Energy. Resource Efficiency 2021: TAIF-NK participates in international specialised exhibition

A site to discuss topics of energy efficiency

Energy Efficiency and Environment Tatarstan international forum took place in Kazan. The 21^st Energy. Resource Efficiency International Specialised Exhibition operated during the forum. Specialists of the energy and gas and petrochemical sectors, representatives of federal power agencies and industrial enterprises from 40 regions of Russia and neighbouring countries visited the exhibition.

Opening the exhibition Energy. Resource Efficiency 2021, the Tatarstan president noted that this event was an amazing site to discuss energy-saving issues.

“The Republic of Tatarstan consumes a lot of energy. Energy efficiency issues are a priority for us. It is a good tradition to host such a big event. It is an amazing site to discuss topical themes. Federal executives whom we can deliver some issues to are also here. I wish everybody good work, take care of yourself and keep a social distance. Don’t forget to put the masks on,” Rustam Minnikhanov said at the opening ceremony of the forum.

Vice Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Mikhail Ivanov attended the event. According to him, Russia’s president has raised issues of energy efficiency in his speeches many times.

“Energy efficiency implies a fall in the bill on energy consumption, higher resource efficiency, a lower environmental impact. Vladimir Putin mentioned all these factors in his address too. I am especially pleased that Tatarstan is at the forefront of performing key tasks. This forum has been hosted in Tatarstan for 20 years. The Ministry of Industry and Trade actively participate in the agenda of energy efficiency. We make a list of energy efficiency technologies and facilities for further use. We follow an industrial policy on the transition and introduction of the best available technologies,” said Vice Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Mikhail Ivanov.

Key numbers of TAIF-NK JSC

After the official opening ceremony, the Tatarstan president looked over the stands of Energy. Resource Efficiency International Specialised Exhibition 2021. During the round, Rustam Minnikhanov was interested in the stand of TAIF-NK oil refinery, which is a traditional participant in the exhibition.

Nowadays the assortment of products at TAIF-NK JSC includes 49 products. Diesel fuel and straight-run petrol, motor fuel, liquefied hydrocarbon gases, jet fuel and bitumen are its key commodities.

Director General of TAIF-NK JSC Maxim Novikov stressed that TAIF-NK JSC raised its oil conversion rate from 73,4% to 84,9% from 2019 to the first quarter of 2021.

“At the same time, we see that the production of light oil products also rose from 63,9% in 2019 to 83,2% in the first quarter of 2021 with a simultaneous reduction in the output of heavy oil products from 35,4% to 16,8% thanks to using them as feedstock at the Heavy Residues High Conversion Facility. Moreover, the production of light oil products in March 2021 rose to 91,4%, while the production of heavy products decreased to 8,61%,” Maxim Novikov added.

Developments in energy efficiency

According to the TAIF-NK JSC director general, a big job was done to create a reliable electricity supply layout. In 2016, a 100 KW Begishevo substation was launched, it became the third truly independent source of electricity supply for the Nizhnekamsk Industrial Hub. This allows enterprises, including the Heavy Residues High Conversion Facility of TAIF-NK JSC, to hold the first reliability category of enterprises in case of any repair modes of the grid.

“Together with the creation of independent electricity supply sources, TAIF-NK JSC started work on reinforcing internal grid layout. Fast transfer switches were installed at all distribution substations of TAIF-NK. In case of a short circuit in any of the sources, the transfer switches instantaneously respond and transfer the current of consumers to an undamaged source,” Novikov added.

The fast transfer switches have allowed TAIF-NK to prevent the consequences of 34 blackouts since 2016. The total prevented damage of production downtime at TAIF-NK as a consequence of blackout was over 1,5bn rubles. After that, there was organised supply of by-product fuel gas of the Heavy Residues High Conversion Facility to a branch of TGC-16 JSC — Nizhnekamsk CHPP. The annual economic effect of the use of fuel gas at the Nizhnekamsk CHPP-1 amounts to more than 500 million rubles.

Moreover, rational use of by-product fuel gases of the facility enabled to reduce emissions into the atmosphere by 275,093 tonnes.

Caring about environment

Maxim Novikov separately talked about environmental protection. TAIF-NK implements Clean Air and Clean Water environmental projects. This is what has been done since 2013 to improve the environment:

• furnace burners have been replaced with modern ones with low emission of polluting substances;
• the company has refused to use liquid fuel in all furnaces of production units;
• the loading rack of car petrol has been equipped with a steam recovery unit;
• Petrol plant’s highly-viscous feedstock has been substituted for low-viscous feedstock from the Heavy Residues High Conversion Facility;
• flare losses of the oil refinery have reduced by using its own gas instead of natural gas (Middle Distillate Hydrotreatment Facility);
• reserve fleet has been transferred to the nitrogen cushion;
• closed steam treatment in major repairs of equipment has allowed reducing the total amount of emissions from 17 to 12,200 tonnes by 30%, while hydrogen sulphide emissions have decreased by 80%, from 34 to 7 tonnes.

The reconstruction of local treatment facilities ended in 2017 — modern automatic treatment facilities were put into operation. This allowed the plants to switch to a closed water turnover by almost excluding the necessity of using river water.

Also, in 2019, a condensate treatment unit with a capacity of 1,62 million cubic metres a year was launched in the Heavy Residues High Conversion Facility. It allowed reducing the purchase of chemically desalted water from others thanks to using its own condensate.

“Today we have presented the performance of TAIF-NK JSC in 2019, 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 to Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov. We increased the feedstock conversion rate. It is the key indicator of resource efficiency. But the selection of light oil products is the major indicator. We crossed the crucial bar of 90%. In some enterprises of the sector, it is 78% at best, the country’s average indicator is 75%. We reached 91,4% in March,” Director General of TAIF-NK JSC Maxim Novikov told journalists after the presentation of the stand.

According to him, TAIF-NK JSC recently declared a new product — Euro-6 diesel fuel with a very low content of sulphur. The company plans to master the production of this fuel and start to stably produce it during the year.

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