AITESA joins PETRONOR’s emissions reduction strategy and demonstrates its commitment to a more sustainable future by reducing CO2 emissions by 21,256 tons per year, through its energy recovery project in the P2-H1/2/3 furnace at PETRONOR’s Platformado-2 Unit, Muskiz Refinery.

The project modifications consisted of:
– Increasing the energy efficiency of the Platformado-2 furnaces with the installation of an air preheating system (plate type) that recovers heat from the fumes of P2-H1/2/3 and G2-H1/H2 furnaces.
– Eliminate the existing limitation in the furnace by reducing the load to cell No.1 intermediate heater P2-H-2 and using for this service the three rows of smooth tubes (shock rows) of the convection section.
– Reduce steam generation by reducing the currently installed area of the steam generator (3 smooth rows of the generator will be switched to HC+H2 service from No.1 intermediate heater P2-H-2).

– Replacement of the currently installed mixed fuel oil/fuel gas burners with fuel gas only burners, forced draft and suitable for hot and cold air operation. The new burners are low NOx (< 100 mg/Nm3).

AITESA was responsible for:

• Detailed engineering.
• Purchasing Management, Activation and Inspection of supplies.
• Permit Management.
• Assembly supervision.

The new air preheater reduces the flue gas outlet temperature from 212ºC to 150ºC. This improvement in heat recovery increases the furnace’s fuel efficiency from 85.7% to 91.6%, resulting in a reduction of 6,544 tons of fuel consumption per year, equivalent to a reduction of 21,256 tons of_CO2 per year.

We would like to acknowledge and thank Ekain Caballero Calvo (Project Manager) and Ana Bello Alhambra (Process Engineer) for their continuous collaboration and dedication, which were essential for the completion of this project.