Corinth Refinery is an oil refining complex in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, the largest industrial complex in the country with a capacity of , and it is operated by Motor Oil Hellas.

Facilities

Fuels production

Crude oil is processed in the crude distillation unit, from which liquified petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, kerosene, diesel and

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

are produced. Kerosene and Diesel are further treated mainly in order to remove

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

thus complying with the required specifications and to produce

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by Gas turbine, gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for ...

and diesel fuel respectively (both automotive and heating grades).

Gasoline production

Naphtha is treated to produce

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

of a high octane number, eliminating the need for adding

tetraethyllead Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula lead, Pb(ethyl group, C2H5)4. It was widely used as a fuel additive for much of the 20th century, first being mixed with gasoline begi ...

to gasoline.

Hydrocracker complex

This unit is the most recent investment project undertaken by the Company the capital expenditure of which amounted to € 350 million completed in 2005. The operation of the Hydrocracker enabled the production of the new clean fuels with low sulfur content according to the specifications of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

effective as of 2005 and 2009 (Auto Oil II). Furthermore, the unit contributed decisively to the improvement of the environmental conditions at the Refinery as the emissions from Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) were drastically reduced.

Fluid catalytic cracking complex

Atmospheric Fuel Oil is fed to the FCC complex to produce LPG, Gasoline, Diesel, and Fuel Oil. Parts of the LPGs are sent to downstream units and are converted into high quality gasoline components.

Lubricants production

Atmospheric Fuel Oil is also fed to the Lubes Vacuum Unit. After a series of processes in order to improve properties of the

lubricant A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, ...

s, such as

viscosity index The viscosity index (VI) is an arbitrary, unit-less measure of a fluid's change in viscosity relative to temperature change. It is mostly used to characterize the viscosity-temperature behavior of lubricating oils. The lower the VI, the more the ...

, pour point, cloud point, the final base lubes are produced and stored. Additionally, asphalt can be produced from the Lubes vacuum unit, whereas the bottoms of both vacuum units are routed to the visbreaker for further upgrading and production of fuel oil.

References

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External links

Official Motor Oil Hellas site
Oil refineries in Greece Corinth 1970 establishments in Greece