Magazine: 418 May-Jun 2025

Astron Energy, a subsidiary of Glencore, says that it will spend $328 million to upgrade its South African crude oil refinery in order to comply with the country’s upcoming cleaner fuel regulations. The investment aims to bring the facility in line with South Africa’s Clean Fuels II standards, which mandate lower sulphur content in both petrol and diesel. The 100,000 bbl/d refinery near Cape Town is one of only two remaining operational refineries in the country. Astron says that construction work is already under way for a gasoline hydrotreating plant that will reduce sulphur levels to Euro 5 (<10ppm sulphur) specifications. The regulations have been delayed to July 2027 due to concerns over the cost of upgrading existing refining infrastructure. n

Avenira has secured an A$7.56 million strategic investment from majority shareholder Hebang Biotechnology to progress its Wonarah phosphate project in Northern Territory. The investment, in which Hebang will acquire 1.08 billion shares priced at A$0.007 each, will boost its equity holding in Avenira to 49%. Hebang has also agreed to provide Avenira with an unsecured drawdown loan facility to be repaid on completion of the placement or after the date of the first drawdown.

Together with Slovnaft, Worley Comprimo has developed a near real-time monitoring dashboard using data sharing via the Cloud. Using a two-year data set containing minute average data, trends and insights were used to optimise performance. This paper describes the main learnings and improvements with respect to energy optimisation, which supports sustainability targets for Slovnaft.

The Middle East’s premier event for the sulphur global industry, MEScon 2025, returns to the Conrad Abu Dhabi, Etihad Towers from 19 to 22 May 2025.

Rheinhütte Pumpen has further developed its GVRN sulphuric acid pump so it can also be used in high-temperature applications such as in heat recovery systems.

The Self-Cleaning Liquid Sulphur Candle Filter (LSCF) is setting a new benchmark in liquid sulphur filtration. With its innovative candle arrangement and advanced back-flushing technology, it enhances filtration rates significantly and minimises downtime for cake discharge. Jan Hermans of Sulphurnet explores the LSCF design, process parameters, and operational advantages.

Wood presents the pros and cons of leaving a refinery SRU on hot standby versus long-term idle taking into consideration reliability, safety, and operations responsibilities during extended downtime.

Fluor discusses the main causes, detection techniques, management methods and prevention procedures of SO2 breakthrough in the quench water system of a TGTU, with some unique design features for Fluor’s Desuperheater Contact Condenser.