Persian Gulf Bidboland Gas Refining Company has replaced its foreign-made antifoam with domestic counterpart to save time and expenses.
Antifoam is an important control substance in the process of removing sulfur and carbon dioxide from sour gas, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
“Engineers and experts of the company have succeeded in replacing foreign antifoam with an Iranian counterpart by carrying out expert and operational studies since the beginning of the current Iranian year [started March 21],” Javanshir Sadeqi, the company's managing director, said.
“In order to perform process tests in the amine unit, one of the integrated units was first operated experimentally with an Iranian antifoam, and then the total amount of the item needed by the refinery was provided after performing analyses and process changes.”
Sadeqi noted that in addition to preventing the outflow of foreign currency and spending a great deal of time on solving problems related to the import of foreign products, the Iranian antifoam also has a very high quality.
A development project is also underway at the gas refinery, which is expected to be completed in about a month.
The project, which includes the construction and installation of six hydrocarbon storage tanks with a total capacity of 192,000 tons of propane, butane and pentane, will expedite the export of gaseous and liquefied fuels to international markets.
Two tanks will store 90,000 cubic meters of propane, two tanks are expected to hold 44,000 cubic meters of butane and the rest will stock 58,000 cubic meters of pentane.
Costing about $736 million, the facility is being built on a 64-hectare plot in the southern port city of Mahshahr.
The project also entails excavation operations, laying 100 km of pipelines and extending 600 kilometers of power transmission lines.
The $3.4-billion Bidboland refinery in the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan Province was inaugurated in January. It has a daily capacity of processing 56 million cubic meters of associated gas from the East and West Karoun oilfields that include several large oilfields straddling the Iran-Iraq border, namely Azadegan, Yaran, Yadavaran and Darkhovein.
The huge complex is expected to earn $1.5 billion a year, including $700 million from exports.
The Bidboland facility has an annual production capacity of 10.4 million tons of methane, which will be injected into the gas grid, while 1.5 million tons of ethane, 1 million tons of propane, 600,000 tons of gas condensates and 500,000 tons of butane will be fed into the petrochemical plants of Mahshahr and Gachsaran.
A pilot project is also underway to desulfurize butane to convert it to jet fuel. When completed, the facility would annually earn at least $20 million.
Removing sulfur from butane is an environment-friendly practice that will cut greenhouse gases in the region.
Jet fuel powers aircrafts and is generally of a higher quality than what is used in heating or road transport.
Iran produces fuel used in aircraft and helicopters, and exports it to Armenia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
According to the Aviation Fuel Department at the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, about 1,300 aircraft in Iran need 15 million liters of fuel annually.
