Rustam Kaiumov

A unique facility for Russia — chip production using modern process technologies. Over 4,000 m² of clean room space. Thousands of liters of high-purity gases and chemicals for the manufacturing process. Own boiler house and power generation. Unique solutions for a unique production facility. The project is currently under development and is supervised by the Government of the Russian Federation.

A project carried out jointly with VolgogradNefteProekt. Goal — increasing oil production potential through partial oil dehydration and water treatment for reinjection into the reservoir. Solutions that allow no compromise. Tight conditions and strict water quality requirements forced us to adopt non-standard solutions and enter into tough debates with the client. The most complex unit — final water treatment unit: flow rate 440 m³/h, a site of only 15×4 meters, strict filter resistance requirements, no possibility for backwash water discharge. As a result — modification of the standard filtration scheme: splitting the scheme into two stages, using mechanical filtration to remove mechanical particles and coalescers to remove residual oil. Two-story layout. The second task — sludge disposal from hydrocyclones of sand traps. Dozens of options were considered. Final solution: filter press in an insulated container — sludge moisture content 30–40%, instead of a thousand tons of waste, only 2 tons of wet sand with clay at the outlet. No compromises.

Selection of a design organization for the development of the design project and working documentation. Development of the design project, development of working documentation, approvals and expert reviews. Analysis and selection of equipment suppliers, construction subcontractors, designer's supervision of construction. Scope of work: Administrative Quarter (administrative building, 2 dormitory buildings for 2,500 workers with a medical unit, a canteen with 400 seats, the complex's laboratory, a central control room with a server room, a fire station with a training ground and medical unit, a training building, a central checkpoint); Warehouse facilities (two covered warehouses of 4,500 m² each for storing reagents, spare parts and materials for the complex with utility rooms and a boiler house, open areas for storing equipment and industrial gases); Repair and mechanical shop (RMC building with repair equipment with utility and administrative annexes, areas for storing materials and industrial gases, boiler house); Firefighting water supply system including storage tanks (2×30,000 m³), pump station with 9,000 m³/h capacity; Complex fencing and checkpoints (4 buildings with utility rooms). The project's peculiarity is the need to meet the needs of most of the complex's operations. The warehouse facilities affected all production units, the utility rooms and administrative building had to accommodate all service and administrative personnel, the firefighting system concerns every production unit. To resolve all issues, weekly and thematic meetings were held — both online and on-site. As a result, each specialist got their own office, each operator got their own workplace and locker in the utility rooms, meals and medical care for all complex employees were organized. To create a favorable environment, each building of the administrative quarter has its own unique design, the adjacent territory is well thought out and includes walking areas, canopies, bicycle parking. A huge complex must be beautiful.

CDU/VDU-7 unit with a capacity of 7.1 million tons of oil per year. The project was completed in 2020 and received positive conclusions from environmental and state expert reviews. The project's peculiarity is the integration of oil flows from three old small-capacity units to increase refining efficiency and reduce energy costs. The difficulties involved the need to process a wide range of oil composition — from West Siberian oil with low sulfur content and a lighter composition to Arlan field oil with sulfur content up to 6% and a high content of heavy components. The project included modernization of the power supply system and construction of a new step-down substation, connection of engineering utilities — crude and product storage farms, air, nitrogen, etc. Since the distance from existing flare systems did not allow for safe emergency relief, it was decided to install an enclosed flare in close proximity to the unit. This solution is unique and had not been previously applied to such units. The project also includes engineering support systems — chemical reagent facilities, circulating water supply system and others, without which the unit cannot operate. A big client deserves large-scale projects.

During the upgrading of petroleum products and bringing them into compliance with environmental legislation, a by-product with high toxicity is formed — hydrogen sulfide. Disposal of this product is an important task for any oil refining facility. For sulfur disposal at the existing production facility, standard units implementing the Claus sulfur recovery process with a Scot tail gas treatment unit were used. The process is two-stage and requires a significant amount of equipment. For this client, a new technology from RATE was proposed, which implements both stages in a single vessel and provides 99.96% hydrogen sulfide utilization versus 98.0% using the classical scheme. Design documentation for the elemental sulfur production unit was completed, and environmental and state expert review conclusions were obtained. Social responsibility demands new solutions.

Together with Haldor-Topsoe, a survey of the KCA unit was conducted, and the possibility of using the produced synthesis gas for methanol production was determined. The equipment composition, its parameters and operating modes were defined. Calculations of equipment costs, construction (reconstruction) of the existing KCA unit, operating cost calculations were performed, and the economic effect of implementing the proposed technology was determined.

The project was carried out jointly with Honeywell. All gasoline component streams and blending units were surveyed. Sources of additional quality margin were discovered. Together with Honeywell, analyzers and high-speed control loops were selected, and installation locations were determined. A calculation of implementation costs, operating costs and the effect of implementation was performed. More than 2 billion rubles in profit by reducing quality giveaway across all fuel grades. A worthy result for a worthy client.

The client had previously completed the basic design and even started equipment procurement. However, during the surveys, karst sinkholes were discovered at the intended construction site. The site was urgently changed, but this changed the requirements for the output stream composition and flow rates — capacity was increased, the debutanizer column was eliminated. In a short period, my team and I prepared new design basis data, layouts, specifications, justified the economic feasibility of changing the concept and site for defense at the investment committee. We prepared a documentation package for concluding a FEED contract and subsequent EPC contract for the construction of the unit for our client. Any difficulty is just a reason for changing technical solutions, but not a reason to abandon implementation.

Small capacity does not mean low complexity. Minimum available site area, high salt content in the source artesian water, high requirements for prepared boiler feed water. This project brought together all possible complicating factors. But we succeeded — we placed equipment for boiler feed water preparation. We devised a flow recycling scheme to reduce discharge volumes. We applied all our knowledge and experience to comply with fire protection and safety standards in a cramped site. Moreover, construction was carried out at an operating production facility, which required the use of special construction methods (for example, instead of pile driving, hydraulic pressing machines were used). Tough tasks are a reason for self-development and pride.

This was not just a project. This was the implementation of a whole program to bring diesel fuel to EURO-5 standards. Numerous surveys and calculations were carried out. Many equipment units were replaced, furnaces and columns were reconstructed. The work was complicated by the need to perform tie-ins and reconstruction of the equipment itself only during short shutdown periods. Each shutdown lasted no more than three weeks, and such shutdowns occurred only 1–2 times a year. Every solution on the brink of madness and genius. This includes parallel routing of utilities next to operating ones, strengthening foundations of operating equipment for its subsequent reconstruction, installation of new equipment next to operating equipment, so that later the operating equipment can be shut down for dismantling during the shutdown period. The result was the production of Euro-5 class diesel fuel. Human genius is capable of anything.

Bitumen is a product of deep oil refining. It is difficult to obtain anything else from it. It is used for road construction, waterproofing and waterproofing materials. However, even here innovation can be introduced — if certain polymers are dissolved in bitumen, its properties begin to surpass ordinary bitumen. It becomes more resistant to loads, low temperatures, and resists water better. We performed work on the installation of a polymer impregnation unit in bitumen, maturation units with heating and mixers, and a new product filling unit into bags. The work was performed on a turnkey basis, without shutting down the operating production. Unique solutions were applied, which included heated mixers to maintain temperatures above 250 degrees, an impregnation unit, and piping with special pipelines in which bitumen does not solidify. Thanks to this project, the client received a unique product. And this was the second plant in Russia for producing such a product. Value is created through experience and teamwork.