UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that its technology has been selected by the largest refiner in Kazakhstan to help it upgrade its facility and boost the production of gasoline and diesel.

KazMunaiGas’ (KMG) Pavlodar Oil Chemical Refinery (POCR) will use a range of UOP processes and services to modernize its facility in Northeast Kazakhstan Province, allowing it to meet Euro-5 standards aimed at reducing motor vehicle pollution.

“UOP technology will play a large role in POCR’s modernization efforts, which will improve its production capacity and help meet strict fuel standards,” said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s UOP Process Technology and Equipment business unit. “UOP’s technology suite and services will help POCR capture a high return on investment, and we look forward to successful implementation and start-up.”

Established in 1978, POCR is one of Kazakhstan’s three oil refineries, and it is the country’s largest oil processing enterprise. It processed about 100,000 barrels per day in 2010, accounting for 30 percent of refined product output in the country.

After Russia, Kazakhstan has the largest oil reserves and the largest oil production in the former Soviet Union, according to the Energy Information Administration. The country is expected to produce 1.6 million barrels per day of oil this year.

Since 1998, Honeywell has been expanding its presence in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas, aviation, and construction sectors in support of the country’s growing energy needs. Helping improve safety and security for Kazakhstan’s companies and population is a clear focus around Honeywell’s activities in the country. Honeywell’s UOP technology will help the country meet energy efficiency directives for cleaner transportation fuels.

Last year, Kazakhstan announced that by January 1, 2016, all refineries will meet Euro-5 gasoline and diesel production standards, which were implemented to help curb motor vehicle pollution. Euro-5 is a directive by the European Union that defines acceptable limits for exhaust emissions.
POCR is owned by KMG. KMG’s scope of business includes exploration, field development, oil and gas production, the purchasing of fields, and processing and selling crude oil and refined products.

POCR will use a suite of Honeywell’s UOP technology for its revamp project. The new units, expected to start up in 2015, will process 7.5 million metric tons per year of crude feedstock into gasoline blending components and high-quality diesel, increasing the depth of conversion to more than 90 percent.
In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell’s UOP and a number of its affiliates will provide key process equipment, catalysts, staff training and technical service for the project. Honeywell’s UOP and POCR are examining additional work to best support the project execution.

Honeywell’s UOP technology to be used in this project includes:
- Honeywell’s UOP Penex™ process, a light naphtha isomerization process that upgrades low-octane streams to high-octane gasoline-blending components that are low in sulfur, benzene and olefins, using UOP’s high-activity catalysts.
- Honeywell’s UOP CCR Platforming™ process, a highly energy efficient continuous catalytic reforming process used throughout the petroleum and petrochemical industries to convert low-quality naphtha into blending stocks for gasoline, aromatics for plastics production, and high-purity hydrogen.
- Honeywell’s UOP Fluid Catalytic Cracking (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. This process provides a low investment cost and a highly reliable and flexible conversion operation for the production of gasoline-blending components.
- Honeywell’s UOP Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) Unionfining™ process to provide better quality and higher yields of FCC gasoline with lower yields of FCC light and heavy cycle oils within the FCC unit. The typical application of this technology is FCC feed pretreatment. The feeds that can be processed in the VGO Unionfining process include straight-run vacuum gas oil, heavy coker gas oil and visbreaker gas oil. This process can also be used to produce low-sulfur fuel oil.
- Honeywell’s UOP Caustic Merox™ process to remove sulfur from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) streams in preparation for further processing.
- Honeywell’s UOP Coker Naphtha Unionfining process to remove contaminants from 100 percent coker naphtha. It can also be used for blends containing coker naphtha and other naphtha streams. The process is primarily used in the pretreatment of reforming feed, but the end product can also be used as gasoline blend stock or as feedstock for petrochemicals production.
- Honeywell’s UOP Distillate Unionfining process to treat a feed blend of straight run diesel, VGO hydrotreater diesel, coker diesel, FCC light-cycle oil and straight run kerosene, to produce a diesel product that meets Euro-5 specifications.

See the site of the refinery of Pavlodar