Page 12 - DMEA Week 25 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Iran oil refinery workers

stage national strike action

MIDDLE EAST VIDOES of mass strike action by workers of The refinery has undergone significant main-
Iran’s oil and gas and petrochemical industries tenance and upgrade work in recent years and
due to loss of pay and poor working conditions late last year began producing gasoline compli-
surfaced online this week. ant with Euro-V emissions standards.
The strike videos follow a previous explosion Prior to the fire, the unit was producing
at Tehran Refinery which caught fire earlier in 53,500 barrels per day (8mn lpd) of Euro-IV
the month due to a lack of investment and proper and Euro-V diesel, which is transported to Teh-
maintenance. ran and the nearby Alborz Province and to the
Videos circulating on banned Telegram Mes- north-eastern city of Mashad by pipeline. Mean-
senger also show a spread of walkouts across the while, jet A-1 fuel is being transported to Tehran’s
oil and petrochemical industry in the country, Imam Khomeini International Airport.™
with Assaluyeh Refinery and Gajsaran Petro-
chemical Refinery joining in the unorganised
action against poor working conditions.
Other videos of the nationwide strike also
show workers from South Pars gas field joining
in the strike action.
The Tehran Refinery incident came several
hours after the Islamic Republic’s largest naval
vessel, the Kharg, caught fire in the Gulf of Oman
and sank; however, Shaker Khafaii, head of the
Tehran Oil Refining Co. (TORC), dismissed any
possibility of sabotage at the plant.

HyGear commissions hydrogen

system for Turkish lubricant unit

MIDDLE EAST XEBEC Adsorption Inc has announced that its we were able to showcase our expertise in com-
wholly owned subsidiary, HyGear, has commis- pression by operating at an impressive 125 bar on
sioned an on-site hydrogen generation system a 24/7 basis. This level of operation will lend well
for TAYRAS’ used lubricant oil re-refinery in to other applications such as hydrogen refueling
Turkey. stations where this pressure and reliability is also
Approximately 560 kg of hydrogen per day needed,” said Marinus van Driel, President of
(205 tonnes per year) will be delivered under Xebec Europe.
125 bar by the fully automated system under The capacity of TAYRAS’ plant is 60,000
a 15-year gas-as-a-service contract, the Que- tonnes/yr of used lubricating oil. That is expected
bec-headquartered company said. to produce approximately 45,000 tonnes of
The TAYRAS facility is billed as the first of Group II base oil (N70, N100, N220).
its kind in the country and as key to developing The hydrogen produced by HyGear’s system
Turkey’s circular economy and reducing emis- will be used to hydro-treat the used oils and
sions from API Group II base lubricating oils. remove sulphur, chlorine, nitrogen, phospho-
“This was a significantly large sized project rous, silica and saturation of aromatics employ-
for us and a unique one to be involved in within ing special catalysts.
our reference installations. TAYRAS’ re-re- The released from Xebec added that industry
finery shows the importance of securing local consultant Kline & Co. estimated that approx-
supply and reducing the carbon footprint of oils imately 50% of used motor oil is re-refined in
through recycling. Our on-site hydrogen offers Europe.
the lowest cost and emissions option by cutting This amount falls to between 10% and 15%
out the transportation and liquefaction steps in North America. In Turkey, it is estimated by
from centralized hydrogen supply. In addition, Petder to be as little as 7%.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 24•June•2021