Process Information
CPCL is the largest refinery in South India with a total refining capacity of 10.5 MMTPA. CPCL has two refineries located in Tamil Nadu – the first refinery at Chennai with a capacity of 9.5 MMTPA and the second refinery at Cauvery Basin near Nagapattinam with a capacity of 1.0 MMTPA.

The Manali Refinery located at Chennai is one of the most complex and integrated refineries with three crude distillation units, Diesel Hydro De-sulphurisation unit, Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit, Furfural Extraction unit, Lube Hydrofinishing unit, NMP Extraction unit, Hydro-Cracker unit, Propylene unit and Petrochemical Feedstock unit.

The first refinery complex of CPCL was commissioned in 1969 with a capacity of 2.5 MMTPA and later expanded to 2.8 MMTPA. This refinery was designed to handle heavy crudes and to produce Lube oil based stocks in addition to fuel products like LPG, MS, HSD, SKO, ATF, Naphtha and FO. Thermal Cracker and Visbreaker units were also installed to produce bitumen.

The refining capacity was doubled in 1984 to 5.6 MMTPA by setting up an additional unit with a capacity of 2.8 MMTPA. The secondary processing unit – FCC - was also installed to increase the production of high value products. A Wax unit was set up to produce Paraffin and Match Wax. The capacity of the second unit was increased to 3.7 MMTPA through de-bottlenecking, taking the total refinery capacity to 6.5 MMTPA. In 1994, the Lube capacity was increased from 140 to 270 TMTPA.

CPCL set up a 0.5 MMTPA refinery at Cauvery Basin in 1993 for processing sweet indigenous Narimanam crude. A gas treating unit to extract LPG from Natural Gas was commissioned in 1996 and processes 2 lakhs scm per day of feed gas. The refining capacity has been increased to 1.0 MMTPA in 2002 and processes PY-03 and BH crudes. An oil jetty to transport crude from PY-03 and other sources has been commissioned in 2003.

A new Diesel Hydro Desulphurising unit with a capacity of 1.8 MTPA was commissioned in 1999 at Manali Refinery, to produce HSD with 0.05% sulphur content as stipulated by environmental considerations.

CPCL implemented a 3MMTPA-refinery expansion project in 2004 and increased the refining capacity of Manali refinery to 9.5 MMTPA. The total refining capacity of CPCL has thus increased 10.5 MMTPA.

A new Hydro-cracker unit was also set up as part of expansion project to increase the production of high value products and to meet future specification of auto-fuel products. With the commissioning of expansion project, CPCL has developed the capacity to meet Bharat-II and Euro-III equivalent environmental standards.

CPCL is accredited with ISO 9001: 2000 certification for QMS, ISO 14001 certification for EMS and OHSAS 18001 certification for occupational health and safety.

Information Technology
CPCL has been successfully utilising Information Technology to continuously improve Business Processes in the company and to provide operational, financial, and commercial information to executives at various levels.

CPCL implemented e-Applications ERP software , an indigenously developed ERP package, from M/s. Ramco Information Systems . The ERP modules implemented at CPCL include Sales and Distribution, Oil & Storage Movements, Maintenance, Materials, Finance & Accounts, Projects and Human Resources. The implementation of ERP has enabled CPCL to integrate the functions of major departments seamlessly and ensure smooth workflow. To support ERP, CPCL has created the necessary IT infrastructure and installed ERP servers, Storage Area Network(Network) and a Disaster Recovery system for business continuity .

CPCL has also integrated Access Control , Attendance and Inspection Management Systems with ERP. CPCL recently developed modules for Fire & Safety and Occupational health systems. With an objective to improve communication within the organisation, CPCL has developed an Employee Communication System (ECS). An Intranet Message Board (IMB) has also been developed to encourage employees to share technical information.

CPCL has taken a number of initiatives to provide on-line information to employees through web , which resulted in saving of productive man-hours. The Intranet is regularly updated with various knowledge sources, which are being accessed by employees to improve their knowledge base.CPCL Intranet is also used for providing information to employees on Internal procedure and market events.

CPCL continuously upgrades hardware and network facilities to meet the IT infrastuctural requirements and to utilise latest technological advancements. CPCL is currently upgrading the network backbone capacity to 1 Gbps. In order to improve information security , CPCL is in the process of installing an Intrusion Detection System(IDS).

The computer users in CPCL are provided with training on various aspects of information technology every year. The areas of training include ERP, Lotus Notes, Operating systems, Data Base Systems, Network fundamentals, Information Security and new technologies.

Optimisation
CPCL has pioneered implementing Optimisation techniques for both its Business and Process requirements.

Process Optimisation
CPCL, is the first among Indian refineries to implement Advance Process Control (APC) and Optimisation techniques in all its process units. APC is the proven technique for reaping incremental economic benefits by implementing online strategies to control higher-level objectives like quality control, energy minimization, unit/refinery wide optimization and improved process unit stability. CPCL has implemented APC technology (DMC Plus) from M/s Aspentech, USA, in all its major process units and has further improved on it to achieve the best in process automation through its constant in-house endeavors, continuous technological upgrades and consistent uptime maintenance. As a further step CPCL is now in an advanced stage of implementing Manufacturing Execution System (MES). MES is a cyclic approach which integrates business Optimisation systems like Planning, Scheduling, yield accounting with real-time process systems like Process information system, Advanced Process Control, Laboratory information system and Performance monitoring.

CPCL has established a centralized, powerful, integrated, reliable web based real time Process Information Network (PIN) interfacing 12 different Distributed Control Systems (DCS) models. PIN also covers the off-site Tank farm information management system and Laboratory information management system. PIN architecture is based on Centralized Real-time database built on Aspen IP21 with in-house developed user-friendly ASP based front end. PIN intranet website provides up-to-date information on quality, quantity and unit performance through a single window.

Business Optimisation
CPCL is first among the Indian refineries to implement and achieve the best from Planning tools PIMS (Process Industry Modeling System) from Aspentech. To have a consistent focus on the overall business objective CPCL has formed Refinery Business Optimisation (RBO) group to plan refinery operations and to orient the business planning processes to the ever-changing dynamic market conditions.

The objective of the RBO group is to improve the refinery margins by planning refinery operations using state-of-the-art Linear Programming (LP) techniques and effective implementation of the plan. CPCL has also taken initiative to implement state-of-the-art scheduling solution to further reduce the gap between the plan and actual. Crude scheduling, Fuel refinery scheduling, Lube refinery scheduling and Multi period product blending are various modules under implementation as part of the Scheduler package.

Environment Conservation
CPCL ever since its inception, has been methodically planning and implementing several environmental conservation measures. A dedicated Environment Management Team functions exclusively to plan, implement, operate and monitor all environment-related activities.

CPCL Manali Refinery has obtained ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS-18001 certifications.

CPCL uses the following multi pronged approach towards managing its Environmental System

• Use of cleaner technology in Refinery process operations

• Continuous operation of pollution control facilities

• Creation of environmental awareness amongst all employees

As part of awareness building efforts, CPCL celebrates world environment day every year

Cleaner Water

• CPCL has established three Effluent Treatment Plants dedicated to each of its three refineries. The total capacity of the ETPs is about 550 KL/Hr and is operated on a continuous basis.

• The treated water from Effluent Treatment Plants at CPCL meet IS 2490 and MINAS standards regularly.

• Part of the treated effluents are recycled for greenbelt development, fire water make up, chemical preparation and other peripheral applications in the Refinery Complex.

• The remaining treated effluents are reclaimed for refinery process reuse through a novel "Zero Discharge scheme using technologies of Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis.

Conserving Water

• CPCL invested Rs.24 crore in 1991 on reclamation of city sewage water by employing conventional physico-chemical based tertiary treatment process followed by membrane separation of contaminants through reverse osmosis.

• CPCL is debottlenecking the conventional tertiary treatment plant with latest technology of Ultra-filtration at a cost of about Rs.8.0 crores. This unique project also indirectly helps in resource saving of metro water which is diverted for the use by the city population and also avoids effects of disposal of partially treated sewage into the environment.

Cleaner Air

• CPCL has been working on reducing air pollution on two fronts at its own plants as well as in vehicles using petrol or diesel.

• At its Plants, CPCL has switched over to LSHS fuel - far less polluting than the high sulphur used earlier.

• CPCL has installed Hydrocracker Unit in the expansion refinery so as to not only improve the quality of all the fuel products from the refinery, but also reduce sulphur emissions from the existing refinery.

• Also, Sulphur Recovery Units installed in CPCL results in substantial reduction of sulphur dioxide emission.

• To further cut down air pollution, CPCL has installed a Flare Gas Recovery Unit at a cost of around Rs.4 crore. This unit partially recovers hydrocarbons from the flare system.

• CPCL has installed a Diesel Hydro De-sulphurisation Unit in order to bring down the sulphur content in HSD from the level of 1% to 0.25% and 0.05%.

• Low NOx burners are used in boilers and process furnace heaters.

• New DeNOx technology has been implemented for the first time in India, in CPCL’s expansion refinery stacks so as to convert NOx emissions to inert nitrogen.

• Underlying the importance of monitoring, in the CPCL refinery Complex, eight numbers of state-of-art ‘Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations’ are installed.

• CPCL has a mobile Monitoring unit to assess the air surrounding its plants.

• Continuous Stack Gas Monitoring units in all major refinery stacks have been installed for monitoring Sulphur di-oxide emission.

Greener Environment
The greening of CPCL and its environs is another facet of environmental conservation. Planting and maintaining thousands of trees and shrubs form a green belt around CPCL's plants. This mitigates fugitive emission, dilutes accidental releases and balances eco-environment-besides beautifying the surroundings.

Environmental R&D
CPCL has conducted pilot plants studies with different technologies namely photo - chemical oxidation, Ion exchange, Ultra-filtration, High Efficiency Reverse Osmosis etc. for recycling of treated effluents in order to achieve Zero Discharge of effluents.

In collaboration with Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), CPCL has conducted pilot plant studies for indiginisation of Reserve Osmosis Membranes and has established a full scale plant of 1 Million Liter per day capacity.

Environmental Projects
(i) De-bottlenecking of existing 2.5 MGD TTP-RO Plant
As part of technology upgradation, CPCL is converting conventional Tertiary Treatment Facility in its city sewage reclamation plant to technology of Ultra-filtration at cost of about Rs. 8 crores with a low pay back period.

(ii) New Zero Discharge Plant for ETP-III (200 KL/Hr)
With experience in operating a 150 KL/Hr Zero discharge plant for existing refinery effluents, CPCL is installing a new Zero Discharge plant with Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis at a cost of Rs.12 crores so as to reuse the treated effluents from expansion refinery ETP.

(iii) Reject recycle plant for recovery of water (48 KL/Hr) from RO rejects
On an average 80 KL/hr of Reverse Osmosis Plant rejects from city sewage reclamation plant are disposed off to Buckingham Canal. To recover these rejects an additional train of Reverse osmosis membranes is being installed at an estimated cost of Rs.1.8 crores to reclaim about 40-50 KL/hr of water and conserve more water.

(iv) Additional 2.5 MG Sewage Reclamation Plant
As an expansion to the existing Sewage Reclamation Plant, CPCL is installing a similar capacity plant with technology of Ultrafiltration and Reverse Osmosis at an estimated cost of Rs.38 crores.