State-owned Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (Kipic) is planning to tender studies looking at the potential development of a urea plant that will be connected to the Al-Zour refinery and use carbon capture technology.A contract for the feasibility and pilot plant studies are scheduled to be tendered in April.The studies are expected to take one year to complete and will be tendered using a lump sum contracting method.The studies will explore the potential of using carbon dioxide sources from the Al-Zour refinery complex, mainly hydraulic power unit (HPU) flue gas and tail gas from the pressure swing absorption (PSA) unit, in order to produce urea.The plant that Kipic is considering developing will also use solar power to produce hydrogen and nitrogen, according to the company’s annual plan.Kipic believes that the project would help to decarbonise the Al-Zour refinery as well as decarbonising the planned Al-Zour petrochemicals complex, at the same time as adding value by producing urea on a small scale.In the plan Kipic said: “The study could further lead to development of pilot scale set up to quantify the benefits for a small-scale urea production unit.”The feasibility study is expected to take two months to complete.This will be followed by a pilot study which is expected to extend over a period of between six and eight months.The budget for the feasibility study has been estimated to be worth KD100,000 ($325,000).The budget for the pilot study is yet to be estimated as its scope will depend on the results of the feasibility study.Previously Kipic was expecting to carry out the studies over the 2023-24 period, but it has now been pushed back to the 2024-25 period.Carbon dioxide from the Al-Zour facilities will also be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by being injected into oil reserves, something that is expected to increase pressure and boost production.Kipic said that state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is currently in the process of identifying additional fields in Kuwait that could potentially be used for EOR using carbon dioxide produced by the planned Al-Zour petrochemical facility. (ICE KUWAIT)

Fonte notizia: Meed