HPCL Starts India's Biggest Residue Upgrade Facility at Vizag Refinery
With a capacity of 3.55 million metric tonnes per annum, RUF employs advanced LC Max-based residue hydrocracking technology to achieve about 93 per cent conversion of bottom oils into high-value products.
Visakhapatnam: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has successfully commissioned a Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF) at its Visakh Refinery in Visakhapatnam. The RUF is a major milestone in India’s deep-conversion refining capability, thereby contributing meaningfully to national energy security.
Aligning fully with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, several critical components required for the project had been indigenously manufactured. This first-of-its-kind facility in India showcases unprecedented engineering scale, housing the world’s heaviest three LC-Max reactors of 2,200 MT each.
With a capacity of 3.55 million metric tonnes per annum, RUF employs advanced LC Max-based residue hydrocracking technology to achieve about 93 per cent conversion of bottom oils into high-value products.
With this, Visakh Refinery will now have the capability of enhancing its distillate yield by up to 10 per cent. The Gross Refining Margins (GRMs) the refinery are set to increase substantially on account of superior product slate, flexibility to process many heavier or opportunity crudes, and higher value realisation per barrel.
This significant increase in middle-distillate output helps HPCL to reduce the gap between its HSD marketing and refining volumes, lowers dependence on external sourcing, strengthens the supply chain, and drives higher profitability through improved product realisation and margin capture.
Improved heat integration and process efficiency reduce the Refinery’s Energy Intensity Index (EII), lowering operating costs and reinforcing profitability, while advancing sustainability objectives. The Nelson Complexity Index of the Visakh Refinery now stands at an impressive 11.6, positioning it among India’s most advanced deep-conversion refineries supporting long-term profitability and global performance benchmarking.
Complementing the physical commissioning, HPCL has also deployed the RUF (LC-Max) Digital Suite—an industry-first in Indian refineries. The suite integrates real-time monitoring, predictive analytics using proprietary thermodynamic models, and AI-driven optimisation. It enables stable, efficient, and optimised operation of this highly complex unit, supporting higher on-stream factors, improved yield control, and sustained margin enhancement.
