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Project Overview

The project involves setting up of a Greenfield 9 MMTPA refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Barmer district of Rajasthan. With a processing capacity of nine million tonnes of crude oil per annum (Mtpa), the refinery complex will produce environment-friendly clean fuels, as well as petrochemicals to be used as feedstock in packaging, textile, and petroleum industries.

Project Progress and Timeline

• Physical Completion: 82% as of September 2024, with crude pipelines nearing 94% completion.
• Crude Unit Start: October 2025, with phased commissioning of downstream units to follow.
• Full Operations: Expected by December 2025, ramping up to 80% capacity by year-end and full utilization by 2027.
• Petrochemical Integration: Polypropylene, LLDPE, and HDPE units to begin operations in early 2026, three months after refinery startup.

Key Features and Units

• Crude Mix: Designed to process both indigenous Rajasthan crude and imported Arab mix crude (initially 1.5 MMTPA Rajasthan crude + 7.5 MMTPA Arab mix; shifting to 9.0 MMTPA Arab mix after 8 years)^[1]
• Process Units: The facility will have 29 process units; major units include^[1][2]: 
  • Crude Distillation Unit (CDU): 9.0 MMTPA
  • Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU): 4.8 MMTPA
  • Naphtha Hydrotreater (NHT): 1.8 MMTPA
  • Diesel Hydrotreater (DHDT): 4.1 MMTPA
  • Delayed Coker Unit (DCU): 2.4 MMTPA
  • Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (PFCCU): 2.9 MMTPA
  • Vacuum Gas Oil Hydrotreater (VGO-HDT): 3.5 MMTPA
  • Isomerization Unit, Semi-Regenerative Reformer, and Continuous Catalytic Reformer (CCR)
  • Dual Feed Cracker Unit: 0.82 MMTPA
  • Polypropylene Units: 2 x 490 KTPA (using Lummus Novolen technology for high-performance catalysts)
  • LLDPE/HDPE Swing Units: 2 x 416 KTPA
  • Butene-1 Unit: 59 KTPA
     
• Key Technology Providers:
  • Axens: Naphtha hydrotreating, semi-regenerative reformer, C₅-C₆ isomerization, VGO hydrotreater, Prime-G+® (cracked gasoline desulfurization), AlphaButol® (1-Butene production), sulfur block (Claus, Sultimate™ tail gas treatment), sour water stripping, and amine regeneration^[3]
  • Lummus: Novolen process reactors and catalysts for polypropylene units^[2]
  • EIL (Engineers India Limited): Project management and engineering for several units^[2]

References

1. REVISED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDY FOR RAJASTHAN REFINERY PROJECT - GRASS ROOT REFINERY & PETROCHEMICAL COMPLEX, HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION LIMITED, REPORT NO. B068-1742-EI-1701 JULY 2017, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
2. Wiipedia, Pachpadra Refinery (page last edited on 13 May 2025). 
3. DIGITAL REFINING, 08 April 2019, HPCL Rajasthan refinery selects technologies from Axens.