Technical and economic feasibility studies for setting up the first Iranian petroleum coke company have been handed over to the French engineering firm Axens.
According to the official website of Iranian Mines and Mining Development and Renovation Organization, Mehdi Karbasian, the head of IMIDRO and deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, and Francis Nativel, Axens’s executive deputy head, signed the contract in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Axens is an international provider of advanced technologies, catalysts, adsorbents, technical assistance and consulting services to the refining, petrochemical, gas and alternative fuel industries. The main scope of Axens's business is focused on the conversion of oil, gas, biomass and coal to fuels, and major petrochemical intermediates.
Based on the contract, Axens will carry out feasibility studies of the petcoke company in the next four months.
Petroleum coke—aka petcoke—is a carbonaceous solid delivered from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. It has a variety of uses as an alternative, cost-effective fuel.
An international tender is due to be held after the technical and economic feasibility studies of the project are approved.
Some 50 hectares of land have been allocated for the project in Arvand Free Zone in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan.
The executive operations of the project are slated to begin in the last months of the current Iranian year (started March 20) and the company is projected to go on stream in five years.
Oil Ministry’s permission for receiving feedstock has been obtained and some of the infrastructures of the project are currently being procured.
An unnamed Iranian private company signed an agreement with Axens in Paris in February on the purchase and manufacture of a wide range of petrochemical catalysts during the visit of Iran's high-ranking delegation, led by President Hassan Rouhani, to France, Mehr News Agency reported.
Based on the agreement, the two companies will cooperate to meet Iran's demand for catalysts and export the surplus under a single brand name.
Upon completion, the company is due to produce 200,000 tons of calcined petroleum coke and about 800,000 liquefied products, the primary substances of which are to be supplied by Abadan and Arak refineries.
Iran’s total requirements for calcined petroleum coke will be met once the company becomes operational.
For producing a ton of aluminum, about 450 kilograms of the material are required.
Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, which is the Oil Ministry’s subsidiary institute, announced in early April that it has also developed the technology of producing petroleum coke.
