Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) today officially inaugurated the $151 million refinery gas desulphurisation project (RGDP), which is one of its most significant environmental projects to date.

RGDP will reduce hydrogen sulphide in fuel gas to less than 150 parts per million (ppm) which is significantly less than the government’s environmental regulation limit of 600 ppm.

The RGDP, which recently underwent trial commissioning, has led to the achievement of a significant milestone in Bapco’s history and is a major step towards the fulfilment of its vision to turn the refinery into one of the environmentally greenest and cleanest in the world, said Oil and Gas Affrairs Minister and Noga chairman, Dr Abdul-Hussain Bin Ali Mirza.

The RGDP was implemented to further enhance ambient air quality through the use of cutting-edge technology to remove sulphur from refinery process gases and remove contaminants from water that is produced in the refining processes.

In addition to the improvement in air and water qualities, the project has been designed to very high standards of reliability, for example by providing, in many cases, two pieces of equipment where only one is required, to ensure that these improvements in air and water quality are achieved continuously even when these units are undergoing their scheduled maintenance shutdowns, Dr Mirza said.

The other projects on the environmental compliance programme include the production of unleaded gasoline, an environmentally-friendly method of treating kerosene and jet fuel, hazardous solid waste management, a waste-water treatment  plant, a sewage treatment plant and double-sealed tanks to minimise evaporative losses to atmosphere.

Most of the environmental compliance projects have now been completed and the remaining few are well on their way to completion. These projects will ensure that Bapco not only meets the government of Bahrain’s environmental standards, but will also significantly exceed them. In total, they will cost Bapco in excess of $440 million, he said.

Marco Moresco, CEO, Foster Wheeler Italiana, the project EPC Contractor, said the project took 300,0000 engineering man-hours, 4 million construction man-hours, 3,200 cubic metres of concrete, 2,000 metric tonnes of piping material and 140 kilometers of cables.-TradeArabia News Service