Honeywell provides processing parts

, a Honeywell company, has announced that

, a leading European petroleum and petrochemical company, has selected UOP technology for eight process units for the expansion of its La Rábida Refinery in

.

This refinery expansion is part of an investment by CEPSA announced last year that is aimed at meeting growing demand in Europe for middle distillates such as automotive diesel fuel and kerosene.

CEPSA Senior Vice President, Technology, Refining and Gas Manuel Abollado said, “The utilisation rate of the CEPSA’s refinery capacity is currently roughly 98 per cent. The most cost-effective solution to offset the shortage of middle distillates in the European market includes not only a new distillation train, but also the increase of the conversion level through this latest project from UOP.”

UOP technologies to be installed include two Merox process units, a Unionfining process unit and a Unicracking (hydrocracking) process unit. Merox units remove mercaptans sulphur compounds from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as well as from naphthas and gasolines.

The Unionfining process is an efficient catalytic process for the desulphurisation of cracked and straight-run distillate materials and their conversion into automotive diesel fuel. The Unicracking (hydrocracking) process is the world’s most widely used cracking process for the production of very high quality, low-sulphur naphtha and distillate materials out of heavy crude oil fractions.