The Płock refinery is a large

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

and petrochemical complex located in

Płock Płock (pronounced ), officially the Ducal Capital City of Płock, is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by Central Statistical Office (Poland), GUS on 31 December 2021, the ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is owned by PKN Orlen, and is one of the two major crude oil refineries in Poland, the other one is Gdansk refinery. The refinery has a Nelson complexity index of 9.5 and a capacity is 16.3 million tonnes per year or 276,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

History

In the early 1950s the Polish government wished to develop a petrochemicals industry for the country, to reduce reliance on imports.Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN S.A. https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/75/Polski-Koncern-Naftowy-ORLEN-S-A.html In Poland there were only five small specialist refineries, which together produced less than one million tonnes annually. Authorisation to build the country’s first large-scale crude oil refinery was given in 1954. The Oil Refining Industry oversight body began planning a new one million tonne per year facility. During the design phase the plans were upscaled and the final design had an initial capacity of six million tonnes, with an option to increase capacity up to ten million tonnes. In 1958, Płock was selected as the site for the new refinery, it was known as, and developed by, the Mazovia Refinery and Petrochemical Plant. The plant began operations in 1964.

Expansion

Since 1997 a number of new treatment units were added to the refinery. These increased both the quantity and range of products available. Some of the units were: * 1997 - 54,000 barrels per day Hydrocracker * 1999 - Residual Hydrocracker and 80,000 barrels per day expansion * 2003 - Hydrocracker capacity expanded * 2006 - Diesel oil hydrodesulphurization unit * 2007 - Hydrogen plant * 2010 - Hydrotreater * 2011 - Combined Heat and Power improvements A visbreaking unit was commissioned in December 2022. With a design capacity of 3,300 tonnes of vacuum residue feedstock a day the unit increased the overall petrol and diesel yields of the refinery. A hydrocracking unit and a diesel hydrotreater unit were also upgraded, the refinery’s annual diesel oil output increased by 150,000 tonnes.

Refining Units

The Refining Units at the refinery are as follows. * Atmospheric Distillation * Fluidised Catalytic Cracker - a UOP process * Hydrocracker – a UOP process (54,000 barrels per day) * Vacuum Residual desulfurisation unit * Vacuum Residual Hydrocracker * CCR Reformer (continuous catalyst regeneration) - a UOP process * Diesel oil hydrodesulphurization unit * Jet fuel Hydrotreater * Isomerizer * Hydrogen Plant *

Alkylation Alkylation is a chemical reaction that entails transfer of an alkyl group. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting al ...

Unit The tallest flarestack of the refinery is tall and the tallest chimney is tall.

Products

Products from the refinery and petrochemical plant included: Refinery: * automotive and airplane fuels, * xylene, * diesel oil, * oil coke, *

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

, * lubricant oil, * hard and soft paraffin Petrochemical plant: * ethylene oxide, * ethylene glycol, *

phenol Phenol (also known as carbolic acid, phenolic acid, or benzenol) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile and can catch fire. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () ...

, *

acetone Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone) is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly Volatile organic compound, volatile, and flammable liquid with a charact ...

, *

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...

, *

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...

, *

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer Propene, propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefin ...

and other plastics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plock Refinery Refinery Energy in Poland Oil refineries in Poland Orlen

History

Expansion

Refining Units

Products

See also

References