Zeoforming plant in Rustavi, Georgia

This document has been prepared on behalf of the owners of Zeoforming plant i.e. Assets, located in Rustavi, Georgia, and is considered as information package for potential buyers.

Petro-Mont Technical Services Inc. holds the exclusive rights for the sale from the owners of the assets, and is the only company that is authorized to accept the offer(s), negotiate the terms and conditions of sale, to negotiate other additional services which the owners may offer including but not limited to: match-marking, dismantling, refurbishment, site construction assistance, commissioning, startup services and operators training on site.

Field of application

Gas condensate or straight run gasoline fractions (light and heavy naphtha's) produced in processes cannot be used as motor gasoline due to impurities in it and because of the low octane number which is typically around RON 70 - 72.

Two processes are used to upgrade the straight run gasoline fractions to the required RON (or MON) in order to achieve high octane rating of RON 92 and higher

1) classic reforming (platforming)
2) Zeoforming

While the classic catalytic reforming process has its advantages especially in case of large flow rates and preferably when connected with a refinery, provided that fully desulfurized gasoline fractions are used, the Zeoforming process is especially favourable with flow rates ranging between 20 Thousand and 80,000 MT/Year, when naphtha fractions are not subject to preliminary desulfurization, and when a self sustained and self standing operation is required.

In addition, the Zeoforming process requires lower investment costs for same capacity than reforming/platforming.

Our plant in Rustavi, Georgia have been installed in period between 2002 – 2003, and was operating successfully during 2003 and 2004 when the Government cancelled the independent refinery operators contract and stopped the feedstock supply to the plant. For several years, the owners have tried to get the operating permit reinstated. however the Government wouldn’t revise their decision, thus we are now offering the plant for sale through an option to purchase agreement to qualified buyers only.

Feedstock

Typical raw materials, which may be used as feedstock for zeoforming plant, have for instance the following distillation characteristics:

Initial boiling point °C 70
10 % vol. °C 85
30 % vol. °C 105
50 % vol. °C 125
70 % vol. °C 150
90 % vol. °C 170
final boiling point °C 180 or higher

Group composition

C3 - C4 < 1.2 wt%
Paraffins > 30 wt%
Naphthenes > 28 wt%
Aromatics C7- < 2.5 wt%
Aromatics C8+ > 7.5 wt%

Sulphur content: At first, the sulphur content of the feedstock is of secondary importance. Sulphur contentsof up to 0.5 wt% do not create any problems for the catalyst. However, the more sulphur is contained, the more must be removed from the final product LPG

We were running our plant with naphtha as feedstock with following characteristics:

Initial boiling point °C 35
10 % vol. °C 85
50 % vol. °C 120
90 % vol. °C 175
final boiling point °C 195
Sulphur vol/% 0.1

Finished products

The zeoforming technology helps to produce the following products:

High-octane gasoline

The yield of gasoline (zeoformate) is 52 to 75%. The octane number can be influenced by changing the process parameters and feedstock quality, so that a MON of 76 to 85 can be reached. The high-octane reaction product can be used as finished motor gasoline. In order to achieve specific characteristics, it can be mixed with other gasoline blending components.

Typical yields from whole range Naphtha:

Gasoline yield with MON=76 (RON=80) ≈70% mass
Gasoline yield with MON=82,5 (RON=91-92) ≈ 57% mass
Gasoline yield with MON=85 ≈52% mass

Typical yields from Naphtha 75°C+:

Gasoline yield with MON=76 (RON=80) ≈78% mass
Gasoline yield with MON=82,5 (RON=91-92) ≈ 65% mass
Gasoline yield with MON=85 ≈ 60% mass.

Depending of the severity of operation, when we were running our plant, the following product yields where documented:

RON-93 (AI-93) 72%, C1-C2 5%, C3-C4 20%
RON-95 (AI-95) 60%, C1-C2 10.3%, C3-C4 26.2%
RON-98 (AI-98) 52%, C1-C2 10.3%, C3-C4 34.2%

We have third party certificates confirming the production of certain quantities and octane ratings as mentioned above.

An independent third party evaluation done by Instytut Technologii Nafty from Poland have conducted a lab test on different types of catalyst used in the Zeoforming plant in Gorlice, and the short run test are showing the following results:

Catalyst	Feed		Temperature at the inlet to the first reactor
		360 -	370 °C	400 -410 °C		440 -450 °C		450 -	460 °C
		A	B	A	B	A	B	A	B
Research octane number, RON	61,0	90,2	-	93,5	>100	98,7	101,7	99,6	101,0
Motor octane number, MON	60,0	82,5	87,8	84,2	89,7	87,2	91,6	87,7	90,7
Vapour pressure, kPa	71,6	64,0	51,1	61,9	26,3	47,3	28,7	43,1	29,5
Density, 15°C, g/cm3	0,7290	0,7640	-	0,7794	0,8300	0,8070	0,8404	0,8175	0,8380
Benzene, % (m/m)	0,70	1,01	2,56	1,77	3,94	3,64	5,95	4,62	6,09
Aromatics, % (m/m)	12,3	42,1	60,6	50,0	69,4	61,3	76,6	67,7	74,1
n-paraffins, C3-C10 , % (m/m)	26,9	8,2	4,1	5,8	1,9	3,3	1,4	2,6	1,4

LPG fraction

The LPG yield is approx. 20 to 40% when using a standardized zeoforming unit, and the LPG production would depend of the feed stock quality and severity of operation which can be influenced by changing the operating parameters.

By-products

By-products accumulated in this process are 4 to 8% fuel gas (containing H2S) and1 to 4% solvent naphtha.

Waste products

In the zeoforming process, a small amount of sour water (a few liters per hour) is accumulated. During burning off of the coke residue deposited on the catalyst, regeneration gases are produced which are blown off through a blow-off line. These gases mainly consist of CO2, N2 and H2O with a small SOx amount. Other waste products are exhaust gases from the fired furnaces.

Detailed figures on the end product yields can only be given after knowing the feedstock and after tests on a representative feedstock sample carried out at the licensor’s facilities at cost.

Utilities

The following average amounts of utilities and catalysts are needed for the zeoforming process (per ton throughput at a catalyst lifetime of approx. 8,000 - 10,000 h):

catalyst approx. 0.25 kg/t
electric energy approx. 107 kWh
LP steam approx. 0.15 t
cooling water approx. 6 m³
nitrogen (20 bar) approx. 1.5 Nm³ (max. to 200...400 Nm³/h)
compressed air (20 bar) approx. 1.5 Nm³ (max. to 200...600 Nm³/h)
fuel gas (e. g. natural gas) approx. 1.4 GJ (max. to 40...60 Nm³/h)
instrument air approx. 30 Nm³/h

Overall concept

A Zeoforming plant can be suited very well into the structure of a small topping unit refinery or to be a completely independent operation if the client has access to straight run gasoline i.e. light and heavy naphtha's from atmospheric distillation unit (topping unit) and/or condensate.

Please note that the material balance will vary depending of the chemical composition of feedstock, catalyst type, severity of operation and fuel specification requirement. In the original concept, the finished product quality correspond to Euro 3 standard. If higher finished product standards will be required, de-aromatization will have to be done and the octane level will be lower.