21-12-2016

General Atomics Gulftronic Electrostatic Separators Selected for Hyundai Oilbank Refinery

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that it has been awarded a contract for a six-module Gulftronic™ Electrostatic Separator system for installation at the Hyundai Oilbank Co. Ltd. (HDO) Daesan refinery in the Republic of Korea. Delivery of the new unit will expand HDO's existing Gulftronic system from 12 modules to 18 modules to support their Residual Fluidized Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) expansion project intended to help meet the Republic of Korea's increased demand for fuels and chemicals.

"We are pleased to be working with the HDO Daesan refinery to meet a very aggressive delivery schedule for this new 6-module unit," stated Scott Forney, president, of GA-EMS. "We are seeing more customers like HDO select Gulftronic systems over mechanical filtration systems for RFCC projects such as this. Our unique electrostatic separation technology helps customers improve revenue potential from clarified oil products. In addition, our modular, skid-mount design allows customers to easily add modules to existing Gulftronic systems and efficiently increase capacity and throughput as market demand rises."

Modern refineries rely on Fluidized Catalytic Cracker Units (FCCU) to convert heavy crude oil into gas products. The conversion process creates slurry oil/decant oil, a by-product containing catalyst fines. Through a unique electrostatic process, Gulftronic separators capture and remove solids and catalyst fines from the process stream to provide higher-value oil products with a clarity below 100 parts per million. Gulftronic separators are also impervious to fouling or blockage, resulting in less downstream contamination and significantly reduced maintenance requirements. Traditional mechanical filtration systems allow fine particles to escape capture, causing blockages, build-up in filters, contamination, and increased maintenance and downtime costs.

HDO refines, processes, and markets petroleum and petrochemical products and is a leading oil refining and marketing company in South Korea.