15 June 2017

Our Oil and Gas team has won a contract to design and manufacture a modular upgrade to a process unit Costain supplied to a European oil refinery 20 years ago. The team will enhance the efficiency of the client’s hydrocarbon refinery with a combined consultancy, asset optimisation and technology service.

The Costain team, based in Manchester, advised the client on the best way to increase its refinery’s efficiency, and successfully tendered to design the new upgrade module for manufacturing and on-site installation. “The key feature of our approach is that our solution uses existing pressure in the feed gas stream to drive processing of the valuable olefins, and therefore doesn’t require any additional external power. Our services are designed to optimise the refinery’s productivity”, said Grant Johnson, Costain FES Manager - Oil and Gas, who led the consultancy work in response to a challenge from the client.

“Our customers, in all our operations’ sectors, are seeking to maximise the capacity, efficiency and profitability of their existing assets”, said Mark Buckingham, Costain Senior Project Manager, who will lead the project going forward. “Our client challenged us to improve its production capacity with a like-for-like module that is able to integrate with its existing facility infrastructure.  We proposed a proprietary technology-based solution for refining valuable light olefins, which have higher value as feedstock for petrochemicals production than as fuel. Our ethylene recovery technology has been adapted to increase the annual recovery of valuable ethylene in the unit by up to 20%.”

The Costain team will design the upgraded unit for safe and seamless integration with the existing plant, using expertise gained in delivering many complex brown-field projects. “We’ve already laser-surveyed the area to ensure the interfaces are well understood and to detect anything that could interfere with installation of the module”, Grant explained. “This is an example of how we deliver technology-based solutions that drive capacity and efficiency improvements.”

Costain will oversee the design, manufacture and delivery of the new module for installation and commissioning in the second quarter 2018.

Photo caption: The team, based in the Manchester design hub, will deliver consultancy, technology and design services to enable optimisation of the client’s asset

 

 

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