Model Refinery in India with Guest Sanjay Gupta - Part 1

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In this new multi-part series, Sanjay Gupta — former CEO Projects for the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Project, and former Chairman & Managing Director of Engineers India Limited (EIL) — takes on a new challenge: designing a model grassroots refinery-petrochemical complex for India, starting from first principles.

Part 1 lays the strategic foundation. Sanjay explains why India continues to add refining capacity, why new installations are shifting from the west coast to the east coast, and why tomorrow’s “refineries” will actually be integrated mega petrochemical complexes in disguise. He walks through the design basis and objective function: a crude throughput of around 20 million tonnes — the sweet spot for a single crude column — feeding a world-scale steam cracker of 1.7–2 million tonnes of ethylene, an aromatics complex of 1.2–1.5 million tonnes, and a product slate that still delivers LPG and diesel while capping gasoline.

The session was cut short by a power outage at Sanjay’s location — just as the configuration was taking shape!

⚠️🔔 STAY TUNED FOR PART 2! 🔔⚠️ in which, the conversation resumes towards the complete downstream configuration of the model refinery. Don’t miss it! ▶️

📌 Chapters:

• 0:00 – Introduction & Welcome: Why India Needs Another Refinery
• 1:12 – From Fuels to Petrochemicals: The Changing Dynamics
• 3:26 – Moving Refineries to India’s Eastern Coast
• 7:26 – The Scale of New Refineries
• 8:11 – Setting the Design Basis & Objective Function
• 10:00 – Phasing Out LPG: Solar Cooking & Piped Gas
• 12:52 – World-Scale Petrochemicals & Feedstock Selection
• 15:21 – Sizing the Complex: Olefins & Aromatics
• 18:12 – The 20-Million-Tonne Complex & Crude Flexibility
• 23:30 – Product Objectives: LPG, Gasoline, Diesel & Kerosene
• 25:44 – The Gasoline (MS) Block & Naphtha Routing
• 30:41 – Power Interruption & Wrap-Up (Continued in Part 2)

🎙️ Molecules to Market is a program by Portfolio Planning PLUS (ppPLUS), bringing together technology, economics, and real facility-level data to give industry professionals a grounded, technical view of the global energy and petrochemical landscape — beyond the headlines.