Air Products Unveils World-scale Industrial Gas Complex at BPCL's Kochi Refinery

Industrial gases major, Air Products has announced that it has inaugurated its new world-scale industrial gas complex within the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of the Kochi Refinery of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), located in Kochi.

The new facility was inaugurated by Dr. K.T. Jaleel, Minister for Local Self-Governments, Kerala, in the presence of Mr. P. Thilothaman, Minister for Food & Civil Supplies, Kerala; Dr. Samir J. Serhan, Executive Vice President for Air Products; Mr. Richard Boocock, President, Industrial Gases – Middle East, India, Egypt and Turkey for Air Products; and other dignitaries and guests.

Air Products has invested several hundred million dollars for the build-own-operate (BOO) project, the largest of its kind in India in terms of investment. The Industrial Gas Complex, which generates hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and steam, is an invaluable constituent of BPCL’s IREP to manufacture auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/Euro-V specifications. The industrial gases manufactured at the complex also enable BPCL to increase refining capacity by nearly two-thirds, from 190,000-bpd (barrels per day) to 310,000-bpd, while producing cleaner fuels through up-graded fuel specification. The industrial gas complex provides jobs to around 50 employees.

“Air Products is privileged to serve BPCL’s expansion needs at Kochi to provide significantly more high quality, cleaner-burning fuels,” said Dr. Serhan. “I am very proud of the team for their excellent work on this project, which achieved a flawless start-up and is now reliably supplying industrial gases to the BPCL refinery. This world-class facility represents true project execution excellence and took more than 10 million man-hours to build without any safety incidents.”

Multinational effort

An Air Products team located across four countries, including India, the U.K., the Netherlands, and the U.S., worked on the Kochi project, built on more than 15 acres of land leased from BPCL.

“As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, we are very proud to invest in India and want to continue growing our presence and strong relationships in the region as the safest and most innovative industrial gas company,” said Mr. Boocock. The Kochi Industrial Gas Complex houses one of the most efficient and flexible HyCO (hydrogen/carbon monoxide) plants in Air Products’ global plant fleet. This is a technologically-advanced plant, built using Air Products’ proprietary technology, incorporating state-of-the-art safety features, which also deliver reliability and environmental performance.”

A unique highlight of the plant is that the gas turbine is integrated into the design of the twin steam methane reformers. These are the first-ever twin steam methane reformers designed and built by Air Products with a combined capacity of 16.4 tonnes per hour of hydrogen production.

“We are committed to continuing investing in Kochi as BPCL and the downstream petrochemical industry grows,” said Mr. Hui Hong Thng, General Manager – Air Products Kochi. “We understand that safe, reliable and cost-effective industrial gases are a critical enabler of local manufacturing investment, and we see our Kochi site as a national model for other states.”

Largest PSU refinery

“The commissioning of the IREP in 2017 has made BPCL Kochi Refinery the largest public sector refinery in the country and enabled it to manufacture auto-fuels complying with the required Bharat Stage IV (Euro IV) specifications and a greater depth of conversion. We are happy to partner with leading global players such as Air Products to achieve this target,” said Mr. R. Ramachandran, Director, Refineries at BPCL.

“IREP is one of the largest investments Kerala has ever witnessed, targeted at enhancing the refining capacity of Kochi refinery at a cost of Rs. 16,500-crore. With the increased capacity of 15.5-mtpa, the Kochi Refinery will transform itself into a most modern industrial complex having global standards. Commissioning of the state-of-the-art hydrogen generation unit by Air Products is a significant milestone towards this,” said Mr. Prasad K. Panicker, Executive Director, BPCL Kochi Refinery.

Additional syngas facility

BPCL and Air Products signed a long-term agreement in January 2018 to build, own and operate a new syngas production facility. The facility will be located alongside the current BOO project and will supply BPCL’s new Propylene Derivatives Petrochemical Project (PDPP). The unit will employ Air Products’ proprietary cryogenic gas separation technologies to produce syngas. The PDPP enables BPCL to enter the Indian petrochemical market and enhance the value obtained from its refining operations.