Korea's S-Oil starts-up residue hydrotreater for low-sulfur fuel oil

Diesel Fuel News, March 17, 2003

The Axens "Hyvahl" unit slashes high-sulfur fuel oil to under 3,000-ppm sulfur either for industrial fuel oil markets or else for pre-treated feed to a residue fluid catalytic cracker unit. The unit, at S-Oil's 525,000 b/d refinery in Onsan, South Korea, processes vacuum resid at 52,000 barrels/day.

S-Oil's 200,000 b/d "bunker-C" cracking center is "one of the largest and most complex heavy oil cracking sites in the world," Axens notes. The site includes a 40,000 b/d mild hydrocracker, a 65,000 b/d high-pressure hydrocracker and a 65,000 b/d resid FCC unit.