RIL commissions world’s largest refinery off-gas cracker at Jamnagar

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has commissioned the world's largest refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC), of 1.5 MMTPA capacity, along with downstream plants and utilities, at Jamnagar, thereby doubling its ethylene capacity.

With the world's largest operating refinery off-gas cracker, RIL now joins the league of top 5 petrochemical producers globally in ethylene capacity.

The ROGC complex is a core component of RIL's innovative and world-scale J3 project at its integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex at Jamnagar.

The commissioning of ROGC complex, the largest-ever expansion of RIL's petrochemicals portfolio, also comes as one of the largest capital expenditure programme globally in the sector in recent times. The project is in tune with RIL's core strategy of continuously pursuing opportunities for cost optimisation and efficiency enhancement through vertical integration across the value chain, RIL stated in a release.

''The ROGC complex has a unique configuration as it uses off-gases from RIL's two refineries at Jamnagar as feedstock. This innovative approach of integration with refineries provides a sustainable cost advantage, making ROGC competitive with respect to the crackers in Middle-East and North America which have feedstock cost advantage.

''ROGC design is highly flexible and energy efficient. Given the complexities of such a plant, the start-up has been flawless adhering to the most stringent safety and technical integrity standards globally,'' says the release.

ROGC is the latest addition to RIL's existing cracker portfolio, consisting of cracker facilities at Nagothane in Maharashtra and Hazira, Dahej and Vadodara in Gujarat.

Against nearly 270 ethylene plants globally with a combined capacity of over 170 MMTPA, RIL has a combined ethylene capacity of close to 4 MMTPA, at five of its manufacturing sites.

With ROGC and imported ethane, RIL claims to have one of the most competitive and flexible cracker portfolio.

Ethylene from ROGC is used in downstream plants to produce mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) and polyethylene (LLDPE and LDPE). Similarly, propylene from ROGC has enhanced output of the existing polypropylene (PP) plants at Jamnagar complex to produce high-value co-polymers.

The commissioning of MEG plant marks completion of all-round expansion of the polyester value chain post successful commissioning of paraxylene (PX), purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyester filament and poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) plants over last 3 years, RIL stated.

With the commissioning of LLDPE and LDPE plants at Jamnagar along with its existing PE plants at other manufacturing sites, RIL has capability to produce entire range of PE grades covering all end-uses in the Indian market.

''The world's first ROGC and downstream plants marks a paradigm shift in the profitability and sustainability of RIL's petrochemicals business. The ROGC complex is built on our core philosophy of deep feedstock integration to establish industry leading cost and efficiency benchmarks. This world scale petrochemicals expansion, once again showcases RIL's unique competitive advantage in efficient execution of complex projects and flawless commissioning capabilities, adding yet another jewel to its crown. This is a fitting tribute to RIL's visionary founder chairman Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani,'' Mukesh D Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries Limited, said.

RIL claims to have built the ROGC complex in a record time and at approximately 40 per cent lower capital cost compared to the similar projects globally. The incident-free flawless start-up also makes ROGC complex one of the best executed project globally from concept to commissioning, it added.