Development plans at the Isfahan Oil Refining Company in central Isfahan Province are making headway to help the firm boost the production of crude oil derivatives compliant with Euro-5 emission standards.
The project entails the construction of a diesel treatment unit and the installation of utility and offsite units, in addition to the completion of fuel storage tanks with a capacity of 100,000 liters of diesel per day, the Oil Ministry’s news portal reported.
Costing $600 million so far, the venture is expected to go on stream in November.
Referring to other ongoing initiatives, the report said the scheme to reduce sulfur content in vacuum distillation residue –_the end product of crude oil distillation, including high molecular weight PAH, asphaltenic components and waxes – has also registered 40% progress and is expected to become operational in three years at an estimated cost of $1 billion.
According to Morteza Ebrahimi, managing director of the firm, the company now produces 4 million liters of Euro-5 diesel a day and output will rise fivefold in the near future.
IORC launched a sulfur granulation unit with a daily capacity of 300 tons in 2020. The move was also in line with policies to reduce environmental pollution and upgrade the quality of refined products.
“Both plans are aimed at minimizing the environmental impact of sulfur in the air and curbing emissions,” Ebrahimi said.
Sulfur is used mainly to produce sulfuric acid, an important chemical widely used in the fertilizer, rubber, steel manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.
Established in 1979, the refinery produces 25% of the country’s petroleum products, including 16 million liters of Euro-4 diesel, 8 million liters of Euro-4 and 12 million liters of Euro-5 gasoline per day.
The company has succeeded in removing aromatic compounds, sulfur and benzene from AW-406 solvent and converting it to ++AW-406 solvent.
Isfahan’s refinery is the main supplier of feedstock to Sepahan Oil Company, Isfahan Petrochemical Plant, Arak Petrochemical Plant, Jey Oil Refining Company and Iran Chemical Industries Company.
Crude oil needed by the refinery comes from Maroun Oilfield in Khuzestan Province via a 430-km pipeline.
Environmental Commitments
As per its environmental commitments, the refinery is making efforts to reduce the amount of sulfur in mazut and gradually reduce the production of this eco-unfriendly fuel by converting it into other products.
Mazut is among highly polluting, low quality fuel oil used in power plants and factories. The main type of bunker oil for ships is heavy mazut, derived as a residue from crude oil distillation.
According to Ebrahimi, the company's wastewater treatment unit has been launched to help meet the refinery’s water requirements.
"The plant, with a capacity of 750 cubic meters per hour, cost $8 million and was built in two years," he said.
The managing director said the refinery buys wastewater from towns like Shahin-Shahr in the vicinity of the company.
“The municipal wastewater is piped to the refinery and reused after treatment in the new plant,” he said.
Ebrahimi had earlier warned that the refinery would have to either reduce or stop production, if the worsening water crisis at the refinery was not resolved. The huge refinery consumes 1,000 cubic meters of water per hour, of which 700 cm are recycled and reused.
"We have been grappling with water scarcity for a long time," he said, adding that the company processes 375,000 barrels of crude a day but cannot be sustained for long unless the refining units have sufficient access to water.
Located in the arid regions of Iran with minimal precipitation, Isfahan Province has been struggling with drought for seven years.
Water flow into Zayandehroud Dam was 1.2 billion cubic meters in 2017, which has now declined to 400 million cubic meters, he said.
“Of the total flow, 320 mcm are used for drinking purposes and the rest for industries," he said, noting that due to the drastic decline in precipitation, industries have to reduce water consumption by at least 25%.
Tapping into non-conventional resources (drainage water, water containing toxic elements, sediments and treated or untreated wastewater effluent) has become expedient to help reduce the gap between water supply and demand.
Close to 4.3 billion cubic meters of effluent are produced in the country annually, of which less than 1 bcm are treated in 232 treatment plants.
It is reported that 3.3 bcm of sewage go to waste (either channeled into rivers or penetrates into the ground) because of the lack of wastewater infrastructure.
