The Kralupy refinery in Czechia will get a heat recovery unit costing more than CZK 500 million

Orlen Unipetrol Group will build a heat recovery unit at its production facility in Kralupy nad Vltavou, in the Mělník District, to recover heat from flue gases. The cost will exceed half a billion crowns, and the unit is expected to be completed in mid-2025. Group spokesperson Pavel Kaidl announced the project in a press release today.

Waste heat from the flue gases will be used to produce feedwater using so-called turbine condensate. “After unwanted substances and oxygen are removed and the pH is adjusted, the condensate is heated to the required temperature using heat from the flue gases. In the final stage, high-pressure pumps raise the pressure of the treated condensate to the required level, producing feedwater with the necessary parameters. This hot, high-pressure feedwater is used to generate steam to drive steam turbines,” the spokesperson said in the press release.

The unit will include special polymer heat exchangers resistant to acid. “Innovative gas-liquid heat exchanger technology is still relatively new in the refining industry. This concept for using heat exchangers as part of a heat recovery unit was conceived and developed by Orlen Unipetrol employees, and will be a unique solution in the refining industry,” Kaidl said. The group expects the heat recovery unit at the Kralupy refinery to reduce emissions by up to 15 kilotonnes a year. The group aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest.

Orlen Unipetrol Group is the largest refining and petrochemical company in Czechia. It focuses on oil refining and the production, distribution and sale of fuels and petrochemical products, especially plastics and fertilisers. Orlen Unipetrol Group includes refineries and production facilities in Litvínov and Kralupy nad Vltavou, Paramo in Pardubice, Spolana in Neratovice, and two research centres in Litvínov and Brno. Last year, the group increased its net profit more than fivefold to CZK 17.9 billion, while revenue rose by more than 36 per cent year on year to CZK 209.5 billion. The group processed 7.5 million tonnes of oil last year.