Two major Saudi Aramco projects are under way to produce low-sulfur diesel fuel, an effort that will significantly cut emissions of toxic sulfur oxides from diesel-powered motor vehicles and industrial plants, and help improve the Kingdom's ambient air quality.
Preliminary designs have been completed and lump sum, turnkey (LSTK) contracts for the detailed design, material procurement, and construction have been signed for diesel hydrotreater (DHT) complexes at the company's Yanbu' and Riyadh refineries that will process Arabian Light crude distillates to produce diesel fuel that contains sulfur content reduced from one percent by weight to 0.05 percent.
Completion of both plants is projected for 2006, and a similar complex is envisioned for Ras Tanura Refinery by 2010. Both new DHT facilities are also designed with the option to produce 50 ppm extra-low-sulfur diesel in the future, with the addition of a single reactor.
The Yanbu' Refinery's DHT facility, to be built by Technicas Reunidas of Madrid, Spain, will be one of the largest such hydrotreater operations in the world, with a huge six-meter-diameter reactor vessel. That DHT is designed to produce 95,000 barrels per day of diesel fuel. It will contain a sulfur recovery unit with tow 95-ton-per-day trains and a sulfur-forming unit.
The latter unit will transform molten sulfur into dry, solid pellets for marine shipment. Technip of Rome, Italy, is the contractor for the Riyadh Refinery's DHT unit, which will produce 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) of diesel and process 70 tons of sulfur per day through a new sulfur recovery unit. Two existing sulfur trains are in operation at the refinery.
The Riyadh DHT will produce diesel fuel for the Riyadh area, and the Yanbu' unit will produce diesel for Jiddah and Makkah. The primary process unit in both new DHT complexes is the DHT reaction train, which utilizes a catalyst-charged reactor to remove sulfur from the diesel feed stream. New amine treatment facilities will strip the hydrogen sulfide from the diesel, allowing it to be transferred to the sulfur recovery unit.
Other new process facilities at the DHT complexes are a sour water stripper unit at Yanbu' Refinery and a hydrogen production unit at Riyadh Refinery. At both refineries, there will also be modifications and additions made to existing offsite and utility facilities. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
