Axens to revamp mild hydrocracking for Hungary’s MOL at Danube refinery

Hungarian company MOL has selected Axens to perform the revamping of its DMHCK unit (FCC feed hydrotreater and mild hydrocracking) of the Danube refinery in Százhalombatta, Hungary, officials announced on Wednesday. 

This revamping project consists in increasing VGO conversion and diesel yield.

The existing DMHCK unit was commissioned in 1992 with a 4,500 tpd capacity, and was further upgraded using a non-Axens technology to allow the processing of heavy coker gas-oil (HCGO) with a design capacity of 6,000 tpd.

For the new revamping, Axens offered its latest catalyst series, which it says enables conversion increases without significant reactors and main equipment modifications. The required unit modifications identified by Axens will be implemented in a way that minimizes unit downtime.

“This one of the most important project in MOL refinery in the next years, therefore we have selected an experienced company with good references supremely meets our requirements," said Zsolt Gulyás, project manager at MOL. 

"It was very important during the selection to minimize the CAPEX cost of the project," he added.

The Axens technologies for hydrocracking and FCC feed pretreatment have been on the market for several decades, allowing the development of knowledge due to industrial feedback and extensive pilot testing, according to company officials.