To help bolster food supply chain in Iran, Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Bandar Abbas in the southern Hormozgan Province is developing an initiative to convert hydrogen into value-added products, including ammonia, the head of the refining complex said.
“Hydrogen flared in the refinery’s flue-gas stacks will be converted into ammonia, which will be used to produce a wide range of fertilizers that play a key role in food production,” Alireza Jafarpour was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Plans are underway to produce 500,000 tons of ammonia per annum, he added, noting that the license has been obtained and executive operations will start soon.
According to the official, PGSR’s main task is to produce good quality gasoline
As the fuel output is high, a large volume of hydrogen is produced, which should be converted to added-value commodities.
“The venture will help PGSR become a key player in the country’s food supply chain,” he said.
About 50% of the world’s food production depend on fertilizers. Due to the increasing world population and the growing use of meat in diets, the use of fertilizer and ammonia has been on the rise. Ammonia binds airborne nitrogen and makes the most important crop nutrient, nitrogen, available for nitrogen fertilizer production. As an important base material for fertilizers, ammonia literally helps put our food on the table.
Ammonia is largely used in the production of fertilizers, nitrates, ammonium sulfate, mono ammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate and urea.
Iran plans to add almost 8.4 million tons per year to ammonia output by 2026 with 20 new plants estimated to cost $2 billion.
Environmental Standards
PGSR has taken measures to uphold environmental standards and invested in preservation plans to minimize its carbon footprint.
The company has been introduced by the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company as a top refiner that has made increasing efforts to help preserve the environment, including expansion of green spaces, using wastewater, curbing pollutants and improving energy management.
According to environmental laws, industries and production units should allocate 10% of their total area to green space.
PGSR has 40 hectares of green space. It has increased the output of its wastewater treatment unit to 275,000 liters per hour to use reclaimed wastewater instead of the depleting groundwater resources.
The plant is equipped with two sulfur recovery units, two purification units with sour water strippers (SWS) and two gas purification units with amine treating units.
SWS is one of the first stages in the wastewater treatment process in refineries. Water streams from a refinery are typically sent to a stripper, which is designed to remove both H2S and ammonia from the water.
To reduce air pollutants, the huge refinery uses natural gas instead of liquid fuels like mazut as feedstock in furnaces and boilers. It has also installed oxygen analyzers on furnaces and boilers to control the combustion process and reduce gas consumption.
Development Project
According to Jafarpour, the development project is aimed at implementing the fourth phase of PGSR.
“The plan, which will be fully funded by the holding company, will become operational in 2024,” he said.
The new phase is expected to help raise PGSR’s current gasoline output at 360,000 barrels per day to 480,000 barrels, he added.
The official noted that daily gasoline consumption has surpassed 105 million liters per day and the uptrend is continuing, stressing that not raising the current production capacity by funding new initiatives will mean Iran has to import the fuel in the foreseeable future.
Each PGSR phase uses about 120,000 barrels per day of gas condensate, supplied from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf.
“With the launch of the fourth phase, the refinery will consume about 500,000 bpd of the fuel, as a strategic move to use the field's gas domestically instead of exporting it,” he said.
According to Mohammad Meshkinfam, former managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, gas condensates from SP account for 40% of total gasoline output in Iran, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company.
"South Pars Gas Complex produces 650,000 barrels of gas condensates per day, a major part [500,000 barrels] of which is delivered to the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Hormozgan Province for conversion to gasoline,” he said.
An estimated 100 million liters of gasoline are produced in Iran per day.
“Forty million liters are from condensates produced from the SP Gas field,” he said, stressing that the rest is produced by refineries, namely in Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Arak and Isfahan.
Meshkinfam said gas condensate is also sold to petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr in the south as feedstock to produce value-added products and is offered on the international platform of Iran Energy Exchange.
