Page 34 - SAPREF 50 year

SAPREF: FUELLING SA FOR 50 YEARS
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Seen on the LION site in mid-May 2005 were some of the senior members of the project team, from left, Bongani Dube, Aura Cuellar, Tjalling Terpstra, Mbulelo Yokwe and Yasmin Sheriff.
SAPREF did not use octane-boosting additives to replace lead to meet the 2006 legislation, but was able to produce cleaner fuels without the risk to the environment or to catalytic converters associated with the use of alternate octane-boosting additives such as oxygenates (MTBE or TAME) and organo-metallics (MMT), respectively.
After a flawless start-up, the project achieved on-spec product rundown to storage on 1 December 2005. By this date, 1,8 million hours had been worked on the project — with no lost time injuries among the 1000 people, on average, on the site.
Said Mbulelo Yokwe, who was initially Senior Process Engineer and later became Start-up Manager, “The highlight of the project for me was that we were the only refinery in South Africa to start up and be commissioned to produce cleaner fuels on time and within budget. A unique aspect of the project was that we went for an Isomerisation plant, something we had never had before at SAPREF.”
One of the many safety awareness activities during the LION Project had South African soccer legend Jomo Sono (wearing a cap) in attendance. He is pictured with HSSE’s Eddie Chettiar, Tjalling Terpstra (Project Manager), Benson Mseleku (Fraser and Chalmers), Mbulelo Yokwe (Process Engineer) and Wayne Pierce (Managing Director).