St. Pete innovators shooting for disruption in global oil-refining market

RRT, a St. Pete-based start-up subsidiary of the U.S.? RRT Global, has developed a disruptive method of producing cost-effective and eco-friendly Euro-5 standard gasoline.

RRT, a St. Petersburg-based start-up, has developed a disruptive method of producing cost-effective and eco-friendly gasoline. According to the Skolkovo Foundation website, the project has ?the potential to change the global oil-refining market as we know it.? The primary drivers of the project are Oleg Giyazov and Oleg Parputs, alumni of St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. The two are reported to have found out a way of producing Euro-5 standard gasoline faster and at a reduced cost. Europe has already embraced the Euro-5 standard, and Russia has committed itself to making it mandatory domestically in 2015. At the heart of the technology is a dramatic improvement on the existing isomerization process. Isomerization is the most widespread technique of refining low-octane naphta fractions into high-octane gasoline grades. RTT offers its PRIS technology, in which the functions of five isomerization columns?the equipment required to start the process?are all combined in one innovation column. According to the developers, this will enable a 3.2-time capex reduction for the isomerization process and an estimated five-time decrease in energy consumption...