The Omsk oil refinery of Gazpromneft in Siberia, Russia, has significantly reduced its air emissions through the use of BELCO wet washing technology licensed from DuPont Clean Technologies, the Russian company announced on October 1, 2020. With an installed capacity of 22.23 million tons of oil per year, the Omsk oil refinery is one of Russia’s leading refineries.

The BELCO wet scrubbing technology was installed in Omsk during the conversion of the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU). It efficiently removes contaminants from the exhaust gases emitted by the FCCU, thereby reducing air emissions well below the detection limit.

The introduction of the BELCO wet washing technology was an important part of a major modernization project Gazpromneft started in 2008 at the Omsk Refinery. One of the objectives of the project was the systematic introduction of technologies to reduce the environmental impact of the refinery. This includes the treatment of FCCU exhaust gases with the BELCO scrubber to clean them of air pollutants. BELCO’s technology also enabled the Omsk oil refinery to save on the installation of environmentally-clean technologies. Thanks to the unique BELCO construction, which is contained in a single high-rise building, the refinery could remove existing 70-meter-high brick chimneys and install the scrubber on the foundation where the chimneys previously stood. This was of crucial importance for the site, as the area for the refinery plant is limited.

The BELCO scrubber has a unique, proprietary design consisting of a water spray tower with filter modules and droplet separators. Larger particles and sulfur dioxide are removed in the spray tower and fine particles get taken out in the area of the filter modules, so that only the purified flue gas leaves the tower. The process is fully automated, and the new system has built-in control analyzers that allow continuous online monitoring.

“Environmental protection is a priority for many of our customers,” said Yves Herssens, business development manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at DuPont. He continued, “They want to limit emissions, but they need efficient systems with which they can achieve their goal reliably, consistently, and quickly. The BELCO wet scrubber is a powerful technology that enables the Omsk oil refinery to achieve its goal of reducing air emissions in line with the Russian ‘Project Ecology’ with minimal maintenance requirements in the coming decades. It is part of the emission control solutions we offer to the refining industry, including DynaWave Wet Washing, STRATCO Alkylation Technology, and IsoTherming Hydrotreatment Technology.”

For the Omsk oil refinery, the environment is an absolute priority. The company systematically implements technologies that reduce environmental impact. The Omsk Refinery was one of the first refineries in Russia to use this state-of-the-art technology to purify exhaust gases by breaking up liquids and catalysts. “This is a pure environmental project that supports our high standards of environmental safety,” said Oleg Belyavsky, the director general of the Omsk Refinery.

The BELCO Wet Scrubbing Technology is the global standard for limiting exhaust emissions from FCCUs, fluid cocci, heat exchangers, and boilers. The BELCO wet washing system reliably controls particle, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions in a single high-bay warehouse, eliminating the need for a separate control unit to control different emissions. The unique open-container design and non-clogging properties of the BELCO system are robust and have been proven to support continuous FCCU operation, typically three to seven years of continuous operation with no maintenance or interruption. BELCO is designed to handle severe disruption, including fine dust and high temperatures.