Inspection of the Myanmar refining project

Thread Content

Inspection of Refineries in Myanmar From July 6 to July 10, 2019, we conducted inspections of some refineries in Myanmar. A summary of the inspection is as follows: Starting from Mandalay, it takes 2.5 hours of driving westward to reach Monywa. There are 120–130 small refineries in the area that process crude oil produced in Myanmar; this crude oil is of the low-sulfur paraffin type, with some of it also containing recycled engine oil. The processes employed are all batch-type oil refining; it involves a 50 m3 reaction vessel, which is a cylindrical container made of steel plates and arranged horizontally. There is a coke removal port at the bottom of one end of the vessel, while there is one feeding port at the top and multiple distillation outlets ； The reaction kettle is placed in an earth furnace built from red bricks; there are two types of such furnaces: one with a fuel burner, and the other using wood as fuel ； The distillation outlet is connected to three cooling water tanks in series, and the oil receiving tank is an underground oil pool. The production process involves adding 150 barrels of crude oil at once into the reactor, sealing it and heating it; thereafter, gasoline, diesel, and wax oil are distilled out one after another until all the crude oil in the reactor has been vaporized. After cooling, a hole is made at the bottom of the reactor to manually remove the residue, completing one production cycle, which lasts three days. From an economic analysis perspective, a batch-type oil refining unit is capable of processing 2,500 tons of crude oil per year; it requires an investment of 500,000 yuan, with a gross profit of 2.5 million yuan per year, resulting in considerable profitability. Question: The difference between large and small refineries lies in the number of batch-type refining units; they use outdated processes, are unsafe, inefficient, lack separation equipment, fail to recover gases, result in high costs and poor quality, rely on manual operation, and have no automatic control systems. Although the economic analysis yielded favorable results, these are based on data provided by the manufacturers under review. It is expected that there will be differences in yield and selling prices (comparison of gas station prices), which would reduce the overall benefits. Furthermore, based on observations on site, the operation rates of batch-type refining units are generally low. These refineries are relatively concentrated, with similar process and equipment levels; neither large nor small refineries have any advantages. It represents simple, repetitive construction along with fierce competition among peers, which may be the reasons for the low operation rates and poor profitability. Improvements: kettle-type coking, continuous distillation, gas recovery; capacity of 30,000–50,000 tons per year