Air Products, the globally renowned industrial gases company, is all set to launch the new Industrial Gas Complex in Kochi at an investment of around $400 million.
The Kochi industrial gas complex capable of generating hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and steam would be an invaluable constituent of the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of the BPCL to manufacture auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/Euro-V specifications.
The technologically advanced plant — built using Air Products’ proprietary technology — has state-of-the-art safety features, reliability, and environmental compliance. 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 built by Air Products, with a combined capacity of 16.4 tonnes per hour of hydrogen production. This will be one of the most efficient and flexible HyCO plants in the Air Products' history.
Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, will inaugurate the plant on December 4.
The Kochi project, built on 15.5 acres from BPCL, was executed by a team from four different countries, India, the UK, the Netherlands and the US. The gases produced at the Kochi site will help BPCL to enhance its refining capacity to 310 thousand barrels per day from 190 thousand barrels per day.
Hydrogen is widely used in petroleum refining to remove impurities found in crude oil such as sulphur, olefins and aromatics to meet product fuels specifications. Removing these components allows gasoline and diesel to burn cleaner and thus makes hydrogen a critical component in the production of cleaner fuels needed by modern, efficient internal combustion engines.