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Innovation has flowed from the CRDC labs into refineries, lubes and other Strategic Business Units of BPCL, in the form of various top-notch technologies, products and state-of-the-art tools. Recently, the cleanest-ever automotive fuels matching global standards and conforming to the BS-VI standard were rolled out across the nation after implementing refinery upgrades. Advanced chemistry harnessed at CRDC has been propelling the lubricant technology into the future by creating super-performing engine oils for next-gen automobiles. Our Aviation Turbine Fuel is another vivid example of winning customer trust through impeccable quality that yields top-notch performance consistently. A wide range of high-performance products and cutting-edge analytical tools designed and perfected indigenously at CRDC have redefined industry standards of excellence. What’s more, our down-to-earth innovations bring greater value for customers in day-to-day life. One such recent example is the enhanced LPG burner, which yields greater fuel efficiency and saves cost for families month after month by reducing LPG consumption. Bio-fuels and other renewable energy options are another expanding area of research and development.
CRDC initiated de-waxing catalyst development program in 2008 with a vision to become self-reliant in developing cost-effective catalyst.
Bharat HiCAT is 1/4th of the cost of commercial catalyst.
BPCL is the third company in the world to develop such a niche catalyst.
BHARAT GSR CAT is developed for gasoline sulfur reduction in Fluid catalytic cracking process.
Highly active and substantially cheaper.
Enables refiners to achieve 30-35 % sulfur reduction in gasoline range without octane loss.
BWDP is a multipurpose paste for testing of water content in hydrocarbon fuels which has direct applications in Ethanol blended Moto Spirit (EBMS), Motor spirit (MS), kerosene, and diesel products in the range of 0.5 vol%.
EBMS KIT is a simple and quick test method (qualitative & quantitative) to estimate the ethanol content in EBMS (8-12%) within two minutes as compared to conventional test methods which takes 20 minutes. This is a first of its kind in the oil industry for on-site application and can easily be implemented at Installations, Retail Outlets and Depots and helpful in maintaining the stringent quality for supplying EBMS.
Commercial trials of BWDP & EBMS-KIT products have been successful at sites.
The new 4-cut DWC configuration, meant for effective separation of naphtha, was implemented at Kochi refinery in 2019.
Advantages of DWC configuration include High octane top product, High quality ISOM feed with minimum C7+ and cyclic components, Improved CCR feed quantity, Reduction in overall naphtha production in refinery, Reduction in isomerate RVP, Increase in Isomerate yield.
BPCL became the first Indian company to successfully demonstrate DWC technology based on indigenous know-how.
This is a novel technology developed for 3-phase hydroprocessing applications.
Feasibility studies carried out on CFR confirmed various hydrodynamic benefits i.e. low pressure drop, high liquid holdup etc. as compared to currently installed Trickle Bed Reactors (TBR) in refineries.
This technology is being scaled up to install a 100 Tons/day demonstration scale reactor in a refinery for VGO hydrotreating.
HiGee Rotating packed bed (RPB) is one of the most efficient gas-liquid contactor in which centrifugal acceleration replaces gravity , hence named it “HiGee Technology” (for high ‘gravity’).
Pilot experiments showed that removal of more than 99.5% DO which is equivalent to less than 10 PPB achieved in process water without chemical dosing.
Currently, Installation & Commissioning of HiGee Deaeration Unit of capacity 150 TPD at Mumbai Refinery CDU IV plant is under progress (2020) as part of Technology Demonstration.
Trans-mixing affects the margin that exists between a premium product and a lower price product. This off-spec transmix stream is blended with high-quality product stream in small quantities to meet the desired product specification. This process downgrades the high-quality product and requires a relatively much larger storage capacity at locations. Separation of MS/HSD Transmix to pure products is an essential requirement to meet BS-VI fuel specification. A Reduction of off-spec mix product produced during pipeline transportation of refinery product streams also improves the process and margins. Fractionation is one of the technology options for separating high-quality products. However, conventional fractionating columns require a large number of stages due to close boiling components and therefore tray/packed distillation columns are also large in size and accordingly demand higher capital investments, greater floor area and manpower. To remedy this, CRDC has developed the process know-how of HiGee Distillation Technology for MS/HSD Transmix separation to meet the desired product quality and yield.
A process know-how of HiGee Distillation Technology for separation of MS/HSD Transmix has been developed to meet the desired product quality and yield.
Advantages of highly efficient HiGee distillation technology: lower foot print area, 30-40% less Capex than conventional distillation column, low operation cost and therefore, the estimated ROI of the process plant is less than one year.
100 TPD HiGee Distillation Technology Demonstration Unit is coming up (2021) at one of the BPCL Pipeline Installations for separation of MS/HSD Transmix.
Membrane assisted hydrogen enrichment technology was developed for application in refinery and petrochemical industry.
The technology provides an efficient hydrogen recovery with minimum pressure drop, longer membrane life, low capital and low maintenance cost.
Setting up a technology demonstration unit (2020) with the target of enriching hydrogen containing off-gas stream from 75-85 mol% to 92-96 mol% at recovery range of 65-80% at VGO HDS Kochi Refinery.
A domestic LPG cooking stove with improved thermal efficiency of up to 75% (BEE Star 2 rating) has been developed.
The newly designed LPG cooking stove is 6-7% more efficient as compared to the ones currently available in the market.
The developed cooking stove is estimated to save 1 cylinder per family per year.
In the upcoming PDPP of Kochi Refinery, Superabsorbent Polymer (SAP) was identified as one of the value added product.
SAP is a three-dimensional polymer network of partially neutralized acrylic acid that can absorb water up to thousands of times its own weight. SAP is on high demand for various applications like adult, feminine and baby incontinence products and other commercial applications such as electric cable wrap protection, firefighting, soil reforming agent for agriculture, food package, etc.
Only few companies in the world are in possession of commercial SAP manufacturing technology, which is closely guarded, and no license for the same is available.
Taking up the challenge, CRDC has indigenously developed patented SAP technology from glacial acrylic acid, meeting all global standards for baby hygienic applications and continuously working on development of various SAP grades for different applications.
Bharat Metal Cutting Gas (BMCG), developed indigenously by CRDC, is a cost-effective industrial hydrocarbon gas which is fortified with an innovative additive to enhance cutting properties of the gas for oxy-fuel based metal-cutting applications.
The additive, with its unique oxygen liberating property, enriches the fuel in oxygen content in the inner cone and thus enables less piercing time, high penetration, faster cutting speed, smooth cutting surface and reduction in slag formation in comparison to LPG-based metal cutting. The product has been launched in January 2020.
MAK Biocut is a soluble cutting oil based on modified vegetable oils, with high lubricity and biodegradability.
The innovation is designed for metalwork operations such as cutting, grinding, turning, milling, tapping, reaming, etc.
Successful trials of the product have been carried out on advanced computer numerical control (CNC) lathe machines.
CRDC has developed a complete package of additives for refineries, consisting of a demulsifier, a neutralizing amine, a filming amine and an antifoulant, i.e., PhiChem, FilChem, NeutraChem and AFChem, respectively.
This offering helps in increasing the desalting efficiency, while it protects the overheads from corrosion and controls fouling in pre-heat exchangers.
This indigenously developed additive promotes complete combustion in FCC regenerator dense catalyst bed. This combustion promoter additives (COP) for fluidized catalytic crackers (FCC) assists in achieving complete combustion of coke formed in the FCC catalyst during cracking in the FCC regenerator, and also reduces CO and NOx emissions.
The performance of this product has been demonstrated at commercial scale in BPCL refineries and found to be superior vis-à-vis commercial additives.
The product is patented India, United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Oman, UAE, Singapore and China.
Drag reducing additive was developed to enhance the flow of finished products in cross-country pipelines.
Successful trial has been performed in Mumbai-Manmad-Bijwasan Pipeline (MMBPL).
In order to improve the lubricity of HSD-IV and HSD-VI, a lubricity improver additive has been developed. The performance of this additive has been demonstrated in Bharat Oman Refineries Limited and Kochi Refinery.
This utility chemical removes fouling over the heater tube surface, enhancing heat transfer, while reducing fuel requirements for heating.
The innovation has been demonstrated successfully in Mumbai Refinery in 2019-20.
An innovative process has been developed for construction of roads from mixed waste plastic.
The technology has been implemented by constructing waste plastic roads at several BPCL locations, such as CRDC, Mumbai Refinery and Kochi Refinery.
The technology converts waste into wealth, thus conserving resources and also addressing plastic waste disposal issues.
An in-house developed bioremediation process was used for cleaning up a pipeline leakage affected site in Maharashtra.
Using naturally occurring bacteria enriched from on-site resources, CRDC designed a customized solution to suit the site conditions and treated 8,357 tons of contaminated soil.
Within 38 days, the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) parameter reduced to 0.5% at a cost of just 2% of commercially available options.