HPCL Mumbai Awards Project to Produce Food, Pharma & Special-Grade Hexane via Dual DWC

The third Dual Dividing Wall Column in an Indian ISOM unit — a four-cut deisohexanizer revamp at HPCL’s Mumbai refinery, producing food, pharma and special grade hexane.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Mumbai Refinery, has awarded DWC Innovations the technology, engineering, and supply scope for revamping the Deisohexanizer (DIH) column in its Naphtha Isomerisation Unit. The project will convert the existing DIH into a four-cut Dual Dividing Wall Column using Dual DWC-Prime™ Technology, enabling production of food-grade, pharma-grade, and special-grade hexane from a single intensified shell.

DWC Innovations is the licensor of both the Dual DWC-Prime™ technology and the benzene saturation unit, and the sole supplier of the proprietary tower internals and benzene-saturation catalyst. This ensures that the design, column, internals, and catalyst are delivered from a single integrated source.

DWC Innovations’ awarded scope includes:

• Basic Design & Engineering Package for the DIH revamp, including the new hexane overhead system
• Process design of a grassroots benzene saturation unit to meet product benzene limits
• Design, fabrication, and supply of the new four-cut Dual DWC column
• Supply and site installation of proprietary tower internals
• Supply of the proprietary benzene-saturation catalyst

The upgraded DIH system will enable HPCL Mumbai to produce food-grade, pharma-grade, and special-grade hexane with no impact on isomerate octane, yield, or catalyst life. The column is designed to operate in both hexane mode and full-isomerate mode with automatic changeover, delivering all four product cuts from a single intensified shell.

This project represents the third Dual DWC implemented in an ISOM unit, following earlier installations at BPCL Mumbai and CPCL Manali.