposal/recycle. Zero liquid effluent discharge from the PDPP complex is envisaged, Mr. Panicker said.
On the future of fossil fuels, Mr. Panicker said the refinery was gearing up to produce BS-VI fuels from April.
