On October 25, 2008, the Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit was restarted in Maþeikiai Refinery after modernization. It took only three weeks for the employees of AB Mažeikių Nafta and 900 persons from the contractor companies to replace one reactor with the five-times-larger reactor and to perform other maintenance of the main equipment.
AB Mažeikių Nafta performed modernization of the unit in implementation of the EU requirements for diesel fuel. The requirements will be effective on January 1, 2009, and will permit for supply only diesel fuel with the sulphur content up to 10 ppm (10 mg/kg) to the Baltic market.
Having completed the modernization of the Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit, AB Mažeikių Nafta will ensure stable production of the low-sulphur diesel fuel and its supply to the Baltic markets. This product of the Company will become also more competitive on the European markets.
Having shut the Unit down, its extensive modernization was performed — all main installations of the unit, such as heat exchangers, air coolers, and control systems were replaced and repaired. The main part of the Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit modernization works was replacement of the reactors. The new reactor, with capacity of 475 cubic meters, was delivered last summer and replaced the old reactor, with capacity of 80 cubic meters. The value of the modernization exceeded 100 million litas.
“We performed modernization works of the Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit without shutting down the main units of the Refinery and only within three weeks. Our most important task was to perform the works of good quality and within the shortest possible time. We carefully planned all the activities and carried them out properly,” — Marek Mroczkowski, General Director of AB Mažeikių Nafta told.
During the modernization of the Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit, the Company performed more activities: repaired and modernized the Reformer and the Visbreaker Heaters.
Jacek Jan Komar
AB Mazeikiu Nafta
Tel.: +370 443 9 35 34
Fax: +370 443 9 25 79
jacek.komar@nafta.lt