TEHRAN (NIORDC) __ Imam Khomeini (Shazand) Refinery has signed a contract, worth €290 million, with the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) for supplying the technical knowhow for production of needle coke, a premium grade petroleum coke, by RIPI.
During the signing ceremony of the deal, Gholamhossein Ramezanpour, the CEO of Imam Khomeini (Shazand)Refinery, pointed out the importance of this project: "The purpose of this project is to make graphite electrodes to continue production in the country"s steel industry, also by implementation of this project, the refinery will no longer yield any fuel oil."
Ramezanpour, stating that the laboratory and preliminary studies of this project were done last year, added: "With continuous and numerous follow-ups that were done at RIPI, the results of laboratory operations were fruitful and the coke with sulfur content of less than 55% in laboratory scale was produced."
He added: "The country"s steel industry currently needs an average of 54,000 tons of needle coke per year, which will reach 90-94,000 tons next year to produce 50 million tons of steel in the country; in this regard, a unit with a capacity of 90,000 tons per year was designed to produce needle coke in collaboration with the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry."
Ramezanpour, stating that needle coke is a valuable material for the steel industry, continued: "Most of the graphite electrodes needed by the steel industry will be produced in Ardakan, Yazd; thus, the needle coke produced by the refinery in Ardakan Plant in Yazd is converted into graphite electrodes to meet the needs of the steel industry."
He added: "The contract for engineering studies and technical savvy and project design studies will come to fruition within the next year."
According to Ramezanpour, it is hoped that with the efforts and cooperation of RIPI, this work will be completed sooner than expected, so early next year the tender documents and the contractor will be selected and this unit will be used in the second half of the calendar year of 1404.
He stated that currently the fuel oil produced by the refinery is less than 10% and has the lowest production of this plant among other refineries, adding: "Before implementation of this project in the refinery, production of fuel oil as a low value product will reach zero."