Honeywell control technology installed at Russian refinery giant

Honeywell Process Solutions has implemented its Experion PKS R.410 distributed control system (DCS) at Angarsk Petrochemical Company (APC), the largest oil refining and petrochemical complex in the Irkutsk region of Eastern Siberia, Russia.

The DCS will simplify operations and improve the process efficiency of the refinery’s delayed coking unit, which extracts valuable fuels from heavy oil residues of the refining processes.

The investment forms part of the plant’s goal to match world-class standards in process automation, and is part of a company-wide modernisation between 2012 and 2020 by Rosneft, APC’s owners and the largest publicly traded oil company in Russia. 

The modernisation will help the plant’s products reach the Euro 5 emissions standard, as well as bring a range of improvements to process management, operational safety, downtime risk management, and steam and fuel consumption. 

‘Equipping our unit with Experion helped to significantly reduce the operator workload. The system supports critical control functions, improves productivity, and prevents accidents that can lead to serious consequences at the production site,’ says Igor Zverkov, head meteorologist at APC.

Commissioned in 1955, Angarsk – with is 80.5 million bpy capacity – is among Russia’s largest refineries, and its products are sold both domestically and internationally.

The plant has now produced its first shipment of premium fuel compliant with Euro 5, and it aims to increase refining volume and processing depth while minimising operational costs.

The DCS integrates with Safety Manager, Honeywell’s safety instrumented system platform that safeguards assets and shares safety information with the process control system.

The platform helps prevent incidents and minimise impacts by protecting equipment, monitoring for fire and gas leaks, and supporting critical control functions, Honeywell says.