Japan’s Idemitsu completes $210 mln FCC unit upgrade
Thu Aug 4, 2011 7:30am GMT
TOKYO Aug 4 (Reuters) – Japan’s third-biggest oil refiner, Idemitsu Kosan Co , said it has completed a 16 billion yen ($208 million) upgrade to the 45,000 barrels per day fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at its Chiba refinery to raise output of high-value-added petrochemical products and gasoline reformate.

The unit is currently in test production and will begin commercial production from around the autumn, a company spokeswoman said.

The upgrade improved the unit’s operational efficiency to one of the best in the country, the spokeswoman added.

It has raised its propylene output capacity to 86,000 tonnes from 67,000 tonnes per year, while that of gasoline reformate has increased to 1.5 million kilolitres (about 26,000 bpd) a year from 1.3 million kl.

The upgrade also raised the yield ratio of butene to 15.2 percent from 14.1 percent.

The company said the unit’s propylene output can be raised to up to 210,000 tonnes in future from 86,000 tonnes now if it conducts additional work on downstream units. The Chiba refinery is located east of Tokyo. ($1 = 76.890 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Michael Watson)