Prof. Madhukar O. Garg's Talk

Oct 26, 2017 - 17:00

Oct 26, 2017 - 18:00

Room 118 Chemical Engg Dept

Seminars

Prof. Madhukar O. Garg Department of Chemical Engineering IIT Bombay

Abstract: The MSAT – II regulations active since January 1 2011 restricts the annual average benzene level in Gasoline sold in the USA (except California) to 0.62 % vol. Currently FCC gasoline comprises nearly 20 % of the gasoline pool in a typical refinery. Full range FCC gasoline contains 15-30 vol. % aromatics with around 2 vol. % benzene and 1000 – 2000 ppm sulfur. A narrow C6 heart cut fraction of the full range gasoline will therefore contain anywhere between 11 – 19 wt. % benzene and up to 500 ppm sulfur. Unprocessed FCC Gasoline contains reactive impurities like oxygenates metals chlorides sulphur compounds nitrogen compounds di-olefins and organic peroxides. The complexity of this feedstock has hindered the development and commercialization of an economic and reliable process for removal and recovery of benzene from FCC gasoline. Present day technologies such as hydro-processing (for benzene reduction) result in olefin saturation which is undesirable as it lowers the octane barrels in the final gasoline pool. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) produces ~33 000 Tonnes per day of gasoline from its two world class refineries at Jamnagar India. The two world largest 200 000 bpsd FCC units in this refinery produce the FCC De-Isohexaniser side cut which is the major contributor of Benzene in the gasoline pool. It thus seemed imperative to remove benzene from this stream to meet the above-mentioned benzene limit on the gasoline pool. Reliance approached us for finding a cost effective scientific solution to this problem. After establishing the technical feasibility and a proof of concept several optimization studies and rigorous experimentation were carried out leading to the development of first of its kind for simultaneous production of high purity benzene and U.S grade gasoline. The process developed serves a dual role of recovering high purity benzene and producing environmental friendly gasoline from FCC C6 heart cut stream using extractive distillation without the requirement of any prior hydrogenation or pre-processing step to saturate di-olefins in feedstock and reduce impurities. The indigenous technology was granted a U.S Patent (US. 8722952 B2). A ~0.7 MMTPA (17.4 KBPSD) plant based on this technology was commissioned in Reliance Industries refinery at Jamnagar India in May 2016. A Performance Guarantee Test Run was conducted by RIL in September 2016 for 72 hours wherein the unit was operated at full design throughput. The unit consistently produced a raffinate product consisting less than 0.2 % benzene and an aromatics rich extract product with > 97 wt. % benzene along with high recovery (> 99 wt. %) of aromatics in the extract stream. The sulfur content of the aromatics lean raffinate stream was also observed to be less < 5 ppmw thus reducing the CAPEX and OPEX of post processing to meet sulfur specifications. This technology which has now been proved at a world scale is now available for licensing. Huge benefits can be derived by producers who already have an existing benzene recovery unit which can be revamped / optimized at very low cost to process complex feedstocks like FCC gasoline based on this technology. In the presentation the author will highlight the extraordinary journey of this innovative technology development starting from proof of concept study to plant commissioning all accomplished within a period of 1000 days. It provides valuable insights in understanding the requirements of the client and to provide a solution based on sound scientific principles backed up by world class engineering skills.Bio: Dr M O Garg is an acknowledged expert in petroleum refining and petrochemicals and has been instrumental in developing and commercializing large number of technologies in the Indian refineries. A graduate from Nagpur University and a post graduate from IIT Kanpur he did his Ph.D. with Prof H R C Pratt at University of Melbourne in Solvent Extraction. He served Engineers India Limited in the Research and Development Centre till 1994 and then Technip KTI for four years before joining IIP in 1998. He has been Director of the Indian Institute of Petroleum since August 2003 to February 2016 and also officiated as Director General of CSIR from February to August 2015. His areas of specialization include solvent extraction process integration advanced control simulation and modeling besides the ability to conceive research ideas and taken them to commercialization. He has won several prestigious awards including OceanTex Excellence Award CSIR Technology Awards and has published more than 260 papers in refereed journals and 50 national and international patents. He has been elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers. He is currently Professor Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay.