McDermott International, Inc. (Houston; www.mcdermott.com) announced the successful commercialization and startup of its single largest CDAlky reactor to date at PetroChina’s refinery in Jilin, China. The 350,000-metric-tons-per-year (m.t./yr; 9,000 barrels per day) plant is one of four CDAlky projects awarded to the company by PetroChina and had an unusually fast schedule from design to operation, with startup occurring just 17 months after initial design.
Lummus’ CDAlky technology provides a safe, clean and economical route to low sulfur, high octane alkylate blendstock used to fuel smaller, lighter and high compression transportation engines. One of the key features of the CDAlky technology is its scalability. Competing processes would require multiple reactors to achieve the same capacity, adding complexity and plot space in comparison with CDAlky.
“Lummus technology’s CDAlky is the most advanced alkylation process for the production of motor fuel alkylate,” said Daniel M. McCarthy, Executive Vice President of McDermott’s Lummus Technology business. “The CDAlky process provides a higher quality product with lower capital and operating expenditures, offering the best overall solution for the clean fuel production of alkylate.”