The petrochemicals unit at the OMV Schwechat Refinery is fully operational after being taken out of operation for a regular inspection required by law every six years.
The aim was the thorough cleaning, inspection and maintenance of plant components as well as the modernisation of the petrochemicals unit and parts of the refining unit.
The units for fuel production were inspected last year.
This year’s shutdown affected the areas used for the production of intermediate products for plastics production, which included the ethylene and butadiene plant and the catalytic cracker.
Inspection work was carried out on 18 process furnaces, 121 columns/reactors, 513 heat exchangers, 684 tanks, 3,000 fittings, 1,800 safety valves and various repairs were carried out at around 1,140 pipeline points.
In total, around 500,000 bolts were replaced on the equipment in the petrochemicals unit of the refinery.
“Thanks to the strong support of all employees and partner companies as well as the comprehensive safety measures, the planned turnaround was completed successfully. With the groundwork laid for implementing our new facilities, we have taken another step towards a more sustainable refinery business and towards the transformation of OMV,” said Martijn van Koten, OMV executive vice-president fuels and feedstock.
OMV also used this time to modernise the refinery in order to set the course for a more sustainable future with lower emissions.
This meant that progress was made on numerous projects – such as the integration work for expanding the ReOil® recycling plant and the electrolysis unit for producing green hydrogen. Extensive implementation work for co-processing (for biofuel production) is in progress and will be finalized soon.
OMV completes turnaround at petrochemicals unit
