Russia's Gazprom Neft opts for Environment-friendly process for Needle Coke Production

The only needle coke manufacturer in Russia, Gazprom Neft is investing more than 5.2 billion rubles on a project to upgrade and modernize the 767,000-tonne/year delayed coking unit (DCU) at its 21.4 MnT/year Omsk refinery in Western Siberia as part of its modernization program to reduce environmental impacts and improve processing capacities, conversion rates, energy efficiency, and production qualities at the site.

The company has completed the installation of DCU which is designed to process heavy petroleum feedstock, predominantly tar. The new coking unit have improved efficiency and has the ability to further process oil residues. Installation of three major coking ovens, each 28.5 metres long and weighing 197 tonnes, is already complete. Process heaters and secondary refining columns will also be replaced as part of this reconstruction, an additional tank farm built, and an automated control system will be introduced. The reconstructed delayed coking unit is expected to produce 38,700 tonnes of needle coke every year, once the entire renovation is completed in 2021. The project will reduce environmental impacts from operations at the site by 75% as a result of deeper treatment of coker gas.

Gazprom Neft has been implementing an extensive modernisation programme at its Omsk Refinery since 2008, total investment in which stands at more than RUB300 billion. The first stage of this modernisation has involved the construction and reconstruction of key technological facilities, allowing the complete transition to the production of Euro-5 fuels, significantly improving energy efficiency and environmental friendliness in production. The implementation of the second phase of the modernisation programme is ongoing, as a result of which conversion rate and the yield of light petroleum products will increase.

Russia is entirely dependent upon imports to meet its needle coke requirements and with Gazprom's needle coke project, the graphite electrodes companies will be able to meet their raw material requirements domestically.

The country's crude steel production in 2018 was around 72 MnT and the share of EAF in its steelmaking is about 31% resulting which its GE requirement for domestic consumption is quite limited. However, the country is one of the major electrodes exporters as it exported about 47,568 tonnes of GE in 2018, registering a growth of 21% y-o-y basis with highest exports being made to U.S. followed by Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Germany. In the first seven months of 2019, Russia has exported about 25,681 tonnes of GE. The only major electrodes producer in Russia at present is Eenergoprom Group that has three plants specializing in manufacturing high-quality electrode in Novocherkassk, Novosibirsk, and Chelyabinsk.