At the request of PETRONOR's Engineering Department, KREAN has drawn up the project and is managing the construction of the new facility. Work began in October 2024.

PETRONOR has installed a 60-tonne Preflash tower that allows some of the lighter products, such as butane and gasoline, to be separated without having to be heated in the furnace. Until now, crude unit 1 heated the oil to 360ºC to separate the different products, such as butane, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil, in its atmospheric distillation tower.

Thanks to this 30-metre high and 4-metre diameter installation, approximately 8% of the products that were previously heated have been separated from the process, thus avoiding heating that part to high temperatures. This reduces fuel consumption in the furnace and improves the energy efficiency of the atmospheric distillation process. All this while obtaining the same products in terms of quality and quantity.

The installation is completed with three pairs of pumps, two plate condensers with their associated filters and a horizontal tank 3 metres in diameter and 6 metres long, together with the pipes connecting them. A new two-storey building has been designed to house this equipment.

This project, which came into operation in July 2025, is an initiative with an investment of €15 million that will enable a reduction in CO2 emissions of more than 16,000 tonnes per year.

PETRONOR and KREAN have a long history of collaboration, which in recent years has resulted in the incorporation of a stable team of MONDRAGON engineering firm at the oil company's plant in Muskiz.