Honeywell's UOP selected by Lukoil to provide technology for high-quality gasoline and petrochemical production

UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has been selected by Russia's Lukoil to provide technology to produce blending components used to make high-octane gasoline and petrochemicals at its facility in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Lukoil will license an integrated suite of Honeywell's UOP technologies to produce high-quality gasoline blending components; propylene, a building block material used in the production of films and packaging; and other petrochemicals. "Refining and petrochemical integration offers many benefits, including feedstock and energy maximization, reduced investment and operating costs, and higher product yields," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell's UOP Process Technology & Equipment business unit. "With legislation in the Russian Federation calling for improved gasoline quality, as well as the region's rising petrochemicals demand, UOP is pleased to offer technology solutions that work together to meet those needs. We look forward to our continued relationship with Lukoil." The suite of Honeywell's UOP technology will be used in a new integrated Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) complex. This is UOP's second FCC complex to be licensed by Lukoil at the Nizhny Novgorod facility. The company previously licensed the UOP FCC Process, the UOP HF Alkylation Process, the UOP Huels Selective Hydrogenation Process (SHP) and the UOP Butamer(TM) Process to produce gasoline and petrochemic al components in 2005. The new units, expected to start up in 2015, will produce more than 1 million metric tons of gasoline blending components and more than 170,000 metric tons of propylene per year. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell's UOP and a number of its affiliates will provide engineering design, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical service for the project. Russia is the third largest energy consumer in the world, and demand is growing due to increasing economic activity, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC). Particularly, gasoline demand is increasing due to the rise in passenger vehicle utilization. Honeywell's UOP technology to be used in this project includes: FCC process to convert straight-run atmospheric gas oils, vacuum gas oils, certain atmospheric residues, and heavy stocks recovered from other refinery operations into high-octane gasoline, propylene and light fuel oils. It offers a low investment cost and long-term operation. HF Alkylation process to produce a high-quality gasoline blending component, typically referred to as alkylate. The HF Alkylation process catalytically combines light olefins such as propylene, butylene or amylene with isobutane, to increase their value and make an environmentally sound gasoline blend product, characterized by high octane and low Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP). RVP is a measure of the volatility of gasoline, and lower levels help avoid issues with internal combustion engines. An enhanced process operation will be incorporated into the HF Alkylation process to reduce acid volatility and improve overall plant safety. Caustic Merox™ process to remove sulfur from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) streams in preparation for further processing, such as the HF Alkylation process. Huels Selective Hydrogenation Process (SHP) to minimize acid consumption in the alkylation unit, produce 2-Butene and maximize alkylate yields. Butamer™ process converts butane to isobutane, a primary feedstock used to produce alkylate in the HF Alkylation process.