On Wednesday, November 19, Petrobras began the first stage of the start-up of the Abreu e Lima Refinery (known as Rnest), a company venture located in Ipojuca, Pernambuco, by feeding natural gas into its atmospheric distillation unit.

The entry of natural gas into this facility, monitored from the refinery’s Integrated Control Center, is aimed at preparing it for the entry and circulation of oil, which will take place in the next few days. After this stage, the furnace will be lit in order to start the process of distilling (separating) streams of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, diesel and atmospheric residues.

Petrobras has been coordinating the atmospheric distillation unit’s pre-operational procedures since September 22. In this period, the unit’s operational systems have been tested with safe fluids (including water, compressed air, nitrogen and steam) to guarantee the systems’ safety before hydrocarbons are introduced into them.

The start-up process will continue with the activation of the other units that make up Rnest’s first train: the hydrogen generation unit, naphtha hydro-treating unit, diesel hydro-treating unit, delayed coking unit, and two treatment units.