ptq

Q1 2013

petroleum technology quarterly

refining
gas processing
petrochemicals

special features
OUTLOOK 2013
Automation & control
Environmental

cover and spine copy 14.indd 1

7/12/12 11:26:25

Stepping up performance
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Are you looking to step up plant performance?

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ptq
PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY

Q1 (Jan, Feb, Mar) 2013

3 A 2020 vision of biofuels

Chris Cunningham
5 Outlook 2013
15 ptq&a

19 Refinery design in China

Sun Lili Sinopec Engineering Incorporation

31 Maximising ethane in liquids crackers

Muhammad Imran Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology

43 Tracking performance degradation in a debutaniser column

Ali Abdulal, Vinod Ramaseshan and Stanley Gustas III Saudi Aramco
Horia Orenstein, Mohammad Kurdi and Andrey Gaskov SAS Middle East

53 Operator training simulator for a multi-product fuels pipeline

Santosh Alladwar, Cordell Chapman, Billy Mayo, Surajit Dasgupta and
Javier Vazquez-esparragoza KBR
Daniel Vogt Krohne Oil and Gas
Keone Jackman Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited

63 Refinery operations gain from advances in digital automation

Tim Olsen Emerson Process Management

69 Controlling film temperature in fired heaters

Jinyu Jiao, Yuriy Morayko, Morten Theilgaard and Michael Ho WorleyParsons Canada

73 High-capacity tray for debottlenecking a crude distillation unit

Kaushik Majumder Shell Projects & Technology
Giuseppe Mosca Sulzer Chemtech
Kent Mahon Refining NZ

79 Steam reformers for hydrogen and synthesis gas

Norm Pelletier and Goutam Shahani
Selas Fluid Processing Corporation, a division of Linde Engineering

85 VDU vacuum system revamp

Ahmet Bebek Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation

89 Reducing carbon emissions with antifoulants

India Nagi-hanspal, Mahesh Subramaniyam, Parag Shah and James Noland
Dorf Ketal Chemicals

95 Towards a zero (net) carbon refinery

Michael Stockle Foster Wheeler

www.eptq.com

101 Modular design of smaller-scale GTL plants

Kenneth Roberts Velocys
105 Starting up hydrotreating units with cracked feeds

Randy Alexander, Reinder Van Bruggen and Pierre Dufresne Eurecat US
111 Optimising a process scheme for platforming heaters

Adil Rehman, Suman Pachal, Shyam K Choudhary, Ugrasen Yadav and M K E Prasad

Technip KT India
119 Improved hydrogen yield in catalytic reforming

Roberto Amadei Chemical & Energy Development
127 Product News
Totals Central Germany refinery at Leuna, where Bilfinger Berger Industrial Services provides maintenance services.

Photo BIS Group
2013. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright full details of which are available from the publishers. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
The opinions and views expressed by the authors in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher and while every care
has been taken in the preparation of all material included in Petroleum Technology Quarterly the publisher cannot be held responsible for any
statements, opinions or views or for any inaccuracies.

contents/ed com copy 17.indt 1

11/12/12 16:04:37

What is
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2011 KBC Advanced Technologies plc. All rights reserved.

kbc.indd 1

7/3/12 13:58:03

p
T tq

he European Union has arguably

been the global leader in biodiesel
production and use, with overall
biodiesel production increasing from 1.9
P
Y Qnearly
UARTE10.3
RLY million
ETROLEtonnes
UM TECin
HN2004
OLOGto
million
tonnes in 2007. Biodiesel production in the
US has also increased dramatically in the
past
fewNo
years
Vol 18
1 from 2 million gallons in
2000 to approximately 450 million gallons
Q1 (Jan, Feb, Mar) 2013
in 2007. According to the National Biodiesel
Board, 171 companies own biodiesel
manufacturing
plants and are actively
Editor
marketing
biodiesel.1. The global biodiesel
Chris Cunningham
editor@petroleumtechnology.com
market
is estimated to reach 37 billion
gallons by 2016, with an average annual
Production
growth
rateEditor
of 42%. Europe will continue to
Rachel Storry
be the major biodiesel market for the next
production@petroleumtechnology.com
decade, followed closely by the US market.

Although
Graphics
Editor high energy prices,
increasing
global demand, drought
Rob Fris
graphics@petroleumtechnology.com
and
other factors are the primary
drivers for higher food prices, food
Editorial
competitive
feedstocks have long
tel +44 844 5888 773
been and will continue to be a major
fax +44 844 5888 667
concern for the development of biofuels.
To Development
compete, Director
the industry has
Business
responded
Paul Mason by developing methods to
sales@petroleumtechnology.com
increase
process efficiency, utilise or
upgrade by-products and operate
Advertising
Sales quality
with
lower
lipids as
Bob Aldridge
feedstocks.
sales@petroleumtechnology.com

Feedstocks
Advertising Sales Office
Biodiesel
to a diesel-equivalent
tel +44 844refers
5888 771
fax +44
844 5888 662
fuel
consisting
of short-chain alkyl

(methyl or ethyl) esters, made by the

Publisher
transesterification
of triglycerides,
Nic Allen
commonly known as vegetable oils or
publisher@petroleumtechnology.com
animal fats. The most common form
uses
methanol, the cheapest alcohol
Circulation
available,
Jacki Watts to produce methyl esters.
circulation@petroleumtechnology.com
The
molecules in biodiesel are primarily fatty acid methyl esters
Crambeth Allen
Publishing
Ltd by trans(FAME),
usually
created
Hopesay, Craven Arms SY7 8HD, UK
esterification between fats and methatel +44 844 5888 776
nol.
Currently,
biodiesel is produced
fax +44
844 5888 667
from various vegetable and plant oils.
First-generation food-based feedstocks
are straight vegetable oils such as
ptq (Petroleum Technology Quarterly) (ISSN
soybean
oilUSPS
and
animal
fats such as
No: 1632-363X,
No: 014-781)
is published
quarterly plus
annual
Catalysisgrease,
edition by Crambeth
tallow,
lard,
yellow
chicken fat
Allen Publishing Ltd and is distributed in the US
and
the by-products
of the
production
by SP/Asendia,
17B South Middlesex
Avenue,
Monroe
NJ 08831. Periodicals
postagefrom
paid at New
of
Omega-3
fatty acids
fish oil.
Brunswick, NJ. Postmaster: send address changes to
Soybean
oil
and rapeseeds
ptq (Petroleum
Technology
Quarterly), 17B oil
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common
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biodiesel producBack numbers available from the Publisher
tion
theincUS
and Europe in quantiat $30 in
per copy
postage.
ties that can produce enough biodiesel to be used in a commercial market
with
currently
applicable

A 2020 vision of
biofuels

t is not just another new year; it is a year closer to 2020, when the worlds
commitment to the Kyoto protocol will be put to the test. Although
governmental talking shops on global strategy continue to make little
progress, the steady march of the decade seems to be concentrating refining
minds on meeting carbon limits. And a big beneficiary looks set to be the
biofuels industry.
During November, the US Senate voted to cancel restrictions in its annual
defence policy bill that would have severely limited the militarys efforts to
develop biofuels for its jet aircraft. The National Defense Authorization Act
usually attracts most attention for policy changes on matters such as detention of terrorists, but the 2013 version brought biofuels to the fore by amending a rule that would have barred the military from buying biofuels if they
cost more than petroleum-derived jet fuel.
There remained the need to reconcile the Senate vote with the version yet
to be approved by the House of Representatives, which included limits on
the military use of biofuels, before the bill was ready for presidential signature. However, the latest move by US lawmakers is a major boost for the
alternative fuels industry. Production of relatively small batches of biofuels
inevitably costs far more than conventional, petroleum-based production of
jet fuel. As long as the price comparison test remained, there would be limited opportunity for a significant contribution of biofuels to the military
requirement of distillates. Since military approval generally leads the establishment of developing technologies, this was significant progress.
The US Air Force has been testing small but expensive batches of alternative fuels in its aircraft to prove they can be reliably used once prices become
competitive with petroleum fuels. For its part, the US Navy has been the bigger spender on biofuels for both warships and aircraft as part of its green
fleet programme. With a 2020 deadline in mind, the Navy has set that year
to meet a target of 50% biofuels in its non-nuclear fuel pool by that date.
While opponents of biofuels in the US argue that freeing the use of currently expensive fuels is poor timing during a period of cutbacks, supporters
say that home-grown fuels support the domestic farming industry and create
jobs while protecting the military from price shocks in the international
petroleum markets. Bioethanol is, of course, big business for Midwest corn
growers, but it is not clear which US farming communities will be meeting
the vastly increased demand for vegetable oils to make jet fuel or biodiesel.
There is not much open mention of climate change amidst that controversy,
but there is unreserved acknowledgement of the Kyoto protocol and its
regional interpretation in other developments in favour of renewables. Enis
plan for wholesale conversion of its Venice refinery to biofuels production
amidst plant closures in Europe is based on environmental targets set by the
European Union. The Venice plan contrasts with news elsewhere in Italy,
where several refineries have already closed or will close temporarily in 2013.
In India, a leading refiner has been reviewing the options for introducing
bio-jet fuel production, and we aim to report in PTQ the outcome of those
deliberations later in the year. After its public relations disasters of a few
years ago, it appears that the approach of 2020 may be turning the tide in
favour of the biofuels industry.
chris cunningham
PTQ Q1 2013

contents/ed com copy 17.indt 2

11/12/12 14:54:39

Theres only one way to stay ahead of

the competition: always be evolving.

Meet Max Ovchinnikov:

Industry Game-Changer.
When youre leading the world in catalyst development, your work is never done and thats just fine
by Max Ovchinnikov, CRITERIONs Senior Research Chemist and co-developer of such advanced
catalyst platforms as SENTRY and CENTERA. He, along with fellow scientists from Shells three R&D
centers, has made a career developing high throughput techniques that lead to the continual improvement
of catalysts. This means as Max is evolving the companys process and products, and launching a new
catalyst every three or four years, CRITERION is always in front when it comes to innovation.

Leading minds. Advanced technologies.

www.CRITERIONCatalysts.com

criterion.indd 1

10/12/12 10:33:13

Outlook for 2013

What are the important trends affecting the downstream processing industry this year?
Executives and experts forecast challenges and prospects that could affect profitability
Maria van der Hoeven
Executive Director
International Energy Agency

ith relatively rapid shifts

on both the supply and
demand sides, the global
oil map is changing. That is the
message from two major recently
released IEA reports: the World
Energy Outlook 2012, which looks
out to 2035, and the Medium-Term
Oil Market Report 2012, which looks
out to 2017. Those shifts are happening along the entire
value chain, from upstream to downstream. But one
area where they are particularly stark is in refining.
Recent years have seen a steady shift from OECD
countries towards newer and often more advanced
refineries in emerging economies. Some 1.2 million b/d
of crude distillation capacity was shed from the OECD
in 2012, following 0.8 million b/d in 2011. Since the
economic downturn of 2008, 4.0 million b/d of primary
distillation capacity has been shut or scheduled to shut
in developed countries.
And yet, in 2012, the refining industry witnessed an
impressive recovery from end of 2011 lows, even in the
OECD. Europe, whose refinery industry had been
especially pressured by declining demand and surplus
capacity, saw margins and, in turn, refinery
throughputs rebound more strongly than other refining
centres, albeit from a low starting point. Regional
industry rationalisation has been especially severe in
Europe. In September, Brent cracking margins reached
their highest levels since at least 2006 in Northwest
Europe. Even simple hydroskimming margins
performed relatively well, with Northwest Europe
Brent attaining positive levels for a fifth consecutive
month, resulting in high regional throughput rates.
Other major refining centres also recovered, as product
markets are becoming increasingly globalised and
product trade is surging. The US refinery industry
continued to be supported by discounted feedstock
and refinery fuel, spurred by the impressive surge in
domestic oil and gas production.
The recovery in refinery profitability is expected to
be short-lived, however, with margins falling
back from current highs in most refining centres, as
localised product tightness eases. After three years
of shrinking spare capacity, global refinery

www.eptq.com

outlook copy.indd 1

additions are set to exceed demand growth from 2013

onwards.
The Medium-Term Oil Market Report 2012 highlights the
fact that global refinery expansion plans are projected to
add 7.0 million b/d of crude distillation (CDU) capacity
in the five years after 2012, reaching 100.5 million b/d in
2017. Non-OECD growth is partially offset by an
acceleration of refinery closures in the OECD, which are
now seen shedding more than 1.1 million b/d of
capacity in the same period. Among non-OECD
countries, Asia accounts for over 50% of additions. It is
led by China, which is still expected to expand its
distillation
capacity
by
some
2.9
million
b/d, despite a more subdued outlook for domestic
demand growth. The rest of Asia, dominated by India,
is set to add 1.4 million b/d of capacity in the period.
The additions are concentrated in the earlier years of the
forecast period; indeed, a large portion of the new
capacity has already been commissioned earlier in 2012.
Major expansions are also taking place in the Middle
East, with at least two mega-projects in Saudi Arabia
and one in the United Arab Emirates contributing to 1.9
million b/d of aggregate regional incremental capacity.
Global net additions have been significantly lower
than previously seen, thanks to the acceleration of
closures in the OECD and some project delays in the
non-OECD over the past year. But they still exceed
projected oil product demand growth of 6.7 million
b/d over 2012-2017. All this demand growth is coming
from developing countries, whereas structural decline
is set to continue in the OECD. Furthermore, an
increasing share of oil product demand will be met by
supplies bypassing the refinery system. Those include
biofuels, NGLs, crude burned directly at power stations
and so forth. For refinery profitability to be maintained,
further closures or project delays/cancellations are
needed, or the industry will again see a prolonged
period of depressed margins worldwide. In that case,
the OECD will again bear the brunt, with further
structural effects.
Indeed, looking out over the longer term, the tectonic
shifts look set to continue. Even in an environment of
low margins, newer non-OECD plants will benefit from
their proximity to future crude production, as well as
the need to meet more stringent fuel quality standards
and increase light product yields (particularly lowsulphur diesel). In some cases, whole facilities will be
bought up and shipped east. And there will be a
longer-term need worldwide for more hydrotreating
and upgrading of capacity to accommodate more

PTQ Q1 2013 5

7/12/12 14:47:54

heavy oil feedstock, as well as capacity to accommodate

more NGLs.
The trends we have observed over the past several
years are part of a fundamental rebalancing in the
global oil economy and they are here to stay, despite a
recent respite for European refiners.

Eric Benazzi

Marketing Director
Axens

hile writing these lines,

forecasts indicate that
global
GDP
growth
should be about 3.6% for 2013,
showing
that
the
recovery
continues even if it has weakened.
In fact, over the past few months,
global growth has slowed down
to its weakest pace since the 20082009 recession. The latest forecasts for the second half
of 2012 indicate that, in the US, GDP is projected to
expand by about 1.5% (on an annualised basis), Japan
will probably stagnate and the GDP of the troubled
Euro zone is predicted to decline by 0.7%.
The most troublesome aspect of the current situation
is that the slowdown is also affecting emerging
countries. Among the four BRIC countries, Brazils
growth will probably be limited to 1.5% in 2012.
Chinas GDP, which until recently was in double digits,
has slowed down to a value of around 7%, indicating
that Chinas authorities have not succeeded in shifting
from an export-driven economy to one that relies on
domestic consumption. India will remain just below
5%, down from 7% last year, mainly because
investment has continuously slowed down.
Projected global GPD growth, 3.6% for 2013, will be
reached only if there is sufficient policy action in order
to prevent the so-called fiscal cliff in the US and to
ease financial conditions in periphery economies of the
Euro zone. Regarding China, policy action will be
required to stimulate the shift of the Chinese economy
towards more domestic consumption. Otherwise, the
world economy could slow down even further.
As a result, the growth of demand for refinery
products could be limited to 0.8 million b/d, leading to
a global oil demand of about 90.5 million b/d in 2013.
In North America and probably in other regions, the
exploitation of unconventional gas and oil resources
will continue to be a game changer. In spite of that,
we have to remember that, in the long term, the crude
oil market will remain structurally tight and the era of
cheap crude oil is over.
Thus, in 2013, we can predict:
Tightening fuel quality specifications worldwide will
call for additional hydrotreating capacities and even
higher performing catalysts. Impulse, our latest
hydroprocessing catalyst technology, is the result of a
long-term commitment to clean fuels and our answer
to this trend

PTQ Q1 2013

outlook copy.indd 2

Integration between refining and petrochemicals will

allow the recovery of valuable products from lowvalue heavy feeds. High-propylene FCC, HS-FCC and
resid to propylene technologies enable the production
of propylene with a yield ranging from 8 to 20 wt%
from atmospheric or vacuum residue
Squeezing the bottom of the barrel will be necessary
to maximise motor fuel yields. In regions such as North
America, where unconventional gas is available at low
cost, cheap H2 can be produced. Axens studies along
with clients feedback have shown that, in the case of a
refinery fed with bitumen and syncrude oil, the
addition of a residue hydrocracker ahead of an existing
delayed coker enables the debottlenecking of the
refinery and so improves its profitability
In mature markets such as Europe, increased
flexibility through revamping will contribute to reduce
the gasoline/diesel imbalance as well as the PolyFuel
technology, which transforms olefins contained in light
FCC cuts into good-quality middle distillates via
oligomerisation reactions
Process energy efficiency improvement will continue
to be a must to reduce opex and improve asset
profitability.

Rajeev Gautam

President & CEO

UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company

aking a moment to look back,

2012 was a challenging and
exciting year for the refining,
petrochemicals and gas processing
industries. Continued shifts in
product mix to increase diesel
production
affected
strategies
globally, the use of heavy
crude as a feedstock remained
strong, and the value of refining and petrochemical
integration grew. The burgeoning natural gas
market and an expanding interest in renewable fuel
sources presented new challenges. Innovative
technology solutions to address these trends will
position the industry for great success in 2013 and
beyond.
While many challenges faced in recent years will
continue into 2013, the stakes will be higher. Continued
population growth and expansion of the middle class
will result in higher demand on energy sources such as
coal, oil and natural gas. Government regulations will
dictate tighter fuel specifications and higher renewable
fuel content. Economic flux will force higher yields at
lower costs. The effects will vary by region, but these
challenges will be experienced worldwide. Across the
globe, technologies will provide the efficient,
economical and sustainable solutions to meet these
challenges head on and to build better business models
for stability.
Refiners will need to find ways not only to maximise
finished products from each barrel of oil, but to

www.eptq.com

7/12/12 14:48:07

cbi.indd 1

6/12/12 13:24:13

upgrade their product slates for higher value. UOPs

recently commercialised Uniflex process provides a
significant advantage by delivering an impressive 90%
conversion of low-quality residue streams to highquality transportation fuels, while minimising
byproducts.
In addition to maximising the yield from every
barrel, refiners globally will be looking for ways to
improve the overall value of their product slate by
increasing petrochemicals production. Technology to
produce high-yield, high-reliability propylene, such as
UOPs Oleflex technology, will remain an attractive
option as more economical LPG production comes on
stream.
In areas with limited availability to conventional
olefin feedstocks, the utilisation of cheaper, more
abundant feedstocks, such as coal, will be necessary.
Flexible process technology, such as the UOP/Hydro
Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process, will be vital for
helping producers address demands in unconventional
ways.
A short time ago, natural gas was, in many locations,
a byproduct of producing crude oil and it was often
flared off at the well site. Today, natural gas has
become a way towards high-value petrochemical
feedstocks, and it is on track towards becoming one of
the worlds top energy sources.
Global unconventional gas resources are estimated
to be enough to provide 250 years of supply,
providing a long-term opportunity for participants in
this
market.
Efficient
contaminant
removal,
purification and liquids recovery will be among the
essential steps to monetise natural gas resources. The
new UOP Russell product line offers packaged plants
that enable shale and conventional natural gas
producers to remove contaminants and recover highvalue natural gas liquids used for petrochemicals and
fuels.
Renewable fuels also have an enormous potential to
contribute to our energy supply. The first UOP
Ecofining unit for renewable diesel production is
constructed and should be online shortly, with more
units in the final stages of funding. The technology is
preferred by refiners due to the drop-in nature of the
fuel product leveraging existing infrastructure. This
year, our Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) technology
will be used to upgrade renewable fuel oil into
transportation fuels. As customers and governments
continue to realise the importance of alternative fuel
options, and sustainable feedstocks become more
readily available, the momentum for renewable fuels
will continue to grow.
In 2013 and beyond, success will be achieved
through technology solutions. Whether trying to get
more value from every barrel processed, meeting
rising energy and petrochemical demands, or further
exploring how renewable fuels fit into business
strategies, technology will provide the answers that
will allow the industry to meet current and future
challenges, successfully providing energy globally for
years to come.

PTQ Q1 2013

outlook copy.indd 3

Ujjal Mukherjee

Vice President, Technology

Chevron Lummus Global

hevron
Lummus
Global
(CLG) has seen a marked
increase in the volume of
inquiries for hydrocracking, residue
upgrading and lubricant base oil
manufacturing, while Chevron
and Lummus Technology, the
parent companies, are very busy
addressing technology requests
for gas-to-liquids, ethylene, propylene, aromatics
and butadiene. From peaks in 2006-2007, equipment
pricing, especially those for high-pressure equipment,
has dropped significantly, leading to better project
economics.
The megaprojects are being driven either by large
national oil companies such as Rosneft, Aramco,
Petrobras and Petrochina or by large private companies
such as Reliance and SK. Despite the torrent of bad
news on the economic front from Europe and slight
slowdown in the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian
economies, crude prices remain high and most
projections peg crude to be in the $120-$140 range by
2020. At these prices, upgrading of opportunity crudes
remains attractive and some megaprojects may
materialise in Venezuela and Colombia. These projects
will involve consortia and complex project financing.
In the US, the refineries in the Gulf Coast retrofitted
early to handle the difficult Mayan crudes and
synthetic crude oil from Canada and Venezuela. These
refiners have the option of continuing to import the
opportunity crudes or to process easier shale oils from
Eagleford or Bakken formations. In the Eastern US,
refiners who have not upgraded to handle opportunity
crudes will continue to see depressed margins,
although even these refiners may see an improvement
in margins driven by cheaper hydrogen costs from
shale gas and the availability of Bakken oil.
The availability of shale gas has also made the
production of ethylene profitable, and several large
projects were recently announced in the US Gulf Coast.
The product mix in the US is shifting significantly from
gasoline towards a mix of diesel and gasoline, with
many refiners evaluating catalytic and process
solutions to make more diesel barrels.
The large new export refinery projects in the Middle
East, in Jubail, Yanbu and Jazan, all target Euro V
diesel. Most new Russian projects are targeting the
production of diesel and, in some instances, high-value
lube oil base stocks. In South East Asia, all
hydrocrackers target diesel and, occasionally, diesel
and lube oil base stocks. Although India is in a fuel
surplus situation today, with the completion of the
super highways across the country, the truck traffic
will grow exponentially, leading to a surging demand
for diesel. In China, the demand for gasoline and
diesel both remain strong. The increased gasoline and
petchem demand has spurred demand for residue

www.eptq.com

7/12/12 14:48:22

Using wireless here and there is one thing.

But using it across my entire operation?
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ITS
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See more, do more and be more profitable with the most trusted partner in wireless Emerson.
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The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. 2012 Emerson Electric Co.

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emerson.indd 1

31/08/2012 16:10
11/9/12 11:41:27

desulphurisation projects with the bottoms feeding

RFCC units.
CLG has witnessed a growing global interest in
residue hydrocracking technology as standalone
solutions or in conjunction with existing delayed coking
units. Demand for residue hydrocracking is driven by
uncertainties about the future of high-sulphur residual
fuel oils and poor demand for petcoke.
For sustained profitability, a close integration of
refining and petrochemical complexes is essential. The
bottomless refinery would produce diesel, lube oil base
stocks and reformate for conversion to aromatics, in
particular paraxylene. Light naphtha from the refinery
would be converted to ethylene and propylene.
Butadiene production would remain a very attractive
option. Biofuels, driven by European airlines and the
US military, will become a necessary part of refinery
planning.

Umberto della Sala

President & Chief Operating Officer

Foster Wheeler

e are certainly seeing

robust activity in all of
the hydrocarbon-related
business sectors in which Foster
Wheelers
Global
Engineering
and Construction Group operates:
onshore and offshore upstream oil
and gas, midstream/LNG, refining,
chemicals and power, as well as
in pharmaceuticals, environmental and metals and
mining, where we also operate.
Certainly, we have a good prospects pipeline covering
all of our business lines, including a number of projects
that are going through the final investment decisionmaking process and for which we believe we are well
positioned. And we are seeing new opportunities
continuing to emerge, particularly in Asia, the Middle
East and the Americas.
There are some key themes that we are seeing today,
which look set to continue into 2013 and beyond. First
is local service delivery. This has always been important
to us and is becoming an even stronger area of focus
for us and for our clients. We have made further strides
forward this year, for example in establishing or
expanding operations in key locations such as Saudi
Arabia, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia and Malaysia. In
some cases, we are developing our own resources and
in others we are working together with local or regional
clients and/or contractors to enable us to deliver the
global Foster Wheeler brand locally and competitively
to our clients, for the long-term, in line with local
content requirements and our clients preferences.
Second is the emphasis on upstream. Many clients
with upstream and downstream businesses are
allocating more and more of their planned capital
spend to the upstream sector (many of them include
LNG in this category). The offshore and onshore

10 PTQ Q1 2013

outlook copy.indd 4

upstream sector remains a strategically important

market for us and one in which we are further
developing our skills, service portfolio and geographic
presence. We have expanded our upstream operations,
opening a new offshore operation in Woking, UK, and
expanding our upstream operations in Malaysia and
Trinidad and Tobago.
The third theme relates to the size and complexity of
projects. The scope and scale of some of todays
planned investments in the Middle East, the Americas
and Asia are truly impressive. These are projects where
we can leverage our size, technical expertise, track
record and innovative execution strategies, such as
employing a modular design and build approach in
areas where resources are constrained. A region to
highlight where large projects are planned is North
America, with significant investments in development
in chemicals, LNG liquefaction and gas-to-liquids,
based on monetising low-cost shale gas. We are
working with clients on the early phases of a number
of these planned investments.
Finally, we see more and more clients looking to
develop long-term strategic relationships with a
limited number of E&C contractors. This aligns well
with our approach, to seek to develop long-term
relationships with clients, working with them wherever
in the world they invest. We have signed agreements
with clients including Shell and Dow this year and
have a number of agreements already in place.
Competition remains strong everywhere. We are
focusing on those opportunities where we believe we
have differentiators, such as our technologies, our
know-how, our client relationships, our global presence
and our ability to work with clients from the very
earliest phases of projects to help them shape their
investment, and our proven track record of safely
delivering technically complex and very large projects.

Charles T Drevna

President
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers

he US has within its power

the ability to change the
course of not only our
energy future, but also that of
most components of the US
economy, balance of trade and
national security. For better or
worse, the course we chart will
depend upon decisions made and
framework implemented in 2013 and over the next
four years. Specifically, the outlook for the US refining
and petrochemical industry in the years ahead is
inexorably tied and subject to these decisions, most
notably actions by President Barack Obama, his
Environmental Protection Agency and the newly
elected Congress.
During his run for re-election, President Obama
stressed energy independence for the nation. If the

www.eptq.com

7/12/12 14:48:40

president truly meant what he said and his words were

more than political rhetoric, we could see an end to the
anti-fossil fuel environment that has persisted
throughout his first term in office. I am hopeful that in
2013 this administration will work to advance a true
all-of-the-above energy strategy that recognises the
importance of all of our domestic energy resources and
fuel and petrochemical manufacturers in rebuilding
our nations economy.
The US, in combination with our ally and friend
Canada, has an abundance of natural resources capable
of bringing the nation to economic prosperity and
North American energy independence within the next
10 years. This can be done by expanding shale
development on federal lands, stopping the attacks on
hydraulic fracturing that threaten affordable feedstocks
necessary for all manufacturing, and increasing
offshore drilling permits.
Further, by approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, the
president could send a strong signal to the nation that
he is serious about creating thousands of domestic jobs
and improving our economy. More importantly, the
president would put the world on notice that the US is
charting a future to include energy independence and
security for the country, with a goal of ultimately
becoming a global energy provider.
Sadly, without a significant practical and political
course correction, growth is not possible for fuel and
petrochemical manufacturers in the current regulatory
environment. In January 2011, President Obama
ordered a review of federal regulations to be
eliminated because they hinder economic growth and
job creation. Two years later we are still waiting. A
commitment by the administration is needed to fix
what continues to be a regulatory nightmare for the
refining and petrochemical industry and an
unnecessary, costly burden for the American public.
For example, federal regulations require fuel and
petrochemical manufacturers to spend billions of
dollars to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
even though the EPA has acknowledged the
reductions would bring little or no environmental
benefit. These same regulations increase energy costs,
result in job loss, and harm the US economic and
national security.
AFPM will continue to support sensible and
beneficial environmental regulation, but we believe
that Americas national interest would best be served
by comprehensive and objective cost-benefit analyses
of regulations to determine which make sense and
which do more harm than good.
Today, it is clear that the vast majority of Americans
want to develop our own natural resources and
promote manufacturing jobs. Our nation is blessed
with an abundance of energy resources that could
revitalise job growth and our economy, enhance our
national security, and ensure a strong fuel and
petrochemical manufacturing industry. The decisions
made by the Obama administration in 2013 will
determine the future of the industry I represent and,
more importantly, the entire nation.

www.eptq.com

outlook copy.indd 5

Dmitry
Balandin
nitrogen removal. The

extent of FCC yield improve-

Chief
Financial Officer
ments were often a function of desired operational
Gazprom
Neftekhim Salavat
cycle life and available hydrogen for the pretreat units.

Hydroprocessing catalyst systems were developed utile are living through

ising cobalt molybdenum (CoMo) and nickel
difficult economic times.
molybdenum (NiMo), depending on these objectives
Despite this, the market
and constraints.
for oil and gas production in
In todays clean fuel operations, much investment
Russia remains stable. The main
has been made in ULSD and FCC naphtha HDS, with
source of this stability is high
few refiners now achieving environmental compliance
oil prices, which allow OJSC
via previously designed pretreat units. Additional
Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat and
results of the global drive towards clean fuels are
other major market participants
continued advances in catalyst technology that have
to achieve positive margins. The domestic market still
provided significant gains in both HDS and HDN
tends to be influenced by the activities of government
performance. These technology gains are being utilised
and the regulatory authorities, in particular the
to drive new FCC pretreat designs to very high levels
measures government takes to reduce domestic fuel
of performance and have provided refiners with the
prices. During the second half of 2011, the government
option of revisiting how best to maximise the value of
implemented a new export duty system (so-called 60existing FCC pretreat units. This has resulted in many
66), which benefits the upstream industry, but is less
units shifting catalyst system designs in order to
advantageous for companies within the downstream
provide higher levels of nitrogen removal and aromatic
sector. Thanks to our broad market appeal and
saturation by using more high-activity NiMo catalysts,
high-quality offerings, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat
maximising FCC conversion capability.
is finding the export and domestic markets to be
If distillate maximisation is desired, many FCC
profitable.
pretreat units can be revamped to effectively operate in
There are challenges that Russian process industry
a MHC mode. This more severe operation is performed
companies operating in the oil and gas market need to
with higher reactor temperatures and often by modifyovercome in the next 12 months. One key challenge is
ing the catalyst system to include a more active
the high volatility of oil prices and crack spreads for oil

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conversion cat
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Depending on
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PTQ Q1 2013 11

10/12/12 13:05:23

products. At the same time, the whole sector is under

pressure from the necessity to perform major capital
expenditure programmes while coping with tight time
schedules for making downstream investments. Also,
there is still a need to comply with governmentimplemented high technological standards to the
quality of oil products and refinery assets inside
Russia.
Energy efficiency is important in relation to what
Gazprom would like to achieve domestically and
internationally. However, by modernising the
downstream oil and gas sector, and by implementing
new technologies, Russian operators are getting more
than one evident benefit. First of all, new technology
allows energy costs to be reduced and, as a result,
margins to be increased. Also, the quality and
ecological properties of products are improving.
Therefore, to consider energy efficiency in isolation
without considering the synergetic effect on margins
would be wrong.
International markets are a priority for Russian
operators. Currently, Europe is the major market for
export-oriented
refineries
and
petrochemical
companies. Oil products are also exported to other
regions including South America, the US and Africa.
At the same time, the Russian market becomes more
and more important and demanding for both oil and
petrochemical products.
Process optimisation of operations features in the
discussion of Russian oil and gas companies today.
Professionals working in an optimisation role in
Russian oil refineries and petrochemicals majors
communicate on an informal basis in spite of the
borders of their companies. However, informal
discussions with colleagues and peers together with
various industry forums organised by AspenTech, a
leading provider of process industry software, are of a
high value to the professional community and help us
to exchange views about the role of technology and
modern software in optimising processes in the
Russian oil refinery and petrochemical industry. We see
this role and business function increasing as more oil
refinery and petrochemical companies realise that
without this kind of technology optimisation
application they would not solve the problems raised
by global markets today.
The adoption of process software technology is
occurring across Russian companies in the oil and gas
sector. Russian companies are trying to achieve
innovation by investing in leading-edge software
solutions. Typically, as soon as they build new
processing units, they start to use modern software to
optimise their operations. It is also quite cheap to use
this kind of software in a modern facility. However, it
is relatively expensive to implement new innovative
software into an ageing facility that might be 20, 30 or
even 40 years old, for example. Sometimes, it is even
relatively cheaper to build a new facility than to
implement the new innovative software connected to
ageing technology.
The kinds of software used in the process industries

12 PTQ Q1 2013

outlook copy.indd 6

have changed significantly over the past 30 years. Just

in the last 10 years alone, these changes have been
particularly dramatic. Simply look at the way the IT
industry has evolved during that time period. We
could not have even imagined a decade ago the
possibility of developing an iPad device, for example.
My colleagues who are using the AspenTech software
say that the applications are changing and improving
continuously. They commented that, four or five years
ago, the software was significantly different. Today, it
is of higher quality and more flexible. Within another
five years, it is likely to change dramatically once
again.

Harry Hauptmeijer

President
Yokogawa Europe & Africa

ll the signs are there: the

European refinery sector is
facing the most challenging
time in its history. The global
recession, which is affecting refinery
utilisation, and the European
financial crisis are prolonging this
situation.
At the same time, changing
product demand is increasing imports of diesel and jet
fuel. Energy prices are rising, and new (lower) bunker
fuel sulphur specifications are being introduced.
Couple all of these challenges with the forthcoming
European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, and the
whole future of the European refinery sector is under
considerable pressure.
In Europe, we have already seen refineries closing
and operating companies failing. However, there are
refiners who are succeeding in a survival of the fittest
scenario.
These successful refiners are those who have
managed to adapt to the changing environment, being
able and willing to share their vision and working
close together with select supplying partners. These
partners are characterised by a shared vision in
technologies, solutions and services that will allow the
refiners to meet their newly set business targets and
achieve positive results.
As a leader in industrial automation and control,
Yokogawa develops leading-edge products, delivers
excellent services and commits to providing best fit
solutions to customers. With this strategy, Yokogawa
helps to mitigate the concerns of refiners about the
optimal utilisation of their vital business resources:
people, assets and technologies.
For any refiner working with Yokogawa, there are
four major concerns: safety, human reliability,
unplanned outage and efficiency. Yokogawa provides
industry solutions to alleviate these concerns with the
following deliverable solutions:
Increased safety and reliability, for both process and
human resources

www.eptq.com

7/12/12 14:48:54

 Empowering of human talent

Maximisation of asset value
Minimal costs for energy and utilisation of materials.
However, to achieve the maximum positive impact of
these solutions, a critical success factor comes into
account: the availability of skilled operators and
engineers. Unfortunately, the European workforce has
been adversely affected by demographic challenges as
these experienced and skilled operators and engineers
are retiring.
According to a study done by J&H Marsh and
McLennan, the largest single contributor to
unscheduled downtime is human error. As a result,
Yokogawa has developed an innovative industry
solution called MPA: Modular Procedure Automation.
Using this approach, refinery execution processes are
transformed from manual standard operation
procedures (SOPs) and best practices to an interactive
capability that guides operators consistently through
each and every procedure.
By capturing existing best practices from
experienced operators and then automating and
integrating those best practices into the control system
infrastructure, mistakes can be drastically reduced by
providing operators with guidance in real time. This
means that increased safety margins, process
efficiency and staff effectiveness will be achieved
successfully.
Standardisation and automation of procedural
operations based on the best practices of experienced
operators results in safer operation and improved
profitability. In addition to a tool that allows skilled
operators to directly implement their knowledge into a
control system, an implementation methodology is
essential. Yokogawa caters for six sigma
implementation methodology together with a unique
consulting service. This ensures consistent and
optimum plant operations and guarantees skill transfer
to the next generation of operators.
Industry solutions embedded in our process control
and information systems form the basis for all the
information required by the end user, allowing the
refiner to set clear and aligned goals for the business,
led by management and implemented through all
levels of staff. Of equal importance, this process will
motivate stronger use of business improvement
initiatives, appropriate technology and innovative
ways of working.
The refiner can now continue to improve the
translation of market opportunities into integrated
demand-driven supply, manufacturing and distribution
plans.
It is essential that businesses create a positive spiral
of activities by addressing the challenges customers
are facing. They then need to meet their expectations
for a supplier in a timely manner and correctly, and
then to reflect them in the development and
improvement of the next generation of products. We
believe that these interactive activities are the only
way to become a real partner of their customers and
to solve issues together.

outlook copy.indd 7

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7/12/12 14:49:13

pcs myth.indd 1

8/3/12 09:55:39

ptq&a
Q

When natural gas feedstock prices for steam crackers are

low and export routes for surplus gasoline are well established,
is there a sound economic case for optimised FCC propylene
production?

Raul Arriaga, Global FCC Applications Technology

Specialist, Albemarle, raul.arriaga@albemarle.com

Steam crackers (SC) have traditionally been used for

ethylene (C2=) production as an intermediate for polyethylene and other products. They have also been used
to meet more than half the global demand for propylene (C3=).
Although SC main feed has traditionally been
comprised of naphtha, lower natural gas prices have
prompted petrochemical companies to shift their attention towards shale gas as a cheaper source of ethylene
production. The amount of propylene produced in an
ethane-consuming SC is about 10 times less than what
is produced when consuming naphtha-range material.
Therefore, the shift towards shale gas would result in
constrained propylene supply for petrochemical
consumption and a potential price increase.
Furthermore, the recent gasoline oversupply coupled
with declining demand has forced some companies to
shut down several refineries, resulting in even lower
production of propylene from FCC units. Finally,
according to market analysis experts, the global
demand for propylene is expected to increase between
3% and 6% over the next three years, with most of the
growth coming from developing regions.
Given the trends discussed above, alternative propylene-producing processes (ie, FCC unit processes and
their associated catalytic technologies) are becoming
increasingly well positioned to meet the growing
demand for propylene. For example, Albemarles AFX
line of catalysts has been specifically designed for
maximum propylene applications. These catalysts
include features such as proprietary zeolite technology
(ADZT-150) with low UCS and high accessibility matrices to reduce the rate of hydrogen transfer reactions
while maximising propylene production. AFX technology has been used successfully for several years in
many units around the world.
Albemarle is also working closely with FCC technology licensors to continue developing and tailoring new
catalyst and additive technologies for advanced FCC
processes. These new technologies are based on
features such as high reaction temperatures, secondary
risers, downflow reactors, olefins oligomerisation, high
catalyst-to-oils ratios, low hydrocarbon partial pressures and long residence times, among others.

It is worth mentioning that new maximum propylene FCC units would have to compete for C3= market
share with other available on-purpose (non-FCC)
technologies, such as methanol to olefins (MTO),
metathesis, advanced off-gas recovery and propane
dehydrogenation (PDH). However, the overall contribution of these new technologies is expected to be less
than one-third of the global production by 2020. For
these reasons, there is a sound economic case for optimised propylene production from existing and new
FCC units until a new market equilibrium is achieved
and processing margins are restored to more competitive levels.

What standards for functional safety management should

I be considering in the installation of safety instrumented
systems?

Graeme Ellis, Senior

graeme.ellis@gb.abb.com

Safety

Consultant,

ABB,

The generally accepted international standard for

safety instrumented systems (SIS), including trips and
interlocks, is published by the International
Electrotechnical Committee. Standard IEC 61508
applies to all industrial sectors, where failure of a SIS
to operate on demand could result in harm to people
or the environment. In the process industry, including
sectors such as chemicals, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals, the sector standard IEC 61511 should be used to
provide guidance on how to apply IEC 61508. This
second standard has terminology that is more readily
understood by people working in the process industry
and includes assessment tools that have been based on
industry best practices. It should be noted that these
standards are difficult to interpret, require calibration
against company risk criteria before being used, and
assistance should be sought from a competent function
safety engineer, such as people approved by TV.
These standards cover the complete lifecycle, from
identification of hazards during the design phase of
projects through to maintaining the integrity of SIS
during the operational phase. Hazard studies such as
HAZOP are used to identify credible hazardous
events with serious consequences that require a SIS as
a layer of protection. The safety integrity level (SIL)
for all SIS needs to be determined using an appropriate risk assessment technique, and IEC 61511 provides
various uncalibrated methods. Industry is currently
using suitably calibrated risk graphs for screening
low-severity events, with layer of protection analysis

Additional Q&A can be found at www.eptq.com/QandA

www.eptq.com

Q&A copy 13.indd 1

PTQ Q1 2013 15

12/12/12 11:08:50

(LOPA) being used as a more refined approach for

major accident hazards. While the majority of SIS on
a site are likely to be ungraded, any that are
assessed with a SIL rating must be designed to
comply with the detailed requirements of the standards, including checks on the design architecture
and setting an appropriate proof test frequency. SIL 1
and SIL 2 systems are relatively straightforward to
design and operate. SIL 3 or SIL 4 systems will be
very complicated and should be avoided, generally
by providing other layers of protection based on a
different technology.

Our crude slate has an increasing bitumen component.

Are there special precautions we need to take with regard to
potential poisoning of hydroprocessing catalyst?

Hiroshi Toshima, Global Application Specialist - HPC,

Albemarle, hiroshi.toshima@albemarle.com

Special precautions are needed for crude slates with

elevated levels of bitumen to properly protect
hydrotreaters and to prevent contamination from arsenic and silicon.
In practice, we have been seeing increasing amounts
of crudes with heavier bitumen components. The
bitumen-derived components inherently have higher
concentrations of contaminants, including sulphur,

Both arsenic and silicon

contamination significantly
inhibit HDS activity in the
downstream hydrotreaters
nitrogen, aromatics and metals (eg, nickel, vanadium,
iron and sodium). The bitumen also exhibits higher
levels of indigenous species of arsenic, including
As2O3, Bu3As5 and PhAsO3H2, among others. Arsenic
is particularly prevalent in the bitumen crudes from
Canadian Oil Sands, Venezuela Orinoco tar, West
Coast California, Wyoming Rocky Mountains and
Russian Urals. It is almost evenly distributed over the
entire boiling range, with concentrations ranging from
20 to 400 ppb in the resulting naphtha, distillate and
VGO.
Another contaminant of concern in the bitumen
component is silicon. Silicon contamination is primarily derived from coker additives used as anti-foaming
agents when upgrading bitumen heavy feedstocks. In
these applications, the coker additives consist of
organo-siloxanes such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
that are applied at concentrations ranging from 5 to 10
ppm. The PDMS is thermally decomposed in the coker
unit, resulting in the accumulation of silicon derivatives in the downstream coker naphtha and distillate
boiling ranges. The silicon concentration in these
streams depends on the species of silicon and the

16 PTQ Q1 2013

Q&A copy 13.indd 2

addition rate of the anti-foaming agent in the coker

unit. In general, the ranges of silicon concentrations in
the coker naphtha and distillate streams are 5 to 10
ppm and 2 to 3 ppm, respectively.
Both arsenic and silicon contamination significantly
inhibit HDS activity in the downstream hydrotreaters.
For example, in diesel hydrotreating applications, a
contaminant deposition of 0.5 wt% arsenic on the catalyst can result in a loss in HDS activity of
approximately 30%. Deposition of 10 to 20 wt% silicon
reduces activity by 30 to 50%. Due to this, the mainbed catalyst must be protected with guard-bed catalyst
technology when hydrotreating bitumen crudes.
To address these issues, Albemarle has developed a
series of arsenic-trapping guard-bed catalysts. One
such catalyst, KG 6, has an arsenic-trapping capacity of
at least 2.0 wt%. To date, it has been used in over 50
commercial hydrotreaters worldwide to process naphtha, kerosene, distillate and VGO. Albemarle later
introduced KG 8, which provides an increased arsenictrapping capacity of 3.0 wt% (or higher) for
hydrotreaters that were strongly hindered by arsenic
contamination.
For silicon contamination, Albemarle introduced
Ketjenfine 647 (KF 647). KF 647 is a guard-bed catalyst
delivering a silicon trapping capacity of 20 wt% or
higher in the coker naphtha and distillate applications.
It has been utilised in more than 250 commercial units.
The catalyst can also remove arsenic, making it an
appealing choice for units suffering from both silicon
and arsenic contamination.
KF 859, a speciality NiMo main-bed catalyst, has an
exceptional tolerance for arsenic and arsenic contamination in coker naphtha, kerosene and distillate
hydrotreating applications. The catalyst shows high
arsenic and arsenic trapping capacities of 1.5 and 20
wt%, respectively, while maintaining high HDS and
HDN activities.
This robust catalytic portfolio allows bitumen refineries to maximise the activities and cycle length of their
hydrotreaters units that are afflicted by varying degrees
of arsenic and silicon contamination.

Are there any hydrotreating catalysts or activation

techniques that allow the introduction of cracked feeds on
the first day of the cycle?

Frederic Jardin, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Eurecat

US, fjardin@eurecat.com

Eurecat offers the Totsucat ex-situ activation and

sulphiding process combined with a carbonisation step
that allows the introduction of cracked feeds during
the first day of a catalyst cycle. The carbonisation step
is referred to as cracked feed protection (CFP). Totsucat
CFP has been utilised in 15 hydrotreating units around
the world, including units treating coker naphtha,
distillates, FCC feed and LCO. Run data show that the
deactivation rate may also be reduced when processing
large amounts of cracked stocks with Totsucat CFP
treated catalysts.

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:41:03

pcs 1.indd 1

8/3/12 09:50:20

1207_e

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is the list of our innovations.
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16.10.12 14:18
10/12/12 11:42:00

Refinery design in China

Poor-quality crude oils and strict environmental regulations promote the use of
technologies that favour energy savings and environmental protection
SUN LILI
Sinopec Engineering Incorporation

ccording to statistics, refining

capacity in mainland China
reached 575.27 million tons in
2010, 1.77 times the 2000 figure.
Sinopec processed 144 crude oils in
2010, with a total processing capacity of 212.972 million tons. Classified
according to crude oil properties,
high-sulphur and high-TAN crude
oils account for 49.58% of the crude
oil processed, representing a yearon-year increase of 0.64%, and sour,
acid, high-sulphur and high-TAN
crude oils account for 80.66% of the
crude oil processed, representing a
year-on-year increase of 0.68%.
In
compliance
with
the
increasingly strict environmental
regulations of countries worldwide,
standards for gasoline and diesel
oil
are
continuously
being
upgraded. The European Union,
Japan and Korea limit the sulphur
content of motor gasoline and diesel
to below 10 ppm, and North
America and Australia specify a
sulphur content of 30-50 ppm. It is
predicted that the production of
gasoline and diesel oil with a
sulphur content of less than 10 ppm
will exceed 60% of world gasoline
and diesel production this year. The
main trend of development in the
future is for ultra-low sulphur gasoline and diesel oil.
Since 2010, China has limited the
sulphur content of gasoline to
below 150 ppm, but still has a long
way to go compared with developed countries. Also, China has
limited the benzene content of gasoline to no more than 1%, which is
equivalent to the figure specified by
Europe, America, Japan and Korea.
In 2011, a new standard for motor
diesel was implemented in China,

www.eptq.com

sinopec.indd 1

which significantly lowered the

sulphur content of diesel oil.
The
corresponding
national
standard for integrated wastewater
discharge is continuously upgraded.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD) in
wastewater from refineries built
after 1998 should be less than
60 mg/l. Currently, most refineries
are following Grade II or Grade III
wastewater discharge standards.
The corresponding national standard for the integrated emission of air
pollutants is continuously upgraded.
SO2 and NOx in waste gas emissions
from refineries built after January
1997 should be less than 960 mg/l
and 240 mg/g, respectively.
Currently,
disparity
exists
between actual emission of pollutants and the requirements of the
new standard, and special attention
should be paid to NOx control.

Gap analysis between refineries

Waste of petroleum resources

There are quite a lot of small-scale

refineries in China, with a total
processing capacity above 50 million
t/y in 2010. Small-scale refineries
are characterised by simple process
technologies, poor-quality products,
high energy consumption and low
environmental protection levels.
According to statistics, light oil yield
in a small-scale refinery is 10%
lower than that in a large-scale
refinery, and annual light oil
production in a small-scale refinery
is five million tons less than that in
a large-scale refinery.

Low use of petroleum resources

The average capacity of Chinese

refineries is lower than the world
average, and most refineries select

decarbonisation processes including

coking for heavy oil processing,
resulting in high energy consumption, high material consumption
and low utilisation of petroleum
resources.
According to the 2010 statistics of
refineries
in
Sinopec
and
PetroChina, the average light oil
yield is 76.41%, while the worlds
advanced level is 80.8%. The average comprehensive self-sufficiency
rate is 5.11%, while the worlds
advanced level is below 4%. The
comprehensive commodity rate is
94.33%, while the worlds advanced
level is above 96%, and the processing loss rate is 0.59%, while the
worlds advanced level is below
0.45%.
Currently, the consumption of
transportation oil and chemical oil
constitutes a relatively low proportion of petroleum consumption.
Petroleum resources are not utilised
effectively and rationally.

Process technology gap leads to

high energy consumption

The
performance
in
energy
consumption of most refineries in
China lags considerably behind the
worlds advanced level. In 2010, the
Energy Intensity Index (EII) of
refineries in Sinopec and PetroChina
was 87, while the worlds advanced
level was below 78 and at the highest level was below 70.
Currently, oil product quality in
China still lags behind that of
developed countries. To meet corresponding quality standards, new
units should be installed, leading to
higher energy consumption and
energy loss.
The energy consumption of a

PTQ Q1 2013 19

10/12/12 13:00:48









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Deep processing strategy for higher

production of transportation fuel










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Figure 1 Procurement ratio of imported crude oil by region

refinery accounts for 6-10% of the

crude oil processed, depending on
the complexity and quality upgrading level of the refinery. The figure
is even higher in some refineries.

Treatment of waste gas, wastewater

and solid wastes to be strengthened

Flue gas from refinery furnaces and

boilers contains relatively high
levels of harmful substances,
including SO2 and NOx, and the
treatment of wastewater and solid
wastes needs to be further strengthened. The average SO2 in flue gas is
550 mg/m3, while the worlds
advanced level is below 400 mg/m3
and the worlds leading level is
below 200 mg/m3. The average
COD in wastewater is 100 mg/l,
while the worlds advanced level is
below 60 mg/l.
Developed countries have realised automatic monitoring of
environmental pollution and have

Crude
oil

integrated the environmental monitoring system of refineries into local

environmental monitoring networks
for social and public supervision.
Chinese refineries should further
strengthen their environmental
monitoring measures.

Refinery design in China to keep

abreast of low carbon development
Diversification strategy for crude oil
processing

In refineries, the cost of crude

oil accounts for a relatively high
percentage, generally 70-80%, of
production costs. Due to the uneven
distribution of the worlds crude
oil resources, and the massive
exploitation and use of conventional
petroleum resources, the availability
of conventional petroleum resources
continuously decreases, while poorquality, high-sulphur, high-TAN
heavy oil resources are abundant.
Poor-quality, heavy oil will become

Residue

ADU

RHT

Hydrotreated
residue

RFCC

AR
VGO

CGO

VDU

DCU
VR

Figure 2 Process flow of DC-RHT combined process

20 PTQ Q1 2013

sinopec.indd 2

an important energy source in the

21st century. Refineries should
carry out a diversification strategy
for crude oil processing to increase
processing adaptability for changes
in crude oil properties (see Figure
1).

Coke

Integrated and innovative residue

processing technologies should be
selected. Heavy oil upgrading is not
only the focus of refinery process
flow optimisation, but also the key
to cleaner production and one of
the major sources of benefit to
refineries.
It is found, in process engineering
research and industrial practices,
that neither a single advanced process technology nor the conventional
combination of these advanced
technologies can perfectly solve the
problems brought by poor-quality
crude oils. Integrated application of
heavy oil processing technologies
should be further optimised, and
the feed conditions of the FCC unit
should be improved to increase the
liquid yield of the unit and reduce
the production of slurry and formation of coke, thus reducing carbon
emissions.

DC-RHT combined process

A small-scale delayed coking (DC)

unit is installed to improve the
properties of the residue hydrotreating (RHT) feed (see Figure 2).
The properties of crude oil are
getting worse. If the total content of
nickel and vanadium in the feed to
the RHT unit is higher than 150
ppm, measures for maximum utilisation of resources and light oil
yield are:
Add a small-scale DC unit to the
process flow of residue processing
Use deep-cut vacuum distillation
technology to condense vacuum
residue. Most of the vacuum residue is sent to the RHT unit together
with vacuum gas oil and coker gas
oil
Send a small portion of the
condensed VR to the DC unit.
Petroleum coke product from the
DC unit is used as the feed to a
gasification unit to produce hydrogen for hydrogenation units.

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:42:44

Crude
oil

S-RHT and IRCC-FR

Industrial application results also

show that due to the constraints of
operating conditions and catalyst in
the RHT unit, there is still a large
amount of non-cracking components in the RFCC feed, which will
increase coke formation and gas
production during RFCC reactions.
The latest research shows that
coke formation and gas production
may be reduced and the light oil
yield of the RFCC unit may be
increased by reducing the operating
severity of the unit, increasing the
amount of cycle oil and routing the

www.eptq.com

sinopec.indd 3

RHT

RFCC

HC

HF

Figure 3 Process ow of IRCC-FR


4MVSSZ
CFE

RHT-RFCC RICP

Heavy cycle oil (HCO) from the

RFCC unit is cycled to the RHT unit
to improve the properties of RHT
feed. HCO contains a large amount
of aromatic components that can
dissolve resin and asphaltene in
the residue, so as to improve RHT
reactions, reduce carbon deposits
on catalyst, prolong the service life
of catalyst, reduce gas yield, and
improve product distribution in the
RHT and RFCC units.
Both the light oil yield and liquid
yield of the RFCC unit in a typical
integrally combined process (RICP)
are 1.5-2 wt% higher than those of
a conventional process. Since less
slurry and coke is produced in the
RFCC unit, the energy consumption
of the unit is reduced.
According
to
preliminary
calculations, the overall energy
consumption of a RICP is 2 kg oe/t
of feed lower than that of a conventional process.

ADU

VDU

/ J

7
J O
U I F
G F F E
Q Q N

According to preliminary estimates, if a 1.2 million t/y DC unit

is installed in a 12.0 million t/y
renery that processes poor-quality
crude oil, the impurities content of
the crude oil can be even higher.
Sulphur content may be 8.8%
higher, the total content of nickel
and vanadium may be 18.1%
higher, and carbon residue content
may be 17.3% higher.
It is predicted, based on a pricing
system of $60 per barrel, that the
internal rate of return may increase
by 0.75% due to lower crude oil
costs and the inuence of comprehensive factors.






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73
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Figure 4 Adaptability of RHC technology

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PJM

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4
QQN

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4
QQN

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PJM

7%6

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73

4%"

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CFE
PJM

3)$

Figure 5 Process ow of the SDA-RHC-FCC combined process

cycle oil to a separately installed

RHT unit, where a hydro-saturation
reaction takes place in the presence
of a specic catalyst to deeply
improve the properties of RFCC
feed and convert non-cracking
components into cracking components (see Figure 3).
The RFCC combined process
(IRCC-FR) is used to further
increase light oil yield. Preliminary

research results show that both

the light oil yield and liquid yield
of the RFCC unit increases by 6
wt%.
Further comprehensive research
is under way. The successful implementation of this research will
change traditional ideas of heavy
oil processing and provide more
exibility for poor-quality heavy oil
processing.

PTQ Q1 2013 21

10/12/12 13:01:12

SDA-RHC-FCC combined process

S<1000 ppm

Gas
oil

Residue

Gas oil
HT

S<100-150 ppm

Gas oil
FCC
RFCC

FCC gasoline
FCC diesel

RHT
S<3000 ppm

Figure 6 Process ow of front-end hydrogenation of gasoline

Case analysis: comparison of several combined processes
Feedstock
Kuwait atmospheric residue
Hydrogen
Total

Slurry bed
hydrocracking
650.00
15.27
665.27

Ebullated bed
hydrocracking
650.00
14.17
664.17

Fixed bed
hydrocracking
650.00
13.18
663.18

55.82
78.48
125.75
75.96
249.11
11.07
0.00
529.30

31.21
72.91
61.48
75.96
198.93
81.55

70.54
57.71
148.12
64.27
223.97

Output of main products

LPG
Naphtha
Gasoline
Kerosene
Diesel
Unconverted oil
FCC slurry
Total of light oil products

409.29

12.01
494.07

Cleaner production and clean

product strategy

Table 1
Comparison of new diesel hydrogenation technologies with conventional technology
Item
Scope of
application
Technical
characteristics

Straight-run diesel
Coker diesel or
FCC diesel
Flow characteristics

Reaction zone
Recycle hydrogen
or cycle oil
Reaction
conditions

Continous liquid
phase HDS
>90%
<10%

Downow,
Upow, continous
conventional trickle liquid phase bed
bed technology
technology

Ultra-low
sulphur HDS
>90%
<10%

1
Cycle oil

Two reaction
zones,
conventional
trickle bed
technology
2
Recycle hydrogen

6.4

6.4
300:1

360-390

1.5-2.0
(liquid phase
circulation)
360-390

1.5-2.0

1.5-2.0

3.0/6.0

1
Recycle hydrogen

360-390/280

Product
specication

Sulphur content, ppm >350/50

>50
Emission standard
National III/IV diesel National IV

>10
National V

Investment
and energy
consumption

Investment, %
Energy
consumption, %

Equivalent
10 lower

22 PTQ Q1 2013

sinopec.indd 4

Conventional
hydrogenation
No limit
No limit

Hydrogen partial
6.4
pressure, MPa(g)
Hydrogen-to-oil ratio 300-500:1

Reaction
temperature, C
Space velocity, h-1

Table 2

Hydrogen consumption for the

three processes is roughly the same,
but light oil yield in the slurry bed
process is remarkably higher than
that of the other two processes (see
Figures 4 and 5).
Since poor-quality heavy crude
oil is processed, deep-cut technology and SDA technology are used
to treat heavier components, which
are difcult to process, in a slurry
bed hydrocracking unit, so as to
optimise the operating conditions
in the gas oil hydrotreating unit
and especially in the FCC unit.
Therefore, the renery-wide yield
of light oil in the slurry bed process
is the highest among the three
processes.
The problems of slurry bed technology concerning engineering
scale-up and operation stability
have been solved. It should be
commercialised at the appropriate
time so as to open up a new process route for optimised processing
of poor-quality residue.

Basis
Basis

10-15 lower
15-20 lower

It is reported that, by the end of 2010,

motor gasoline meeting National III
or National IV emission standards
accounted for over 96% of the
gasoline produced by Sinopec, and
the proportion of gasoline product
meeting National IV or higher
emission standards was only 12%.
Therefore, for the purposes of
gasoline quality upgrading, especially for the production of gasoline
meeting National IV or National V
emission standards, the sulphur
content of gasoline will decrease
from 150 ppm to 50 ppm or even
below 10 ppm.
The key is to solve the problem of
high sulphur content in FCC gasoline. Inuenced by
chemical
equilibrium, the difculties of gasoline desulphurisation will further
increase, resulting in higher costs.
There are three ways to reduce
the sulphur content of gasoline
product: FCC feed pretreatment to
reduce the sulphur content of FCC
gasoline by improving the properties of FCC feed; desulphurisation
of FCC gasoline; and a proper
increase in the contribution of the

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11/12/12 16:52:27

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CCR unit to further reduce the

sulphur content of gasoline by
increasing the reformate yield.

Selection of FCC feed pretreatment

process

According to statistics, the sulphur

content of FCC gasoline is about 510% of the sulphur content of the
FCC feed, and the sulphur content
of FCC diesel is about 80% of the
sulphur content of the FCC feed.
The best way to reduce the
sulphur content of FCC gasoline is
to pretreat FCC feed (see Figure 6).
The sulphur content of gasoline and
diesel can be significantly reduced,
and the light oil yield can be
improved by 2-3%. The olefin
content of gasoline and the aromatic
content of diesel can be reduced,
the cetane number of diesel can be
increased, and the operating difficulties of the unit and the
consumption of catalyst can be
lowered. Meanwhile, the sulphur
and nitrogen content of flue gas can
be greatly reduced, thus meeting
the requirements of flue gas
emissions.

Application of FCC gasoline

post-treatment process

Industrial application results show

that the olefin content of gasoline is
mainly reduced by using olefin
reduction technology for FCC gasoline. According to statistics, by
using olefin reduction technology
in the FCC unit, the olefin content
of FCC gasoline decreases by
10-22% and RON decreases by
0.2-2.2. The desulphurisation rate of
a S-Zorb unit is about 84-97%, while
RON decreases by 0.5-1.4 and olefin
content reduces by 4-6%. The
desulphurisation rate of a gasolineselective desulphurisation unit is
78-93%, and RON decreases by
0.2-3. At the same desulphurisation
rate, a higher olefin content of FCC
feed results in a higher degree of
olefin saturation.
Therefore, using olefin reduction
technology for FCC gasoline to
maintain a relatively low olefin
content of FCC gasoline can help
control olefin saturation during
reactions and will reduce RON
loss.
Domestic
technologies
and

24 PTQ Q1 2013

sinopec.indd 5

catalysts for clean diesel production

are well developed. In particular,
hydrotreating
technology
and
capacity
have
been
greatly
improved. Measures for diesel quality upgrading are as follows:
Unit configuration in the refinery
should be optimised to increase the
production of high-quality diesel by
properly building a hydrocracking
unit. A FCC feed pretreatment unit
should be installed to improve the
properties of diesel product by
improving FCC feed
The development and application
of new technologies should be
expedited, and the application level
of technology should be improved
to further reduce the cost of diesel
quality upgrading (see Table 2).

For the purposes

of gasoline quality
upgrading, the
sulphur content of
gasoline will decrease
from 150 ppm to 50
ppm or even below
10 ppm
Continuous liquid-phase HDS
technology

Due to the high solubility of hydrogen in oil, the recycle hydrogen

system is removed in case chemical
hydrogen consumption is less than
the dissolved hydrogen in the
reactor.
A liquid-phase circulating pump
is installed in the reactor to remove
reaction heat by circulating the
appropriate amount of liquid phase,
so as to maintain a relatively small
rise in reaction temperature. A relatively constant reaction temperature
is favourable to the desulphurisation and aromatics saturation
reactions. Meanwhile, circulating a
proper amount of liquid phase may
further make up the dissolved
hydrogen consumed during reactions and dilute the impurity
concentration, which affects reaction depth.

To avoid the precipitation of trace

quantities of excess dissolved
hydrogen in the reactor, upflow
reactor and proprietary internals
are developed for the continuous
liquid-phase HDS reactor.

Ultra-low sulphur HDS technology

Due to the differences between their

reaction kinetics and thermodynamics, different reactions take place in
two specific reaction zones. The
first reactor is operated at high
temperature
and
high
space
velocity. Desulphurisation and
denitrogenation reactions take place
at a pressure of 6.4 MPa, an average temperature of 360-390C and a
space velocity of 3.0 h-1, to remove
most of the sulphur and almost all
of the nitrogen. The second reactor
is operated at low temperature and
high space velocity.
The hydro-saturation reaction of
aromatics takes place at a pressure
of 6.3 MPa, an average temperature
of 280C and a space velocity of 6.0
h-1, to completely remove the
remaining sulphur. With a waterwhite colour, the diesel product has
a sulphur content below 10 ppm
and a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content below 11%.
Stable operation of the two reactors
in
series
at
different
temperatures can be realised by
optimising the process flow and
using advanced control and heat
exchange; the heat exchange efficiency can be improved by
enhancing heat transfer.
In normal operation, temperature
requirements at the inlet of the
reactor can be met by enhancing
heat transfer, so a reaction feed
furnace is put into service only
during startup.
This technology can not only
achieve ultra-deep desulphurisation
of diesel oil, but also realise innovation in process technology and
process flows, thus further reducing
the investment level and energy
consumption of the unit.

Need to install a hydrocracker

According to estimates, if a 1.6

million t/y hydrocracking unit is
installed in a 10.0 million t/y fueltype refinery, overall hydrogen
consumption will increase, but

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:43:23

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Ethylene
reforming

C5-

Naphtha

Prefractionation

n-paraffin
n-paraffin content
>95%

Prehydrotreating

Adsorptive
separation

i-paraffin

CCR

i-paraffin content
>85%

Figure 7 Process ow of MaxEne process

Capacity of reneries worldwide in 2000 and 2010 (million t/y)
Ranking
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Total

2000
Country
USA
China
Japan
Russia
Korea
Germany
India
Italy
France
Canada

2010
Capacity
848.54
324.64
259.14
257.45
133.18
120.40
117.37
115.05
98.56
98.11
2372.44

Country
USA
China
Russia
Japan
India
Korea
Germany
Italy
Brazil
Canada

Capacity
870.54
575.27
280.38
218.55
200.70
136.18
118.60
114.80
101.30
96.91
2713.23

Table 3

hydrogen production will reduce by

8% due to the increase in CCR
capacity. The feed to the hydrogen
plant will reduce by 13%, thus
lowering the CO2 emissions of the
renery. By installing a hydrocracker, FCC decoking will reduce by
30%. The production of low freezing
point diesel will increase by 19%,
and kerosene and diesel production
will rise by 10%. Also, the light oil
yield will increase from 81% to 85%.

Building a large-scale renery and

production unit for scaled operation

To enhance competitiveness, rationalisation of reneries worldwide

continues to increase and renery
capacity is improving year by year.
The number of reneries worldwide
fell from 742 in 2000 to 662 in 2010,
a fall of 80 in 10 years. The average
capacity of reneries worldwide
gradually increased from 5.14
million t/y in 1992 to 5.63 million
t/y in 2000 and to 6.95 million t/y
in 2010. There are 21 reneries with
a capacity of over 20.0 million t/y,
while only two are in mainland
China (see Table 3).

26 PTQ Q1 2013

sinopec.indd 6

The pros of a large-scale renery

are as follows:
Rational utilisation and optimum
allocation of petroleum resources
Higher
processing depth for
comprehensive
utilisation
of
materials
Lower investment, smaller oor
area, lower operational cost and
lower energy consumption
Higher product yield and quality
Recovery
of pollutants for
economic treatment.
The cons of a large-scale renery
are:
Poor adaptability to diversied
crude oils and a wide market for
products
Low load operation due to
insufcient
feedstock
supply
will result in higher energy
consumption
High maintenance levels and the
cost of large-scale units
Relatively high losses of product
during startup and shutdown and
high shutdown loss.
The preferred single-train capacity of a future renery is no more
than 20 million t/y.

Renery and chemical integration

for lower crude oil consumption
Optimum utilisation of resources

A renery can supply reliable

chemical feedstocks for a petrochemical plant. Dry gas, saturated
hydrocarbon and coker gasoline
produced in a renery are highquality ethylene cracking feedstocks
with high added value. Pyrolysis
gasoline is hydrogenated and
returned to the renery as feedstock
for the production of high-octane
gasoline and aromatics. Methane
produced in large quantities in an
ethylene plant can only be used as
fuel in ethylene production, but it
is a good feedstock for the hydrogen plant in a renery, and naphtha
is a high-quality ethylene cracking
feedstock. It is obvious that renery
and chemical integration can not
only solve the feedstock supply
problems of an ethylene plant, but
can also realise optimum utilisation
of resources.

Optimisation of ethylene cracking

feedstock

Ethylene cracking feedstock including saturated hydrocarbons (C2, C3

and C4) from the renery, straightrun naphtha and rafnate, coker
gasoline, as well as hydrocracking
light naphtha and tail oil should be
collected to the maximum. Ethylene
and propylene should be separated
from FCC dry gas and LPG.
A renery-chemical complex aims
to achieve crude oil consumption of
150-200 000 tons per 10 000 tons of
ethylene produced; the ratio of
ethylene production to crude
oil
consumption
is
1:15-20.
For a renery-chemical-aromatics
complex, this gure should be
better than 1:20.

Optimisation of chemical feedstock

Separation technology of group

composition should be applied. The
MaxEne process not only improves
ethylene yield, but also increases
reformate production and the quantity
of
high-octane
gasoline
components (see Figure 7). The
ethylene yield of a naphtha cracking unit increases by 30%, while the
propylene yield remains unchanged.
The MaxEne process is applicable
to a large-scale renery-ethylene-

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:52:51

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1/6/12

Analysis of energy consumption

Fuel

FCC decoking

Power

Steam

Percentage (%)
30-40

10-40

20-30

10-20

Improving measures
To improve the thermal efficiency of process furnace, and to
optimise process conditions and reduce reaction temperature
To optimise and improve feed properties, and to optimise the
overall process flow
To improve pump efficiency, and to promote the application
of frequency conversion motor
To optimise steam network for cascade utilisation of steam

Table 4

aromatics complex. Raw material

consumption per unit of product
may be significantly reduced,
and resource allocation may be
optimised to achieve refinery-ethylene-aromatics integration.

Integrated application of advanced

and energy-saving technologies
Current energy consumption

High
refinery-wide
energy
consumption is attributed to the
processing of poor-quality crude
oils and the quality upgrading of
oil products. The sulphur content of
crude oil processed in a refinery is
mostly
1.0-2.7%.
The
steam
consumption of the desulphurisation unit, solvent regeneration unit
and sour water stripping unit
accounts for 5-9% of energy
consumption. The hydrotreating
capacity of a refinery accounts for
more than 95% of the crude oil
processed, not only increasing
hydrogen consumption but also
increasing the proportion of its
energy consumption in refinerywide energy consumption to above
20%.
Additionally, the production of
high value-added products results
in higher refinery-wide energy
consumption. Increased propylene
production not only leads to higher
decoking and energy consumption
in the FCC unit, but also increases
the energy consumption of the gas
fractionation unit by 20%. The
production of aromatics including
benzene and mixed xylene increases
the energy consumption of the CCR
unit by 6.7 kg oe/t of feed.
The energy consumption of process units accounts for 85-90% of
refinery-wide energy consumption.
The proportion of large-scale units
in a refinery is high, and there is

28 PTQ Q1 2013

sinopec.indd 7

heat integration between units and

between units and systems. The
energy consumption of utilities and
facilities accounts for 10-15% of
refinery-wide energy consumption.
Thermal systems, water supply and
drainage systems, as well as storage
and transportation systems account
for 51%, 28% and 16% of the energy
consumption of utilities and facilities, respectively.
FCC, CCR and crude/vacuum
distillation units are the focus of
refinery energy savings. In a refinery with a large-scale FCC unit, the
capacity of the unit accounts for
35% of the crude oil processed. As
the biggest energy consumer among
all the process units, its energy
consumption accounts for 28% of
that of the process units.
The capacity of the CCR unit
accounts for 15% of the crude oil
processed, and its energy consumption accounts for 23% of that of the
process units. The energy consumption
of
the
crude/vacuum
distillation units accounts for 12%
of that of the process units.
In a refinery with a delayed coker,
the capacity of the CCR unit
accounts for 20% of the crude oil
processed, and its energy consumption accounts for 24% of that of the
process units. The capacity of the
FCC unit accounts for 29% of the
crude oil processed, and its energy
consumption accounts for 20% of
that of the process units.
The energy consumption of the
crude/vacuum distillation units
accounts for 18% of that of the
process units (see Table 4).

Energy-saving measures

The overall process flow should be

optimised to improve feed properties. Suitable advanced catalysts

need to be used, appropriate operating conditions should be selected

for units, FCC feed needs to be
pretreated, and centralised treatment of amine, centralised recovery
of light ends and centralised treatment of wastewater should be
carried out.
The operating conditions of units
should be optimised to reduce process
energy
demand.
Pinch
technology needs to be used to
optimise
the
heat
exchange
network, while a mixed vacuum
pumping system should be utilised
in the vacuum system to reduce
energy consumption by 0.5 kg oe/t
of feed. A pressurised operation
should be used in the xylene separation unit to recover overhead
condenser heat. The separation
accuracy of the fractionator must be
optimised to reduce the energy
demand for separation, and the
recycle ratio of the delayed coker
needs to be reduced from 0.3 to 0.1
to lower the energy consumption
by 4 kg oe/t of feed.
Hot feed and heat integration
between units should be realised.
Hot feed between units must be
achieved and suitable division
temperatures should be selected for
energy optimisation. Heat integration between process units should
be realised to achieve double-effect
energy savings. The fractionator
pumparound must be designed to
achieve rational heat distribution
and utilisation. Low-temperature
heat should be recovered for use in
steam or hot water power generation besides process use. Pressure
equalisation design needs to be
achieved
between
units
and
between unit and system to avoid
energy waste. Heavy oil storage
tanks should be designed as hot oil
tanks to reduce energy loss during
oil storage and transportation.
Advanced
automatic
control
systems should be used to minimise
interference between upstream
units and downstream units, so as
to realise direct hot feeding.
Advanced energy-saving equipment and materials need to be
utilised.
High-efficiency
heat
exchangers should be employed to
enhance heat transfer and improve
heat utilisation efficiency. High-

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:02:02

efficiency trays must be used to reduce reflux ratio

and lower the overhead cooling load. Flue gas
turbines, energy recovery hydraulic turbines, energysaving motors, frequency conversion motors and air
flow regulation systems of compressors should be
employed to recover pressure energy and reduce electric energy consumption. High-efficiency intensified
burners need to be used in furnaces to improve efficiency. The exhaust temperature of furnaces should be
reduced to improve thermal efficiency by 2-3%. New
insulation material needs to be employed to reduce
the heat loss of equipment and pipelines.
Low-temperature heat should be utilised by applying low-pressure steam generation technology,
low-temperature Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC)
systems and Kalina Cycle systems.
Energy optimisation of the area should be carried
out. Heat integration between the refinery and local
co-generation power plant needs to be realised. A
large quantity of low-temperature heat in a refinery
cannot be recovered because a heat sink is not available, and this portion of low-temperature heat may be
used as a heat source for demineralised water and
boiler feed water in a cogeneration power plant. Also,
integration with the local chemical plant is important
to achieve material exchange and optimisation, as well
as optimum energy use. Integrated energy optimisation of the area should be carried out rather than
energy optimisation of a single refinery.

A New Standard
in Pressure
Measurement

Conclusions

The priority of refining technology development and

the configuration of refining units in China have
distinct characteristics. During a long period in the
future, the FCC unit will still be the main secondary
conversion unit for gasoline and diesel production.
Therefore, improving the quality of FCC gasoline
and diesel is very important for oil product quality
upgrading technology in the future.
With the trend towards poor-quality crude oils,
future refineries should further optimise process flows
and change unit configuration so as to improve the
comprehensive utilisation rate of resources, and to
meet the requirements of energy savings and emissions reduction.
More detailed classification of crude oil fractions
and the consideration of various narrow-cut processing technologies will actively promote the low carbon
emission of refineries. Narrow-cut processing will
become the development trend in the overall process
flow optimisation of refineries in the 21st century.

Sun Lili is Vice President of Sinopec Engineering Incorporation in

charge of processing solution studies, engineering, construction and
startup of grassroots refineries and refinery modification projects. She
has over 20 years experience in engineering design and startup of
hydroprocessing units, has won several Prizes of National Scientific
and Technological Progress, and holds a BS in petroleum refining from
China University of Petroleum.
Email: sunlili.sei@sinopec.com

High Performance

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EJA-E-270x86.indd 1
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07/09/12 13:50
10/12/12 13:02:15

*ad copy 2.indt 1

1/6/12 14:52:43

Maximising ethane in liquids crackers

Economics for energy and feedstock supply favour ethane feed cracking, but plant
constraints must be examined rigorously before maximum ethane feeds are pursued
MUHAMMAD IMRAN
Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology

ecent advances in the recovery

of gas from shale reserves in
the US have resulted in a shift
in the economics of US ethylene
plant feedstock. The American
Chemistry Council estimates that US
shale deposits contain 100 years of
natural gas supply, a game
changer that could rejuvenate
Americas chemical industry. Strong
ethane supplies are positioning the
US as the most competitive, low-cost
ethylene producer, resulting in
increased investments in ethane
recovery and pipelines. As a result,
several companies have already
announced their plans for major
investments in the US ethylene
sector.
At present, many ethylene producers
currently
cracking
liquid
feedstocks such as naphtha or gas
oil are either maximising or considering maximising the cracking of
lighter feeds such as ethane.
Producers who designed plants to
crack ethane and/or propane and
butane feeds have inherent advantages since their plants require
minimal and/or no modifications.
However, plants that were configured for heavier liquid feedstocks
such as naphtha and gas oil will be
forced to consider the impact on
their units if they are to process the
ethane feed. With shale gas advances
in other parts of the world, this
trend may also propagate in other
regions in the coming years.
The following factors need to be
considered before deciding to shift
to ethane feedstock.

Ethane availability and price

Shale gas recovery by horizontal

drilling and the use of fracking

www.eptq.com

technip s&w.indd 1

technology has resulted in the US

having an abundance of natural gas.
Once natural gas is available, it is
fractionated to separate ethane from
the rest of the natural gas. The separated ethane is then fed into the
pipeline. The US has a good pipeline
infrastructure to supply ethane from
the source to the ethylene producers.
In addition, new pipelines are being
constructed to meet the increased
demand of consumers. Depending
on the availability of shale gas reser-

Shale gas recovery by

horizontal drilling and
the use of fracking
technology has
resulted in the US
having an abundance
of natural gas
voirs and the availability of fracking
technology, ethane cracking may
also become economically attractive
in other parts of the world in the
coming years. The desire to develop
shale gas reserves outside of the US
is strong. As per the International
Energy Agencys World Energy
Outlook 2011,2 China has already
auctioned shale gas exploration
rights but with participation limited
to Chinese companies. International
companies willing to participate
have therefore sought to enter into
partnership with Chinese companies. Other countries becoming
active or considering becoming
active in shale gas exploration

include India, Poland, Germany,

Spain, the UK and Ukraine.

Liquids cracker configurations

Ethylene plants are typically

designed with the demethaniser,
deethaniser or depropaniser tower
sequenced at the front end of the
recovery section. Each scheme will
present unique challenges for
maximising ethane feed flexibility.
Depending on the plant configuration, the cracked effluents flow rate
and composition will vary in each
section of the plant. Various
sections of the ethylene plant may
thus be more than adequate, with
other sections requiring possible
modifications.

Capacity increase in addition to

flexibility

Some ethylene producers may well

target increasing plant capacity in
parallel to achieving maximum
ethane cracking flexibility. Capacity
increases will require additional
capital spending, particularly in
areas where existing equipment is
already tight and flow rates and
compositions are changing.

Available equipment margins in

current operation

The extent of modifications required

will depend on whether the existing equipment has any remaining
margin. For maximum ethane
cracking, flexibility will depend on
the available margins in the existing
equipment.

Products shift and market

economics

In addition to ethylene, a
typical liquids cracker produces

PTQ Q1 2013 31

10/12/12 13:11:37

dupont.indd 1

23/2/12 15:04:26

byproducts including hydrogen,

fuel gas, propylene, butadiene,
pyrolysis gasoline, fuel oil, C4s and
C5s. With ethane cracking, there is
a significant shift in the overall
product slate. Ethane cracking
yields for ethylene are higher than
those from liquid feed cracking;
however, being a lighter feedstock,
its cracking yields are significantly
lower for the heavier products.
Often, due to the small make, it
becomes uneconomical to separate
the heavier products formed by
ethane cracking. This product shift
can have an impact on the local
market and can result in shortages,
price hikes and possibly even
result in the import of heavier
products. There are technologies
available for converting lowerchain olefins to higher-chain
olefins, but these processes require
additional capital, equipment and
utility consumption. These processes can be used to offset the
shortage of heavier co-products
due to ethane feed cracking.
Details of these processes are
outside the scope of this article.

Ability to maintain liquids cracking

capability

Ethane pricing and ethane cracking

economics may change in the future.
It is therefore important to maintain
flexibility so that, where possible,
owners can cost effectively shift back
to liquids cracking when desirable.

Feedstock (tons/ton of ethylene) based

on ultimate yield
Feedstock
Ethane
Propane
Naphtha
Gas oil

Table 1

tions in a particular plant. Figures

1, 2 and 3 should be used only for
explaining the effect of increasing
ethane cracking on product distribution and should not be used for
design work.
As Figure 1 shows, ethane
cracking results in higher ethylene
yields with minimum production of
byproducts. Typical once-through
ethylene yields from ethane cracking are greater than 50% (depending
on ethane once-through per cent
conversion). Based on recycle cracking of ethane to extinction, an
ultimate yield of ~80% ethylene is
achievable. For overall comparison
purposes, naphtha cracking gives a
25% to 36% ethylene yield depending on paraffin content and cracking
severity.
Due to higher ethylene yields,
ethane cracking requires a significantly lower feed rate (tons/ton of
ethylene) as compared to other
feedstocks. Table 1 shows feedstock
tons required per ton of ethylene.
As was explained above, shale

Ethane cracking and products

distribution

www.eptq.com

technip s&w.indd 2

Furnace effluents, wt%

60
43% ethylene

50% ethylene*

50
30

28% ethylene**

30
20
10

Ethylene
Ethane
Propylene

0% 0%
na eth
ph an
th e
a
2
80 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
4
60 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
40 60%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
20 80%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
10
0% 0%
na eth
ph an
th e
a

10

Figures 1, 2 and 3 explain the

change in product make when
gradually shifting the feedstock
from 100% naphtha to 100% ethane.
How much ethane can be cracked
in a particular naphtha or gas oil
liquids cracker depends on many
factors: available design margins on
equipment/piping, plant configurations, compressor performance
curves and quench system design.
The overall extent of the required
modifications will have to be determined on a case-by-case basis. It
should be noted that product yields
are strongly dependent on cracking
severity and ethane conversion per
pass. Actual product yields will be
dependent on the cracking condi-

T/T of ethylene
1.25
2.3
3.0
3.85

gas recovery in the US has resulted

in reduced pricing of ethane. The
combination of a relatively low
ethane price and better ethylene
yields can result in improved feed/
product margins by shifting from
naphtha to maximum possible
ethane cracking plus naphtha.
Shifting from heavier to lighter
feeds,
however,
substantially
changes plant traffic patterns,
decreasing plant loads for systems
handling C3+ components, while
burdening systems handling the
lighter C2-/C2 fractions. The quench
area will probably be most affected;
a number of modifications will
most likely be required, but the
changes will be a function of the
overall feedstock before and after
the addition of shale gas.
Figure 1 shows yield patterns for
recycle ethane and propylene. There
is a significant increase from 5 wt%
recycle ethane at 100% naphtha
cracking to 35 wt% recycle ethane
at 100% ethane cracking. Actual
recycle ethane within the system
will depend on how much fresh
ethane feed can be cracked in a
given liquids cracker. Recycle
ethane is typically flashed to a pressure to achieve the equivalent of
the coldest propylene refrigeration
credit (-35F, -37C). Thus, a higher
recycle ethane yield has the potential for additional refrigeration
credit at the coldest propylene level.
This additional refrigeration credit

* Ethylene yield will be slightly higher depending on ethane % conversion

** Ethylene yield will be higher depending on saturates % and cracking severity

Figure 1 Products shift: ethylene and propylene

PTQ Q1 2013 33

10/12/12 13:11:50

Furnace effluents, wt%

16

BTX
C5-200 (ex BTX)
Butenes
13BUTD
Fuel oil

14
12
10
8
6
4
2

10

0% 0%
na eth
ph an
th e
a
80 20%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
4
60 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
6
40 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
8
20 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
10
0
0% %
na eth
ph an
th e
a

Figure 2 Heavy products shift

Furnace effluents, wt

14
Methane
Hydrogen

12
10
8
6
4
2

10

0% 0%
na eth
ph an
th e
a
2
80 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
4
60 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
6
40 0%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
20 80%
% e
na th
ph an
th e
a
10
0% 0%
na eth
ph an
th e
a

Figure 3 Light products shift

helps to reduce the required

horsepower of a propylene refrigeration
compressor.
Propylene
production, however, drops significantly
when
operating
with
maximum ethane cracking. As can
be seen in Figure 1, the propylene
yield reduces from 14 wt% to 2
wt% when shifting from 100%
naphtha to 100% ethane feed.
Ethane cracking also has a significant impact on other, heavier
products. As shown in Figure 2,
with ethane cracking, 1,3 butadiene
(13BUTD), butenes, C5-200, BTX
and fuel oil production all are
reduced. Due to a very low production of C3+ material, in most of the
cases it is not economical to separate the C3 and heavier products.
Since plants designed for liquids
cracking have C3 and heavier product fractionation systems installed,

34 PTQ Q1 2013

technip s&w.indd 3

many operators may decide to keep

these systems in operation by a
combination of external make-up
and internal recycles. Quench
system operation also requires careful
attention
with
possible
modifications.
Figure 3 shows the shift in hydrogen and methane production with
ethane cracking. Hydrogen production increases from 1 wt% to 4 wt%
and methane production drops
from 13 wt% to 5 wt%. Higher
hydrogen, lower methane and
higher C2s will lower the molecular
weight of cracked gas, impacting
the performance of cracked gas
compressors and other equipment
capabilities. A higher percentage of
hydrogen also results in a high
pressure drop in systems handling
the separation of hydrogen and
methane from other components.

Cracking furnace and utilities

considerations

Ethane cracking results in higher

ethylene yields than do other feeds;
therefore, a similar ethylene capacity can be achieved with a lower
throughput of ethane feed. If a coil
designed for liquids cracking is
employed, run length and operational flexibility will be reduced
unless other adjustments are made.
The number of furnaces that can be
economically shifted from liquids
to ethane cracking will depend on
the design of the downstream
recovery section and its capability
to handle lighter cracked gas. If
operators want to crack more
ethane, additional capital spending
will be required in the recovery
section to achieve more flexibility.
A cracking furnace designed for
liquids cracking may have some
limitations when cracking ethane;
for example:
Reduced run length
Higher than normal steam-to-HC
ratio required to minimise coking
rate
Capacity limitations in radiant
coil
Burners and induced draft fan
limitations
Possible metallurgy issues
Convection section high pressure
drop due to a higher volumetric
flow rate
Primary
quench
exchanger
coking, resulting in a higher outlet
temperature of cracked gas.
Ethylene producers with the
objective of minimal capital spending have an option of using a
liquids cracking furnace (see Figure
4) on ethane cracking with reduced
operational flexibility. The existing
furnace liquids feed header and
feed control valves, however, will
need to be replaced to work effectively with ethane feed. For greater
operational flexibility and longer
run lengths, an extensive furnace
revamp may be required. Ethylene
producers can opt for a feed flexible
radiant coil such as Technips Ultra
Selective Conversion (USC) W coil
furnace, which will more effectively
handle the shift from liquids cracking to ethane cracking. In cases
where higher capacity and ethane
only cracking are the objectives,

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:12:00

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Technips USC M coil is a

better choice. Revamp of the
convection section, burners,
induced draft fan and primary
quench exchangers may also
be required to achieve the
required capacity and run
length while providing greater
operational flexibility.
Another important consideration when converting a
liquids furnace for ethane
cracking is the addition of the
secondary quench exchangers
downstream of the primary
quench exchangers. Typically,
gas crackers are designed to
have a lower cracked effluent
temperature to the quench
section as compared to liquids
crackers. In liquids crackers,
the temperature is kept high to Figure 4 Cracking furnaces
avoid liquid condensation and
possible quench exchanger and ery area. There is a possibility of
transfer line fouling. For reference, increased hydrogen content in the
for
gas residue gas, but cracking furnace
cracking, the cracked effluent burners must be designed to opertemperature to quench section is ate within a certain percentage
~350F (177C) compared to ~700F range of hydrogen in residue gas.
(370C) for liquids crackers. A The fuel gas balance must be
secondary quench exchanger can checked with consideration of natutherefore be added to produce ral gas import to maintain a
additional high-pressure steam reasonable residue gas composition.
during ethane cracking. Bypass Modifications in the hydrogen
provision can be included to mini- recovery area may be required to
mise the duty on the secondary maximise hydrogen recovery and
quench exchanger during naphtha limit hydrogen content in the residue gas. In the extreme case,
or gas oil cracking.
With
a
secondary
quench furnace burner modifications or
exchanger in service, the combined replacement may be required. With
furnace effluent temperature from no modifications or replacement,
liquids and gas cracking furnaces existing furnace burners can potenwill be reduced. This will lower the tially set the limit on how much
bottom temperature of the quench ethane can be cracked in a liquids
oil tower and may reduce the cracker.
Residue gas will have higher
amount of usable waste heat.
Typically, in liquids crackers, hydrogen and lower methane
quench oil is used for dilution contents because of a high ethylene
steam generation. A lower cracked yield and a significant drop in
gas effluent temperature will have methane
yields
with
ethane
a significant impact on dilution cracking. Typically, liquids crackers
steam
production.
Additional have a hydrogen recovery system
medium-pressure steam import installed as part of the process
may be required to cover for scheme. There will be a reduction
reduced dilution steam.
in the residue gas make if hydrogen
Typically, liquids crackers have recovery is still a requirement
hydrogen recovery and purification during majority ethane cracking.
sections. As was explained above, An increased import of natural gas
ethane cracking generates addi- therefore may be required while
tional hydrogen, which can cause transitioning from liquids to majorlimitations in the hydrogen recov- ity ethane cracking.

36 PTQ Q1 2013

technip s&w.indd 4

Quench system considerations

For ethylene producers accustomed to cracking naphtha or

heavier feed, one of the most
challenging systems to maintain efficient operation when
introducing ethane feed is the
quench oil system. As ethylene
producers consider cracking
various
feedstocks,
they
attribute a certain amount of
fuel oil make to both naphtha
and gas feeds. The net fuel oil
make from naphtha cracking is
typically within 4 to 6% of the
total furnace effluent. Ethane
cracking, at the other extreme
of the spectrum, makes up less
than 0.2%. Therefore, one of
the consequences of transitioning to a lighter feed slate is a
significant reduction in fuel oil
make from the furnaces, thus
the need for additional external fuel
oil or flux oil to ensure the quench
oil circulation system is operational.
The quench oil system thrives on
having an abundance of heavy and
middle distillate oils. The shortage
of these components, which is
common when cracking primarily
ethane, leads to inefficiencies and
potential plant reliability problems.
With ethane cracking, light and
middle boiling components vaporise in the quench oil tower, leaving
behind the heavy components. A
lower yield of heavy components
results in an increase in the residence time in the system, causing
the formation of polynuclear
aromatics (PNA) and tar due to
agglomeration. Viscosity therefore
increases, causing a drop in the
heat transfer coefficient in the heat
exchangers. With time, the concentration of PNA and tar increases
due to polymerisation, resulting in
a further increase in viscosity. A
stage is reached when it is no
longer feasible to maintain quench
oil circulation at the required
temperature and the system has to
be shut down for cleaning.
To maintain efficient and reliable
operation, producers shifting to
majority ethane feedstocks need to
properly evaluate the quench
system and may need to consider
importing external oil (flux oil) to
maintain adequate quench oil

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:12:11

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quality. Proper evaluation and

selection of flux oil is required to
ensure compatibility with the fuel
oil produced in the system.
Incompatible flux oil can lead to
precipitation of asphaltenes in the
system. Flux oil characterisation
should be done to confirm compatibility with the system. The
following tests are recommended:
Aromatic carbon
Unsubstituted aromatic carbon
Substituted aromatic carbon
Average chain length.
Most favourable flux oils are
heavy catalytic naphtha (HCN) and
heavy cycle oil (HCO). These are
produced in refineries. However,
these are not readily available, as
refiners prefer to produce diesel.
The second best choice for flux oil
is light cycle oil (LCO) and it is
generally available from refineries.
There must be extensive changes
in the quench system in case of
limitations in flux oil availability.
Depending on how much ethane is
cracked, the quench oil tower may
need to be bypassed, with possible
modifications to the quench water
tower to provide additional heat
transfer
capability.
Additional
equipment may need to be provided
to handle tar removal. A benefit of
bypassing the quench oil tower is
reduced pressure drop between
furnaces and the cracked gas
compressor. A higher cracked gas
compressor suction pressure can
therefore be employed.
Existing quench oil and quench
water towers may be limiting if
capacity increase is another objective in addition to feedstock
flexibility. Technips Ripple trays
have been used successfully for
numerous revamp applications for
quench oil and quench water
towers (see Figure 5).

Cracked gas system

Cracked gas compressor performance needs thorough evaluation.

With a higher ethane feed diet,
molecular weight reduces from ~30
to ~19 with an increase in volumetric flow rate. One of the important
parameters to consider when shifting from liquids cracking to
majority ethane cracking is polytropic head. Polytropic head is

38 PTQ Q1 2013

technip s&w.indd 5

Figure 5 Quench oil and quench water

towers

inversely proportional to molecular

weight. As Equation 1 shows, a
lower molecular weight gas will
require a higher polytropic head for
the same compression ratio:

1545
n P
H P = MW Z AVG T1 n 1 P12

n 1

[1]

Where
HP
Polytropic head, ft
MW Molecular weight
Z AVG Average compressibility
T1
Suction temperature, deg R
n
Compression coefficient
P1
Suction pressure, psia
P2
Discharge pressure, psia
Also, as Equation 2 shows,
compressor horsepower is directly
proportional to mass flow rate and
polytropic head:

SHP =

( m) H P

[2]

[(nP )3300]1.02

Where
SHP Shaft horsepower
M
Mass flow rate
H P
Polytropic head
n P
Polytropic efficiency
1.02
2% gear losses
From the above equations, it is
clear that, for the same mass flow
rate and compression ratio, a lighter
cracked gas from majority ethane

cracking will require a higher shaft

horsepower as compared to heavier
cracked gas. However, as Figure 1
shows, majority ethane cracking
results in a higher ethylene yield
and therefore a lower mass flow of
cracked gas will be required to
produce the same quantity of ethylene as compared to liquids cracking.
An important variable to overcome
potentially
higher
horsepower
requirements is to increase firststage suction pressure. As Equation
1 indicates, increased compressor
suction pressure will reduce the
compression ratio and polytropic
head requirements. On the negative
side, a higher first-stage suction
pressure results in a higher radiant
coil outlet pressure. Since a higher
pressure at the radiant coil outlet
degrades the ethylene yield, increasing the first-stage suction pressure
tends to lower ethylene make. On
the positive side, the liquids cracking ethylene yield is a stronger
function of the coil outlet pressure
as compared to gas cracking. With
a small sacrifice in ethylene yields,
gas cracking furnaces can therefore
be operated at a higher coil outlet
pressure. There will be a reduced
impact on coil outlet pressure in
case the quench oil tower is
bypassed.
A higher coil outlet pressure also
lowers the volumetric flow rate,
which is helpful in avoiding potential casing or suction nozzle
limitations. If feed flexibility is the
only target, with no increase in
ethylene production, it is sometimes
possible that a cracked gas compressor driver designed for liquids
cracking furnace effluents can work
for cases with majority ethane
cracking effluents. In some cases,
especially where both feed flexibility and an increase in ethylene
production are targets, it may not
be possible to operate by just
increasing the first-stage suction
pressure. Possible solutions for this
situation are:
Adding a booster stage
Adding a parallel stage with a
dedicated driver
Adding a new driver for one of
the stages to avoid limitations on
the existing driver
Adding
wheels
on
stages

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10/12/12 13:12:22

requiring higher polytropic head.

In case the quench oil tower is
bypassed to address quench area
issues, there will be a reduced
pressure drop between furnaces
and the cracked gas compressor.
For the same coil outlet pressure, it
will therefore be possible to
increase the compressor suction
pressure.
Another important consideration
for the cracked gas compressor is to
confirm that a sufficient operating
margin is kept between operating
point and surge limit. This operating margin tends to be narrowed
due to a higher operating speed
and polytropic head required for
lighter cracked gas operation.
Again, a combination of increased
suction pressure and a lower mass
flow required for lighter cracked
gas operation can help to stay away
from the surge limit. Compressor
performance curves need to be
studied carefully by use of a process simulator to confirm compressor
performance for lighter cracked gas
effluent.

Chilling train and

expander/recompressor

As Figure 3 shows, switching from

naphtha cracking to majority ethane
cracking results in an increase in
hydrogen production from ~1 wt%
to ~4 wt% and a lower methane
production from ~13 wt% to
~5 wt%. Higher hydrogen production may result in a higher
volumetric flow to the chilling train
(depending on composition) and
an
increased
pressure
drop.
Replacement of some piping and
exchangers in the hydrogen system
may help to lower the pressure
drop. In the case of no modifications, this additional pressure drop
has to be compensated by additional discharge pressure from the
cracked gas compressor. This is not
always possible due to potential
limitations in cracked gas compressors designed for operating with
heavier cracked gas.
Lower methane and C3+ production may reduce the demethaniser
warmer level feeds, but can add a
burden to colder level feeds. If
hydrogen is being recovered in the
original liquids cracking scheme,

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technip s&w.indd 6

Figure 6 Ethylene unit

Re-compressor

Credit:Technip

Expander

Figure 7 Simplified sketch of expander/recompressor

with no slip stream to the expander,

there will be an increase in the
hydrogen stream flow to the hydrogen recovery core exchanger, with
potential hydraulic and surface area
limitations. There will also be
reduced flow to the expander from
the demethaniser overhead due to a
lower methane content in the
cracked gas. A reduced flow to the
expander will lower the expander
efficiency. The combined effect of
lower efficiency and a reduced flow
is a reduction in refrigeration available to the chilling train from the
residue gas expander. The expander
feed system can potentially be
modified to add load and recover
more refrigeration (see Figure 7).
Expander internals or the expander
itself may need to be replaced to
make it suitable for the new set of
operating flow rate and composition. Additional expander stages
are sometimes needed to process
the lighter molecular weight gas.
Ethylene losses from the demethaniser overhead will also increase
due to the lower methane-to-

hydrogen ratio. Modifications can

be made to the overhead system to
reduce ethylene losses. These modifications should be flexible enough
to allow reverting back to naphtha
or gas oil cracking, if required.
Another important consideration
is the percentage of hydrogen in the
residue gas. An ethane cracker
results in lower molecular weight
residue gas due to the increase in
hydrogen content. Since residue gas
is used as a regeneration gas for
dryers, there is the potential for an
increased pressure drop in the
regeneration gas system. It is,
however, possible to reduce the
regeneration gas flow and therefore
reduce the pressure drop due to the
improved specific heat of lighter
regeneration gas.

Ethylene splitter, C2 hydrogenation

and deethaniser systems

Shifting from naphtha or gas

oil cracking to majority ethane
cracking results in a higher ethane
per cent to ethylene splitter feed,
that is a lower purity feed to the

PTQ Q1 2013 39

11/12/12 16:49:42

level. Ethane feed, however, may

need to be dried before flashing to
a lower pressure and temperature
to avoid the formation of hydrates.
Additional investment in dryers
and regeneration systems may
need to be considered. Higher
duties on the ethylene splitter and
ethylene refrigeration condensers
can be balanced by these additional
credits during periods of high
ethane cracking. The propylene
refrigeration compressor must be
checked on a case-by-case basis
before shifting to higher ethane
cracking.

Conclusion
Figure 8 Grassroots ethylene plant

ethylene splitter. This will require a

higher reflux rate for the same
production capacity. If additional
capacity is another objective, the
required tower internal traffic will
be further increased. The existing
ethylene tower trays would need to
be checked for the extra capacity.
Possible solutions to overcome limitations in tray hydraulics are the
replacement of existing trays with
high-capacity trays, or the addition
of another tower in series. The
deethaniser and C2 hydrogenation
reactor systems also need to be
evaluated for hydraulic constraints
and any possible negative impact
due to the potential higher flow
rates.

Ethylene and propylene refrigeration

compressors
Depending on composition, available credits and mass flow rate, a
higher ethylene refrigeration duty
may be required for the chilling
train during maximum ethane cracking. An ethylene refrigeration
compressor revamp might be
required in this case. Scope of the
revamp can be extensive if the objective is to both increase plant capacity
and add feed flexibility. Overall, the
ethylene refrigeration compressor
may need a higher hydraulic capacity and horsepower to enable
increased ethane cracking.
Propylene refrigeration load will
increase with two major users
during maximum ethane cracking.
First, as was explained above, the

40 PTQ Q1 2013

technip s&w.indd 7

ethylene splitter will require a

comparatively higher reflux rate for
majority
ethane
cracking
as
compared to naphtha or gas oil
cracking. For non-heat pumped
systems, a higher reflux rate will
require a higher duty on the ethylene splitter condenser, which is the
largest user of the coldest propylene refrigerant. For low-pressure
heat pump systems integrated with
the ethylene compressor, there will
be an increased load on the heat
pumped
ethylene
compressor.
Second, the ethylene refrigeration
condenser duty will increase due to
a higher demand for ethylene
refrigeration. The ethylene refrigeration condenser is normally the
second largest user of the coldest
propylene refrigerant.
On the positive side, there will
be two important refrigeration
credits to propylene refrigeration
with increased ethane cracking.
These credits can be used to reduce
the load on the propylene refrigeration compressor. The first credit
is the increased recycle ethane
production from ~5 wt% to
~35 wt%. Recycle ethane can
potentially be used for the coldest
level refrigeration credit. A higher
recycle ethane refrigeration credit
can help to lower significantly the
propylene refrigeration compressor
horsepower. An additional credit
is the fresh liquid ethane feed,
which can be flashed to furnace
feed pressure to achieve additional
refrigeration credit at the coldest

While current economics for energy

and feedstock supply favour ethane
feed cracking, plant owners must
rigorously examine operational and
capacity constraints before transitioning to maximum ethane feeds.
Detailed feasibility studies need to
be undertaken to evaluate the
impact of maximising ethane cracking on plants originally designed
for naphtha or gas oil cracking. A
well-planned feasibility study can
help improve production margins.
Each ethylene plant is unique and
needs dedicated investigation for
suitability in feedstock transition.

References
1 American Chemistry Council, Shale Gas
and New Petrochemicals Investment: Benefits
for the Economy, Jobs, and US Manufacturing,
March 2011.
2 International Energy Agency, World Energy
Outlook 2011.
3 Bernard A, Pickett T M, Manek B M, Frye D K,
Flux oil stream import to quench system risk
and impacts, paper number 33e, AIChE 2011
Spring National Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 14
March 2011.

Muhammad Imran is a Lead Process Engineer

for Technip Stone & Webster Process
Technology, Houston, Texas. He has 16 years
of experience with petrochemical, refinery and
gas processing projects, with the past seven
years focused on ethylene. He holds a bachelors
degree in chemical engineering from University
of Engineering and Technology Lahore and
a masters in chemical engineering from the
University of Houston.

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:13:00

Process Insight:
Physical solvents such as DEPG, NMP, Methanol, and Propylene Carbonate
are often used to treat sour gas. These physical solvents differ from chemical
solvents such as ethanolamines and hot potassium carbonate in a number of
ways. The regeneration of chemical solvents is achieved by the application of
heat whereas physical solvents can often be stripped of impurities by simply
reducing the pressure. Physical solvents tend to be favored over chemical
solvents when the concentration of acid gases or other impurities is very high
and the operating pressure is high. Unlike chemical solvents, physical solvents
are non-corrosive, requiring only carbon steel construction. A physical solvents
FDSDFLW\ IRU DEVRUELQJ DFLG JDVHV LQFUHDVHV VLJQLFDQWO\ DV WKH WHPSHUDWXUH
decreases, resulting in reduced circulation rate and associated operating costs.

Typical Physical Solvent Process

Comparing Physical
Solvents for Acid Gas
Removal

PC (Propylene Carbonate)

The Fluor Solvent process uses JEFFSOL PC and is by Fluor

Daniel, Inc. The light hydrocarbons in natural gas and hydrogen in synthesis
gas are less soluble in PC than in the other solvents. PC cannot be used for
selective H2S treating because it is unstable at the high temperature required
to completely strip H2S from the rich solvent. The FLUOR Solvent process is
generally limited to treating feed gases containing less than 20 ppmv; however,
LPSURYHGVWULSSLQJZLWKPHGLXPSUHVVXUHDVKJDVLQDYDFXXPVWULSSHUDOORZV
treatment to 4 ppmv for gases containing up to 200 ppmv H2S. The operating
temperature for PC is limited to a minimum of 0F (-18C) and a maximum of
149F (65C).

Gas Solubilities in Physical Solvents

All of these physical solvents are more selective for acid gas than
for the main constituent of the gas. Relative solubilities of some selected gases
in solvents relative to carbon dioxide are presented in the following table.
The solubility of hydrocarbons in physical solvents increases with
the molecular weight of the hydrocarbon. Since heavy hydrocarbons tend
to accumulate in the solvent, physical solvent processes are generally not
economical for the treatment of hydrocarbon streams that contain a substantial
amount of pentane-plus unless a stripping column with a reboiler is used.

DEPG
at 25C

PC
at 25C

NMP
at 25C

MeOH
at
-25C

H2

0.013

0.0078

0.0064

0.0054

Methane

0.066

0.038

0.072

0.051

Ethane

0.42

0.17

0.38

0.42

Gas Component

DEPG (Dimethyl Ether of Polyethylene Glycol)

DEPG is a mixture of dimethyl ethers of polyethylene glycol.

Solvents containing DEPG are marketed by several companies including
Coastal Chemical Company (as Coastal AGR), Dow (Selexol), and UOP
(Selexol). DEPG can be used for selective H26UHPRYDODQGFDQEHFRQJXUHG
to yield both a rich H2S feed to the Claus unit as well as bulk CO2 removal.
DEPG is suitable for operation at temperatures up to 347F (175C). The
minimum operating temperature is usually 0F (-18C).

MeOH (Methanol)

The most common Methanol processes for acid gas removal are
the Rectisol process (by Lurgi AG) and Ifpexol process (by Prosernat). The
PDLQ DSSOLFDWLRQ IRU WKH 5HFWLVRO SURFHVV LV SXULFDWLRQ RI V\QWKHVLV JDVHV
GHULYHG IURP WKH JDVLFDWLRQ RI KHDY\ RLO DQG FRDO UDWKHU WKDQ QDWXUDO JDV
treating applications. The two-stage Ifpexol process can be used for natural gas
applications. Methanol has a relatively high vapor pressure at normal process
conditions, so deep refrigeration or special recovery methods are required to
prevent high solvent losses. The process usually operates between -40F and
-80F (-40C and -62C).

NMP (N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone)

The Purisol Process uses NMP and is marketed by Lurgi AG.

7KH RZ VFKHPHV XVHG IRU WKLV VROYHQW DUH VLPLODU WR WKRVH IRU '(3* 7KH
process can be operated either at ambient temperature or with refrigeration
down to about 5F (-15C). The Purisol process is particularly well suited to the
SXULFDWLRQRIKLJKSUHVVXUHKLJK&22 synthesis gas for gas turbine integrated
JDVLFDWLRQFRPELQHGF\FOH,*&&V\VWHPVEHFDXVHRIWKHKLJKVHOHFWLYLW\IRU
H2S.

CO2

1.0

1.0

1.0

1.0

Propane

1.01

0.51

1.07

2.35

n-Butane

2.37

1.75

3.48

COS

2.30

1.88

2.72

3.92

H2S

8.82

3.29

10.2

7.06

n-Hexane

11.0

13.5

42.7

Methyl Mercaptan

22.4

27.2

34.0

Choosing the Best Alternative

A detailed analysis must be performed to determine the most economical

choice of solvent based on the product requirements. Feed gas composition, minor
components present, and limitations of the individual physical solvent processes are
all important factors in the selection process. Engineers can easily investigate the
DYDLODEOHDOWHUQDWLYHVXVLQJDYHULHGSURFHVVVLPXODWRUVXFKDV3UR0D[ which has
EHHQYHULHGZLWKSODQWRSHUDWLQJGDWD
For additional information about this topic, view the technical
article A Comparison of Physical Solvents for Acid Gas Removal at
http://www.bre.com/tabid/147/Default.aspx. For more information about ProMax,
contact Bryan Research & Engineering or visit www.bre.com.

WDZ/
^K'Z/
h^

bre.indd 1

7/3/12 10:45:54

refinement redefined

6016OJnFYSFTJEVFVQHSBEJOHUFDIOPMPHZZJFMETNPSF
DMFBOGVFM UVSOJOHiCPUUPNPGUIFCBSSFMwJOUPiUPQPGUIFMJOFw
(FUUIFNPTUGSPNFWFSZCBSSFM5IF6016OJnFY1SPDFTTDBOEPVCMFUIFEJFTFMZJFME
PGPUIFSSFTJEVFVQHSBEJOHUFDIOPMPHJFT UVSOJOHUIFiCPUUPNPGUIFCBSSFMwJOUPNPSF
CMBDLPOZPVSCPUUPNMJOF5IF6OJnFY1SPDFTTJTBIJHIDPOWFSTJPO DPNNFSDJBMMZ
QSPWFOUFDIOPMPHZUIBUQSPDFTTFTMPXRVBMJUZSFTJEVFTUSFBNTMJLFWBDVVNSFTJEVFJOUP
IJHIRVBMJUZEJTUJMMBUFQSPEVDUTMFBEJOHUPSFmOFSZNBSHJOJODSFBTFTPGVQUP
4JNQMZQVU XJUIUIF6OJnFY1SPDFTTGSPN601 ZPVMMNBYJNJ[FQSPEVDUJPOBOEQSPmUT
GSPNFWFSZCBSSFM

For more information, visit www.uop.com/uniflex.

2012 Honeywell International, Inc. All rights reserved.

SPM-UOP-30 Uniflex Ad_Comp_v6.indd 1

uop.indd 1

3/8/12 2:35 PM
9/3/12 12:31:44

Tracking performance degradation in a

debutaniser column
A project applying statistical and data mining techniques to historical operating
data identied the root causes of a debutanisers poor performance
ALI ABDULAL, VINOD RAMASESHAN and STANLEY GUSTAS III Saudi Aramco
HORIA ORENSTEIN, MOHAMMAD KURDI and ANDREY GASKOV SAS Middle East

omplex,
capital-intensive
industries such as rening and
petrochemicals face a pressing
demand to minimise unplanned
downtime and achieve higher asset
uptime and improved Health Safety
& Environment (HSE) targets. To
improve the reliability and availability of facilities and assets, Saudi
Aramco has been investigating the
application of SAS Predictive
Analytics and Data Mining in operations and maintenance. In this
regard, a pilot project was conducted
on the ability to deliver leading indicators to the problem of performance
degradation in the Ras Tanura renerys hydrocracking unit debutaniser
column. This article deals with this

pilot project; understanding of the

use of a business analytical tool,
resulting in successfully achieving
the goals that deliver prediction of
performance degradation; the agging of leading indicators; and the
development of a dashboard for
operating staff, with recommendations for revision to the multivariable
control system (MVC) system to
alleviate the problem.

Hydrocracking unit

Saudi Aramcos Ras Tanura renery operates a 44 000 b/d

Unicracking process unit (hydrocracking unit) designed by UOP and
commissioned in 1999. This unit is
a two-stage maximum conversion

unit (>97%), where the primary

feed vacuum gas oil (SC-7 and SC8) is treated and cracked over three
reactors (C-100 and C-101 in the
rst stage, and C-200 in the second
stage) to naphtha and distillate
products.
Since the unit was originally
conceived to operate in both maximum distillate and naphtha mode,
the fractionation section is what in
hydrocracking parlance is termed a
debutaniser rst fraction scheme.
The reactor efuent rst comes to
the debutaniser, where lighter ends
are removed before being routed to
the main fractionation section.
Consequently, the debutaniser acts
both as a conventional stabiliser
Fractionation section
E-315

E-324

Second stage cooler

Recycle compressor

First stage cooler

Reaction section

J80-F-310
J80-D-130

J80-G-311
Debutaniser

Fractionator

J80-F-320

Feed/effluent
exchangers
VGO feed

Figure 1 Ras Tanura hydrocracking unit

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aramco.indd 1

PTQ Q1 2013 43

10/12/12 13:18:43

SAS Predictive Asset Maintenance modules used

Analysis description
H2S slippage event and root causes sequence analysis

SAS module used

SAS Enterprise Guide
SAS Enterprise Miner
Visual discovery analysis for 24 H2S indirect indicators
SAS/BASE
SAS/CONNECT
SAS JMP
Correlation and regression analysis for major operation parameters
SAS/JMP
SAS/ETS
Non-linear regression analysis for cold-hot feed composition
SAS/ETS
Neural network modelling for rst-stage efuent density
SAS/BASE
SAS JMP
Visual discovery analysis for reux loss root causes
SAS/BASE
SAS JMP

Table 1

and as a hydrogen sulphide (H2S)

rejection column. To act as a H2S
rejection system, it is imperative
that the vapour-to-liquid ratio at
the bottom of this column is high
(>0.5 on mole basis). If it is lower,
H2S rejection is poor, leading to
corrosion in the downstream fractionation column and pressure drop
in the second-stage reactor (C-200)
on account of particulate carry-over
with the recycled oil, over and
above possible leaks in the piping
on account of high temperature and
wet H2S corrosion.
Subsequently, since the feed to
the debutaniser essentially comes
from the reaction section, the
vapour-to-liquid ratio is strongly
inuenced by the product slate. Ras
Tanuras hydrocracking unit, since
start-up, has predominantly operated in distillate mode (>95% of the
time) and with catalyst systems
changed to low-zeolite catalyst in
the rst stage and amorphous catalysts in the second (as opposed to

high-zeolite catalyst in the past).

The product slate has predominantly been heavier (a atter true
boiling point, TBP, curve), leading
to a higher than design requirement
in the reboiler duty (based on a
preferential once-through reboiler
[red heater] design), with no
improvement in the vaporisation
rate, leading to H2S slippage and
associated corrosion and reliability
problems. To mitigate this issue, a
multivariable controller (MVC)based control system for the
second-stage conversion levels was
developed by changing the C-200
inlet temperature and therefore the
weighted average bed temperature
(WABT). This was done because the
distillate selectivity per pass conversion on the second stage is lower
when compared to the rst stage
for the same catalyst (the effect of
ammonia comes into the picture).
Consequently, the light end make
would increase and thereby maintain the vapour-to-liquid ratio in

Reflux from G-310A/B flow

80

CASE 10

70
60
50
40
30
20

10

20/4/2010

Figure 2 Case 18, reux ow rate vs time

44 PTQ Q1 2013

aramco.indd 2

22/4/2010

24/4/2010

the debutaniser. However, this

procedure leads to a debit in distillate make (the product of choice for
the renery).
A pilot project with SAS Institute,
using predictive analytics and data
mining techniques, was applied to
this problem, to ascertain if other
leading indicators could be tracked
to alleviate the situation and maintain the distillate make from the
unit. While the renery will conduct
other engineering modications to
the unit in the future, data mining
was considered to be a good
concept to deal with the current
situation, alleviate the problem, if
possible, and therefore optimise
any additional engineering solution.
Figure 1 shows a high-level overview of the hydrocracking unit in
question.

Technique and analytic procedure

The objectives of the project, called

the
Predictive
Performance
Degradation (PPD) project, can be
summarised as follows:
Perform data mining techniques
to understand inter-dependencies
among different debutaniser operational parameters that include:
Hot and cold feed temperatures, ows and compositions
Internal reux
Tray
23 temperature: the
seventh tray from the top in the
rectication section
Reboiler
duty and bottom
temperatures
Identify the cause and effect relationships among these operating
parameters and the following debutaniser performance-related issues:
Debutaniser instability
Light
hydrocarbon slippage
and
Reid
vapour
pressure
deviations
H S
slippage and corrosion
2
problems at the bottom of the debutaniser and the fractionator column
Proactively identify the critical
event and root causes that contribute the most to the above
performance issues
Generate proactive dashboards,
reports and other user interface
screens that provide information
about events, symptoms, causes
and effects of the performance
degradation of the debutaniser,

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www.eptq.com

aramco.indd 3

D-140 cold flash drum

liquid flow

28

D-120 bottoms to C-130 flow

CASE 18

27
26
25
24
23
22

21

20/4/2010

22/4/2010

59

24/4/2010

CASE 18

58
57
56
55
54
53

52

20/4/2010

22/4/2010

24/4/2010

C-310 tray temperature, C

Figure 3 Case 18, cold and hot feed rates

Reboiler return to C-310

pressure difference

thereby helping engineers and

operators to react in time and
minimise
the
debutanisers
instability.
The performed predictive analysis
is based on historical process information data. It applies statistical
and data mining techniques to this
data to nd the factors and root
causes that affect the debutanisers
performance. Analytical capability
is the highlighted outcome of the
project. It has been determined that
there is a huge potential in benets
from the exploitation of historical
data. It has also been determined
that exploitation of such data in a
similar way has not been fully
applied in the past. Therefore, this
project was designed to utilise the
power of analytics to unleash the
potential of such historical data and
to make operations more stable and
protable.
Although the performance of the
debutaniser with regard to H2S slippage and its stability has shown
signicant improvement after the
MVC systems implementation, the
PPD project has shown that there is
still room for further improvements.
To facilitate the analysis, apart
from mechanical data, process and
control data were also analysed.
More than 300 tags for three years
data were processed (data taken
from before the implementation of
the MVC and also after), which
resulted in over 750 million records
being analysed and correlated to
nd the root cause of the debutaniser
columns
performance
degradation. The required modules
and components from the analytical
bundle SAS Predictive Asset
Maintenance were used. Table 1
lists the tools used.
Since H2S slippage from the debutaniser column bottom is primarily
due to slumping of column operations, the analysis was started with
this in focus; however, measurement of H2S, in particular transient
high values, in the laboratory and
in the oil stream proved to be a
great challenge. This resulted in
unreliable deterministic analysis of
H2S. To overcome this obstacle, 24
H2S slippage indirect indicators
were considered, based on operations and engineering opinion along

480

CASE 18

460
440
420
400
380

360

20/4/2010

22/4/2010

3.4

24/4/2010

CASE 18

3.0
2.6
2.2
1.8
1.4

1.0

20/4/2010

22/4/2010

24/4/2010

Figure 4 Case 18 Tray 4 temperature and eccentric orice pressure drop

PTQ Q1 2013 45

10/12/12 13:19:04

Density average

0.83

CASE 18

0.82

0.81

20
0: 10
00

4/
/0

4/
2
09 010
:0
0

/0

90

29

23

26

/0

4/
2
17 010
:0
0

20
0: 10
00

4/
/0

21

17

/0

4/
2
08 010
:0
0

0.80

CASE 18

Reflux from G-310A/B flow

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

0: 10
00

20
4/
/0

29

4/
2
09 010
:0
0

/0

26

4/
2
17 010
:0
0

23

/0

0: 10
00

20
4/
/0

21

17

/0

4/
2
08 010
:0
0

Figure 5 Case 18, density and reux ow rates

with their hypotheses. Using SAS

Institute tools for statistical analysis
and data mining techniques, all of
these indicators and hypotheses
were carefully examined. The
discovery at this stage was that the
most signicant problem is loss of
reux ow in the debutaniser.
During reux losses following
signicant H2S slippage, leading
indicators were affected; namely, a
reduction in tray 23s temperature;
surges in the hot feed component
rate, with a corresponding dip in
the cold feed component rate;
surges in tray 4s (four trays above
the reboiler return line) temperature; a reduction in reboiler duty;
and a drop in the reboiler return
eccentric orice pressure drop,
along with a reduction in the
condenser outlet temperature.
Consequently, 22 cases of signicant reux loss during a three-year

46 PTQ Q1 2013

aramco.indd 4

period
from
2008-2010
were
analysed. Eleven of these were not
considered because of extremely
unstable debutaniser column operation. The other 11 cases of
signicant reux loss during the
period 2009-2010 were analysed in
greater detail.

High reboiler duty

but low vaporisation
and hence a sudden
reux drop
Based on the above, a reux problem inuence map was developed,
which basically analyses the ndings and shows inter-dependencies
between the various parameters:
control variables around the

debutaniser column; manipulated

variables and process disturbances
based on changes to feed quality;
and/or other disturbances to the
system.
Based on the inuence map,
multiple cases were analysed.
Figure 2 shows the trend of reux
ow changes for Case 18.
It is evident that initially the
reux rate is stable and then drops,
steadies itself, nally plunging to
15 000 b/d within 24 hours. When
this time period was superimposed
with changes in the hot and cold
feed rate from the hot and cold
ash drums to the debutaniser
column (the reactor efuents), it is
evident that the hot feed rate
increases when the cold rate correspondingly goes down (see Figure
3). The colder feed is essential
liquid ashed from the hot separator/ash drum and, as such,
constitutes the lighter components
of the reactor efuent.
The reboiler duty is constant, but
jumps to a higher value as reux
suddenly drops. (The reboiler duty
is maintained constant, as the outlet
temperature is close to the equipments maximum temperature)
There is a surge in tray 4s temperature and, despite the increase in
reboiler outlet temperature, the net
vaporisation has decreased on
account of a at TBP curve for
the reactor efuent. Figure 4 shows
the complete scenario.
It is important to note that the
reboiler outlet temperature is high,
but boil-up rates are low. This can
only happen if the debutaniser
bottoms liquid has a high density,
indicating a heavier hydrocarbon
composition.
To prove this hypothesis, the
liquid density at the inlet of the
reboiler
(F-310)
is
required.
Unfortunately,
there
are
no
sampling points in this area to
develop the corresponding distillation curve. Therefore, inferential
density was calculated, taking into
account the fractionators product
ow rates. The idea behind this
estimation is as follows. The liquid
composition coming into the F-310
reboiler is the same as the liquid
composition owing into the main
fractionation column. Nearly all

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 17:05:45

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Johnson Screens for

Down Flow Processes
Johnson
Screens
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internals for media retention.
Among these innovative products is a line of internals
used in down flow processes to retain the often-costly
media and to provide a collection area for the process
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Because of their strength,
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www.eptq.com

aramco.indd 5

860

850
2

840

26

/8

/2

01

0
01

0
/8

/2

01
/2

19

12

/8

20

10

0
5/

8/

01

0
/2
29

/7

/2

01

0
/7
22

/2

01

10

/7

20

15

7/
8/

20
7/
1/

820
69
68
67
66
65
64
63
10

C-100

830

Figure 6 Fluctuation in density and changes in total temperature rise for C-100

The vacuum column operating

parameters, along with ambient
conditions and their inuence on
the quality and quantity of LVGO
and HVGO (SC-7 and SC-8), which
are the components of fresh feed to
the hydrocracking unit
The inuence of the feed on
C-100, C-101 temperature proles,
and the quality and quantity of
efuent
The inuence of the recycle oil
feed on C-200 temperature proles,
and the quality and quantity of
reactor efuent
The reactor efuents inuence on
debutaniser operating variables and
their consequent effect.
Feed quality, along with temperature rises in the individual beds of
C-100, C-101 and C-200, were all
plotted, as was the total tempera

860
2

840
820
20

1
720

19

718

18

716

17
16

712
710

1/
7/
20
10
8/
7/
20
10
15
/7
/2
01
0
22
/7
/2
01
0
29
/7
/2
01
0
5/
8/
20
10
12
/8
/2
01
0
19
/8
/2
01
0
26
/8
/2
01
0

15

714
C-101 bed tray 1
C-101 inlet

C-101 inlet

830

ture rise of the treating and cracking

catalyst beds. Indicators such as the
effect of ambient temperature on
vacuum column pressure, and
therefore its effect on the feed quality to the hydrocracking unit, was
also investigated. It became evident
that as the feed to the hydrocracking unit becomes heavier (and
pressure in the vacuum column
uctuates on account of uctuations
in ambient temperature), the total
temperature rise over the rst reactor changes.
An analysis of the temperature
prole of C-100 and C-101 Bed 1
was conducted over a two-month
period. The 50% distillation point
was taken as a measure of density
of the combined feed. It was
observed that as the density rose,
the overall total temperature rise in

850

C-101 bed tray 1

temperature rise

hydrocarbons owing into the fractionation column are separated into

light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosene, diesel and fractionator
bottoms (consisting of drag oil and
feed to the second stage). By measuring the densities for these
streams, one can calculate the average fractionator products density.
While this formula is only an
approximation (as it does not take
into account volume changes at
different temperature and other
properties), it is considered sufcient to ascertain trends and
abnormalities during normal operations. The laboratory measures
distillation curves; API gravities for
all of these streams, in most cases,
are available. A plot of the distributions of streams densities was then
developed, based on the following:
Calculated densities for streams
for a near-three-year period
Removed observations that are
connected with transient intervals.
Based on the data distribution,
the most probable densities (median
value) for all ve streams were
considered and the inferential
density was calculated.
Figure 5 shows density behaviour
during the corresponding reux
loss case. The red arrows indicate
the beginning of the reux loss
problem. The intervals that are
shaded show unexpected and undesirable jumps in density.
In Figure 5, the jump in density
shows the sudden drop in reux
rate. In the second instance, the
reux drop is not pronounced on
account of operator intervention.
It is evident that density change
has a big impact on reux drop.
However, for the sake of argument, even if a density measurement
was provided to alert the operator,
the value and hence the trend would
still be a lagging indicator. It is
evident that density change occurs
on account of changes to the cold
and hot incoming liquid stream rates
from the reactor and therefore originates in the reaction section.
Therefore, to obtain a leading
indicator, a quality inuence map
was developed for the reactor/
debutaniser along with the reactor
feed. The map developed the relationship between:

Figure 7 Fluctuation in density and changes in C-101 Bed 1s inlet temperature and
temperature rise

PTQ Q1 2013 49

10/12/12 13:19:24



C-1 0 0
pe r f or mance




against feed distillation and C100/C-101 Bed 1 performance. It

was evident that a loss in reux
usually followed a loss in temperature rise in C-101 Bed 1. Further,
growth in inferential density and a
loss in temperature rise over the
rst-stage C-100 and C-101 Bed 1
temperature occur well in advance
of the reux collapse. Figure 8
shows a graphical view of this for
a given case.

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Figure 8 C-101 Bed 1 performance and inferential density growth

C-100 decreased. Various periods

(shown as points 1-4 in Figure 6)
follow the trend of drop in total
temperature rise vs change in
density, whenever operator interference
with
change
in
inlet
temperature is not superimposed.
Figures 6 and 7 show the uctuation of the total temperature rise at
C-100 and C-101 Bed 1. It was also
observed, and interesting to note,
that the performances of C-101 Bed
2 and C-101 Bed 3 follow opposite
directions when inlet temperatures
to these beds were maintained at
nearly constant levels (in fact, there
was hardly any change in Bed 2
delta Ts).
So, having established the fact
that feed changes affect the rststage performance, the reactor
efuent quality (composition) was
then plotted against the same
period of time, as this is essentially
the feed to the debutaniser. Since
distillation and density measure-

50 PTQ Q1 2013

aramco.indd 6

ments for reactor efuent are not

available for the same period of
time
(high-pressure
product
sampling is restricted for safety

The analysis reveals

that degradation
in the performance
of the debutaniser
is affected by
debutaniser feed
composition
reasons), inferential density over
the period and the amount of 640F
minus material (reboiler return
temperature is limited to 640F) in
the efuent (based on available
distillation data) were plotted

Inferences and recommendations

The analysis reveals that degradation in the performance of the

debutaniser is affected by debutaniser feed composition. This scenario
takes place when C-100 and C-101
Bed 1 (hydrocracker pretreat)
performance deteriorates. The main
reason for deterioration of these
reactors performance during stable
operation is heavy feed, more
specically the feed from the
vacuum
distillation
column.
Deterioration in the performance of
C-101 Bed 1 is usually more severe
than deterioration in the performance of C-100. Due to an undersized
C-101 inlet quench valve, the MVC
system and the operators have very
limited control over the performance of C-101 Bed 1.
The analysis also revealed that
the VDU column pressure signicantly impacts the hydrocracker
feed quality and causes day/night
performance
uctuations.
The
temperature rise in C-101 Bed 1 is
a leading indicator and can be
used as a control in the MVC to
achieve
stable
debutaniser
operations.
A dashboard and reporting
system has been proposed and is
being developed, which will allow
monitoring and identication of the
reactors performance deterioration
at the early stages, while agging
the factors and root causes affecting
performance
and
destabilising
operations.
Additional recommendations, both
from an engineering and operational
point of view, have also been developed, such as ensuring sufcient H2
availability (valve sizing) at the inlet
of C-101, which will help stabilise
the C-101 Bed 1 inlet temperature
and increase control. Prioritisation

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 17:02:26

between C-100 and C-101 Bed 1 total

temperature rises and WABT
controls to maintain constant
performance of the debutaniser and
control the C-100 Bed 3 outlet
temperature to prevent a low inlet
temperature into the C-101 Bed 1
(once sufcient H2 is available at C101 top bed) have also been
recommended and are being
implemented.
On the whole, this pilot project
has shown that if the data set to be
analysed is very large, data mining
techniques, along with statistical
and
mathematical
methods,
provide quantitative results, which
can be translated into a meaningful
control strategy when coupled
with experience and empiricalbased qualitative logic. The project
has also shown the capability to
detect early development of
performance degradation, utilising
data mining techniques and actual
plant history, while employing a
systematic and largely automated
methodology.

Unicracking is a trademark of UOP, a Honeywell

company.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge all
members of Saudi Aramco Central Engineering
group, along with the management for their
uninching support during this pilot project
exercise.
Ali H Abdulal is an Engineering Consultant
with Saudi Aramco Process & Control Systems
Department. He has over 24 years experience
commissioning, operating, troubleshooting
and optimising renery and gas plant units
within Saudi Aramco. He holds a BSc degree in
chemical engineering from Tri State University
and has one patent under his name.
Vinod Ramaseshan is a Process Engineer with
Saudi Aramco Process & Control Systems
Department, with over 19 years experience
commissioning, operating, troubleshooting
and optimising new/revamped hydrocracking
and hydrotreating units in the EMEA and India
region. He holds a masters degree in chemical
engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai and is a Chartered
Engineer in the UK.
Stanley Gustas III is an Operations Engineer
at Saudi Aramco Ras Tanura renerys

Engineering Department. He has over 22

years experience designing, commissioning,
operating, troubleshooting and optimising
new/revamped
hydrocracking
and
hydrotreating units worldwide. He holds a
bachelors degree in chemical engineering
from Rice University, Houston, Texas, and is a
Registered Professional Engineer in Texas.
Horio Orenstein is the Director of Advisory
in the Global Oil & Gas Business Unit of
SAS Institute. His 20 years experience in the
process industry includes the development,
standardisation and implementation of
business concepts and solutions in renery
operations optimisation, integrated asset
management, integrated supply chain
optimisation, integrated planning, facility
integrity and reliability.
Mohammad Kurdi is an Advisor with the Oil
& Gas Business Unit of SAS Institute. With 10
years experience in analytical intelligence,
he holds a BSc in electrical engineering from
Jordan University of Science & Technology.
Andrey Gaskov is a Statistical Analyst
with SAS Middle East FZ-LLC. With over
10 years experience providing consulting
services, analytics and data mining for oil
and gas industry companies, upstream and
downstream, he holds a masters degree in
information technologies from Novosibirsk
State University, Russia.

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www.eptq.com

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PTQ Q1 2013 51

10/12/12 13:19:45

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Operator training simulator for a

multi-product fuels pipeline
An operator training simulator for a fuel products pipeline system was developed
and delivered before the pipeline was completed to train personnel in operations
SANTOSH ALLADWAR, CORDELL CHAPMAN, BILLY MAYO, SURAJIT DASGUPTA and JAVIER VAZQUEZ-ESPARRAGOZA KBR
DANIEL VOGT Krohne Oil and Gas
KEONE JACKMAN Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited

s part of a larger project to

design and build a new
multi-product fuels pipeline
system for Trinidad and Tobago, an
innovative operator training simulator (OTS) was developed that
allows highly realistic training of
the pipeline operators in all phases
of operations prior to actual startup
of the pipeline and for continuous
training after startup. The pipeline,
owned by a consortium of
Trinidadian entities, including the
Government of Trinidad and
Tobago, the National Gas Company
of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), the
Trinidad and Tobago National
Petroleum Marketing Company
(TTNPMC)
and
Petroleum
Company of Trinidad and Tobago
(Petrotrin), is designed to deliver
up to 36 000 b/d of multiple fuel
products (gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels) at peak by a
state-of-the-art automated pipeline
system roughly 47 km in length
from the islands Petrotrin West
refinery to a new distribution terminal in Caroni County in the central
part of Trinidad. Also included in
the distribution system is a new
11 km pipeline to deliver aviation
fuel from the Caroni terminal to
Trinidads Piarco Airport (see
Figure 1).
The pipeline system is being
built to ensure secure and on-time
delivery of fuel products to key
points on the island, which otherwise relies on delivery by trucks.
To ensure the quickest delivery
times, the pipeline also employs a
new pigless delivery system that
loads one liquid product immediately behind another in a
continuous, seamless fashion. The

www.eptq.com

kbr.indd 1

proper operation of the pipeline in

this pigless mode is ensured by a
leak detection system (LDS) and
batch management system (BMS)
from Krohne Oil and Gas, a

The pipeline system is

being built to ensure
secure and on-time
delivery of fuel
products to key points
on the island, which
otherwise relies on
delivery by trucks
company specialising in metering
skid solutions and computational
pipeline monitoring (CPM) pipeline leak detection. The LDS
and BMS were integrated into the

OTS, which would be used in

tandem with the pipeline control
system (PCS) and the terminal
automation system (TAS) to plan,
schedule
and
track
product
batches, keep track of the feed and
product tanks, as well as provide
alarms and/or advice to operators
on abnormal conditions, and
continuously detect for potential
pipeline leaks. As some of
these systems are new and to
some extent custom built for this
project, it was agreed and planned
in advance to have an OTS to
aid in the rapid familiarisation
and
training
of
operations
personnel.

Process overview

The batch of refined products from

Petrotrin West Refinery storage
tanks consisting of unleaded
RON92 gasoline, unleaded RON95
gasoline, diesel and Jet A-1 fuel
will be metered and transferred by
pipeline pump using individual

Piarco Airport

Figure 1 Pipeline path on Trinidad and Tobago map

PTQ Q1 2013 53

12/12/12 11:09:51

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Dedicated Engineering Server

hosting both the Pipeline &
Terminal SCADA databases

All hardware connected

through Ethernet switch

Ethernet Switch (LAN)

Printer

Engineering and App Station

BMS Simulation connection to OTS

through OPC link

(I-Station)
Simulation PC & Instructor
Station
Dynamic model of Tanks and pipeline
Simulates all physical equipment and
instruments
Includes malfunctions & training
scenarios
Session initialization control logic &
files

Internet Gateway
Switch

Operator Trainee Console

Leak Detection and
Batch Tracking Console
(BMS/LDS)

Displays all controls graphics

and operator displays

Figure 2 Architecture of the operator training simulator

booster pumps for each product.

The preliminary batch sequence
would be as follows:
Jet A-1 Diesel RON 92 RON 95
RON 92 Jet A-1

This batch sequence will be transferred to the Caroni facility, the

distribution centre, using a pipeline
pump via an 8in multi-fuels pipeline. Before transferring to the
Caroni facilitys storage tanks, all
the fuels will be metered at a metering skid entering the pipeline. The
meter will be used to control the
mainline pumps, while the tank
gauging systems will be used for
custody transfer. The general operation is designed to run with no
pigs; however, an additional pig
launcher was built to launch an
intelligent/batch pig in cases when
this operation was needed.
As soon as a batch arrives at the
Caroni facility, it will be diverted to
the appropriate destination tank by
the operator based on the interface
detection. For batch interface detection, density is the primary
parameter used. Two densitometers
are used to detect the interface of
the multi-fuels. The rst interface
detector is installed 4.4 km from the
Caroni facility to alert the operator

www.eptq.com

kbr.indd 2

about the product coming in the

pipeline. The operator may use a
second interface detector, located at
the Caroni centre, to decide the
correct time to switch valves to
transfer the product into an appropriate tank.
The liquid fuels interface is one
of the most important parameters
to measure at the Caroni facility in
order to transfer the product into
an appropriate tank. When the
multi-fuels are transferred using
one pipeline, an interface mixture
is
generated.
The
interface
mixture/off-spec product can be
diverted to slop tanks or to the
lower-quality product tank. Two
slop tanks are provided to accommodate the interface a high
ash slop tank and a low ash
slop tank. The interface/off-spec
product from the slop tanks is
trucked back to the Petrotrin West
renery for reprocessing.
Fuel from the individual storage
tanks is transferred to (truck) loading bays using individual transfer
pumps for each product.
For the batch control of two
grades of gasoline RON 92
gasoline and RON 95 gasoline
their physical properties would be
too close to reliably differentiate
the products based on density

alone. Optical interface detectors

(OIDs) are also installed near to
the densitometers. The two gasoline grades are dyed for taxation
purposes, resulting in distinct
optical
signatures
(primarily
colour), which the OID can distinguish and signal to the operator.
Additionally, the ow meter count
could be utilised to guide the
operator
An additional dedicated pipeline
8in diameter and 11.2 km length is
installed to transfer the Jet A-1 from
Caroni to the Piarco facility. There
are two isolation valves installed on
the pipeline because of a river
crossing, one valve at each side of
the river. A 600-gallon-per-minute
capacity pump can deliver jet fuel
from the Caroni distribution centre
to Piarco Airport.

Simulator development

The OTS was designed and delivered by KBRs Advanced Chemical

Engineering group with support
from the Pipeline and Operations
groups. Overall, the OTS consists of
four components:
A custom dynamic model of the
pipeline system (resembling actual
pipeline operation) and an instructor station to train the operator,
with various features such as oper-

PTQ Q1 2013 55

11/12/12 14:51:56

Figure 3 Model development screen

ating training on field devices. The

safety instrumented system (SIS)
logic was also implemented in the
model. The SIS hardware/software
was not replicated because it was
possible to model its functionality
with the pipeline software. A
portion of the pipeline system, the
TAS, handling loading on logistics
operations, was not included in the
OTS system. Only some of the main
operations screens were simulated
A BMS and LDS identical to the
real pipelines BMS and LDS
systems
A dedicated Emerson DeltaV
distributed control system (DCS)
identical to the real pipelines DCS
DeltaV Operator consoles identical to the actual pipelines consoles.
These OTS components are interfaced through a standalone local
area Ethernet network using
industry-standard OLE for Process
Control (OPC) protocol for communications. Figure 2 shows the
architecture of the OTS.
The OTS also includes auxiliary
equipment to ensure the proper
working of the integrated system as
a standalone OTS. As such, the OTS
had no physical connections to
actual pipelines PCS or other pipeline systems.

56 PTQ Q1 2013

kbr.indd 3

Software

On reviewing the details of the

process and requirements for the
modelling of various process upsets,
it was decided to use the Stoner
Pipeline Simulator from GL Noble
Denton to provide the required
rigour and accuracy for the pipeline
model.
The Instructor graphics were
developed using Iconics Genesis32
that comes with the Stoner
software.
The BMS, was developed by
Krohne Oil and Gas, and it is used
to manage and track the batching
operations. It was fully integrated
with Krohnes LDS, PipePatrol,
used for the detection of leaks along
the length of the pipeline.
A dedicated Emerson DeltaV DCS
identical to the actual pipeline Delta
V hardware with the complete PCS
and TAS database provides a highly
realistic training environment.

Actual pipeline and associated

equipment modelling

The model included all physical

equipment (pipes, valves, pumps,
and so on) in the pipeline from the
feed tanks to final destination tanks
and includes complexities such as
truck loading racks and loaders. In

addition to the physical equipment

available in the software library,
programming was done to define
operation of special equipment like
Yarway valves, truck loading, pig
status, and so on. The model also
included the complete safety instrument system logic resembling the
actual SIS system. Figure 3 shows a
screen capture of a Stoner Pipeline
Software (SPS) scheme.

Instructor station

Overall control of the OTS is

through a special graphical display
system called the instructor interface,
which
provides
such
functionality as the run/pause of
the simulation, load/save of initial
conditions, touch points for failing
critical equipment, and standardised scenarios for operator training.
Figure 4 shows a screen capture of
the Instructor interface.

Leak detection and batch tracking

management system

The Krohne leak detection and

batch tracking/management system
functionalities are intended to
manage the batching process, to
track the current position of a batch
in the pipeline and to schedule the
next batch. Also, operators can be

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11/12/12 14:52:05

Figure 4 Instructor graphics showing feed and product tanks

informed of the likely location of a

leak in the pipeline if it occurs.
Krohne was required to create
and test two new functionalities
for the BMS pause/start and
speed-up/slow-down in order
to complete the communication
and integration of the OTS system.
Many rounds of further testing
had to be done to ensure proper
two-way communication between
the BMS and the DCS. Figure 5

shows a screen capture of the

batch management system. Figure
6 shows a screen detail of the
status of pipeline batches and
alarms.
The LDS is a real-time transient
model (RTTM) type. It has special
parameters that determine its
sensitivity during pumping and
standstill conditions. Also, the
parameters that detect a creeping
leak can be set in the system. A

creeping leak is a leak that does

not cause significant pressure
drops or pressure waves. For false
alarm-free operation, these parameters have been fine-tuned based
on recorded data to find the best
compromise between minimum
detectable leak rate and detection
time. Next to the leak detection,
which determines the volume of a
leak, this system has two different
algorithms based on pipeline

Figure 5 Batch management system typical display

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Warnings, if valve
switches are due soon

Warnings, if any tank

combination is
inconsistent

Warnings, if tank levels

are off (high and low)
Warnings due to
redundancy state

LDS warnings
Currently
logged-on operator

Figure 6 Overview screen of pipeline, batches and alarm status

pressure and flow to determine the

leaks location.

Modelling and integration

The overall modelling effort for the

OTS was rigorous and detailed to
include the complexity of the
modelling of some equipment, such
as the Yarway valves downstream
of the pumps and, in particular, the
prover circuits, the implementation
of the logics, the interlock system
and the communications among the
OTS components.
Some new functionality and
custom features had to be incorporated into the SPS software in order
to properly implement OTS functionality, such as pause/resume
and save/restore, which had to be
transferred to the DCS and the
instructor interface systems. In
order to save a run or a file for the
initial condition of a scenario, the
OTS system saves a file in the
DeltaV system and a file in the
simulation system simultaneously,
and both files are loaded at the
same time when the instructor
restores a saved run. The BMS is a
real-time system that was originally
not intended to perform as an OTS,
but the feature of pausing and
restoring the simulation was added

58 PTQ Q1 2013

kbr.indd 5

successfully; pausing of the signal

to the BMS is available via OPC
command but not necessary because
the flow totaliser automatically
stops counting in the pause mode
of the Stoner simulator.
The DCS database is complex.
Many extra logic points were
required to be developed in the
simulation and connected to model
variables to allow a complete range

The overall modelling

effort for the OTS
was rigorous and
detailed to include
the complexity of the
modelling of some
equipment
of operator actions from the DCS.
The DeltaV system is capable of
working in simulation mode when
it is not connected to the real and
physical system.
Figure 7 shows a distance plot of
both of the pipelines, from Petrotrin
Refinery to Caroni Distribution

Centre, and from Caroni to Piarco

Airport.
Reverse flow operation had to be
defined and configured within the
operator training system. This operation occurs when a substantial
amount of off-spec product is not
accepted at the distribution centre
and has to be sent back to the refinery via the pipeline. This procedure
is a manual operation and consists
of opening a set of valves, in the
right sequence and at the right time,
from the tank with the off-spec fuel
to the reverse flow pipeline at the
Caroni Centre. Then, operators
have to start the dedicated reverse
pump and continue with the opening of the downstream valves to
direct the flow to the main pipeline
and let the rejected product travel
in reverse motion to the refinery.
Training for this operation procedure is important because it will be
done very seldom at the actual
pipeline facilities; therefore, the
only means by which the operators
can be trained for this eventuality is
the OTS system. By doing this, the
operator will be ready when a
reverse operation is needed in the
real pipeline.
A particular limitation of the
model was the OID, which was
modelled as though it is driven by
density due to the absence of an
optical characteristic model in the
software.

Communication using OPC

connectivity

OPC Mirror, a server-to-server/

client communication software utility from the DCS vendor, was used
to connect OPC servers (pipeline
model to DCS and BMS/LDS) on
the OTS system and to enable twoway data communication from one
system to another. In the OTS, the
linkage was between the DCS, OPC
server and the Instructor server,
StOPC. Additionally, the Instructor
server and the Iconics graphics
interface communicate with the
simulation model variables. The
OPC communication was serverserver between the DCS and the
Iconics graphical interface, as a
client-server
between
Iconics
graphics and the simulation model,
and as a client-server between the

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11/12/12 14:52:24

Figure 7 Pipeline distance plot, from the simulation program and displayed on the Instructor station

OPC mirror and BMS system. The

development team had to go
through additional technical development on the DCS, the graphical
interface and the BMS to be able to
engineer a fully working system.
Figure 8 shows the general OPC
connectivity architecture within the
OPC system components.

Operations support

Additional support was required

from the Commissioning and
Startup Services group of KBR and
the client operations personnel to
help define and test the training
scenarios and to define the details
of the standard operation procedures. In order to have detailed
procedures on the standard operations of the pipeline, batch startup,
batch changing, batch receiving,
interface disposal and so on, client
personnel and KBR Commissioning
and Startup Services personnel had
several meetings defining and
simulating the procedures and the

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kbr.indd 6

exercises to prepare the training

program for the operators. Some of
those procedures were also taken as
exercises for the final site acceptance test of the system.

One of the key

benefits was that
it was possible to
completely check the
designs of both the
DCS and BMS systems
prior to actual
implementation
Training

Table 1 shows a set of the different

scenarios that were prepared for
training the trainer initially and for
further training of operators. Some

of them are related to the OTS as an

integrated system tool and others
are related to operations procedures.

Benefits

While the primary purpose of the

OTS is operator training, several
benefits accrued to the project as a
result of the early development of
the simulator. It was also beneficial
to project staff who came to the
project late as a conceptual tool in
understanding the scope and objectives of the pipeline system.
One of the key benefits was that
it was possible to completely check
the designs of both the DCS and
BMS systems prior to actual implementation. Several missing details
and incomplete functions were
found and corrected, particularly
those relating to the travelling and
volume of the interface along the
length of the pipeline and its properties shown on the systems in real
time; for instance, the distance from
the pumps and length of the inter-

PTQ Q1 2013 59

11/12/12 14:52:32

Server
DeltaV
OPCMirror
Engineering Station
PSC
OPCMirror

Server

StOPC

SPS Stoner
Simulation
StOPC

Client
Iconics graphics
display

Client
DeltaV LAN

Iconics graphics
display

StOPC

OPCMirror

Client

Client
DeltaV
Operator Station
PCS

Krohne
BMS
LDS
OPC link
PP_server

Client
Iconics graphics
display

PCS Engineering Station system is an OPC server.

Stoner Simulation is an OPC server.
PCS DeltaV Operator Station is an OPC client.
BMS/LDS system is an OPC client.
Each Iconics graphic instance is an OPC client.
OPCMirror is a DeltaV OPC communication tool.
StOPC is a SPS OPC communication tool.

Figure 8 Software/OPC communications

face between two consecutive

batches.
Further, it provided an invaluable

platform for completely testing and

validating the operating procedures
for the pipeline. It was possible for

KBR operations and training experts

to run through each procedure
many times to ensure that all
aspects were thoroughly tested. As
part of the testing process, NGC
has also already reaped signicant
benets through early familiarisation and training of their operations
supervisors.
By using the OTS in a repeated
fashion, it is envisaged that operators will quickly become familiar
with and learn how to control
daily activities in the pipeline, such
as starting a batch of a specied
product,
modifying
batches,
receiving a batch at the distribution centre, performing operations
such as starting and shutting
down the pipeline system, and
responding to upsets. The company
plans to complete this OTS-based
training
before
the
actual
startup of the pipeline so that
operators are completely familiarised with actual operations well in
advance.

Scenarios for training operators

Scenario
Speed up the OTS

Description
Batching speed is increased for
training purposes

Modelling preparation
Speed factor is increased and then
decreased

Process results
Batches will travel faster through the pipeline

Downstream valve
failure

A valve fails closed

A selected valve is closed

Upstream pressure will increase until valve is xed

and open again (or interlock system works against
the failure)

Truck loading

A RON95 truck is requesting a

certain volume of product at
loading rack

A valve in the model at the loading

racks for RON95 will open and release
the amount of uid requested

The amount of liquid requested is delivered in the

determined time

Leak scenario

A leak in the pipeline section

A leak ow is dened in that section
between PaP and Caroni will occur of pipeline

The material ow through the pipeline will

decrease and the LDS will create an alarm

Filter swap

A jet fuel lter is plugged

Jet fuel lter E206A is plugged, causing

upstream pressure to increase

Upstream pressure will increase and material ow

amount will decrease until the operator switches to
E206B lter

Equipment and
instrument failure

Densitometer, tank level or

other equipment show a failure

Selected equipment fails and stops

communications with PCS

PCS will not receive the selected equipment signal

RON 92 gasoline
batching

Batching of RON92 from

renery to Caroni performed
as per procedures document and
BMS guide

Prepare and start a RON95 batch,

including starting of auxiliary and main
pumps and opening of corresponding
valves

A Batch of RON95 is dispatched to the Caroni

Centre

Batching Jet A-1 to

Piarco Airport

Batching of Jet A-1 from Caroni

to Piarco performed as per
procedures document

Prepare and start a jet fuel batch,

A batch of jet fuel is dispatched to the airport tanks
including starting of auxiliary and main
pumps and opening of corresponding valves

Receiving RON95

Receiving a batch of RON95 at

Caroni performed as per
procedures document and BMS
guide

Prepare tank and valves at Caroni Centre A batch of RON95 is received, metered and directed
for receiving a batch of RON95
to the RON95 tank at the Caroni Centre, BMS
system is used to determine the time to manage
valves and pipeline interface

Table 1

60 PTQ Q1 2013

kbr.indd 7

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11/12/12 14:52:45

Conclusion

This was the first integrated OTS

system for pipeline operations
developed by KBR. Close working
relationships
between
various
groups and support from the client
were critical to the successful
completion of the OTS. Acceptance
by the client has been high based
on early assessment. Experience
showed that such pipeline systems
can derive significant benefit from a
BMS and LDS as standard
equipment.
The authors wish to thank the following
for their help in developing the OTS: Ernest
Williams, Kendal Lindsay,Terrence N Ramsundar
and Vishard Birusingh of the National Gas
Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Ian Ramoutar
of Trinidad and Tobago National Petroleum
Marketing Company Limited, Reiner Jorewitz
of Krohne Oil and Gas, Travis Stripling, David
Smith, Celine Thomerson and David H. Jones
of KBR. The technical support from GL Noble
Denton is also appreciated.
Santosh Alladwar is a Senior Technical
Professional with KBR Technology in New
Delhi, India. He has seven years experience

Close working
relationships between
various groups and
support from the
client were critical
to the successful
completion of the OTS
in petrochemical, refining and olefins
technologies, and holds bachelors and masters
degrees in chemical engineering.
Cordell Chapman was the Engineering
Manager with KBR for the design of the liquid
fuels pipeline and terminal facilities, and wrote
the performance specification for the realtime surveillance software and supervised its
development and testing. He holds a BS in
geological engineering from Colorado Mines
and a MS in engineering management from
University of Alaska-Anchorage.
Billy Mayo has worked for KBR for 36
years in maintenance and construction for
petrochemical, plastics and speciality chemical
facilities. For the last five years he has worked

in the KBR Commissioning and Start-up Service

group, preparing operating and maintenance
manuals for a variety of projects.
Surajit Dasgupta is the Senior Technology
Manager for Advanced Simulation Applications
& Services in KBR and was the Technical
Manager for this OTS. He has almost 35 years
experience in advanced simulation techniques
and applications.
Javier Vazquez-Esparragoza is an Engineer in
the Advanced Chemical Engineering group at
KBR. He is a registered professional engineer
in Texas, has worked in Process Automation for
the last 17 years, and holds a PhD in chemical
engineering from Texas A&M University.
Daniel Vogt works for Krohne in Duisburg,
Germany, on leak detection systems and
supervised the development of real-time
surveillance software for this project. He
graduated from the University of Applied
Sciences in Gelsenkirchen with a Dipl.Ing. (FH)
EE and MScMT.
Keone Jackman is a Senior Engineer with
Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is a Registered Electrical Engineer with more
than 12 years experience in instrumentation
and control systems, is a Senior Member of
the International Society of Automation (ISA)
and former President, former Webmaster and
Executive of the San Fernando, ISA Trinidad
Section.

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kbr.indd 8

PTQ Q1 2013 61

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000_zymeflow.indd 1

6/12/12 13:29:04

Refinery operations gain from advances in

digital automation
Advances in digital automation can better enable the next generation of refinery
workers to operate more efficiently, reliably and safely
TIM OLSEN
Emerson Process Management

significant number of experienced refinery personnel will

retire in the next decade.
With new personnel being younger
and less experienced than those
they are replacing, will refineries
continue to operate safely, reliably
and efficiently? The short answer is:
Yes, by utilising the recent
advances in automation such as
smart devices and accompanying
embedded human centre designed
systems. The younger generations
are more conditioned to current
digital technology, embracing all of
the real-time, online information
and capabilities available from
these smart instruments and
systems. Smart devices replace the
ear of a seasoned field operator or
technician. With information about
asset health and performance more
readily available, refiners can
achieve safer and more reliable
operations than previously experienced. Asset health information can
be used by maintenance for longterm condition-based maintenance
on an as-needed basis, and operations can be alerted only on
short-term imminent failure or
abnormal operation.
The simplest analogy to represent
technology advances is to look at
the cellular phone. In the late 1980s,
The Brick phone was available
for about $4000. The main and only
function was to make a phone call.
Today, there is the Apple iPhone
and other similar smart phones that
are a fraction of the cost of a Brick,
but with much more functionality
beyond making phone calls, including many real-time applications.
Many refiners still have DCS
systems from the late 1980s and

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emerson.indd 1

1990s operating their plants. These

systems are robust and control the
process, but without additional
features (no apps). Todays
modern systems include additional
features not found in legacy
systems,
such
as
embedded
advanced process control, statistical
monitoring, smart device monitoring, asset health monitoring and
more. Like the iPhone, the console
operator is presented with more
analysed information to make better
and more informed decisions, with
time to take corrective action. If the
console operator continues to use
the modern system in exactly the
same way as the older replaced
system, the benefit of additional
functionality and information is lost
(like people using an iPhone only
for the phone call capability).

Refiners challenges

The challenge of getting skilled and

experienced resources to replace
seasoned personnel who are retiring is not limited just to the refining
industry. Many industries are
facing the same challenge with a
noticeable gap in the availability of
experienced staff. There are also
fewer people wanting to enter the
refining industry. This combination
has led to changes in the way refiners operate to ensure reliable and
safe operations.
In the past, a single train refinery
had about 20 000 I/Os, whereas
today that same refinery design can
have 50 000 I/Os. This means there
are greater challenges for older,
well-established facilities in the US
and Europe when competing with
newer, modern assets in the Middle
and Far East. The refining industry

is faced with both competition and

opportunity from the globalisation
of fuels and petrochemicals distribution across regions and countries.
For example, when demand is
down in one region, opportunities
arise to find consumers in other
markets where production and
distribution
costs
make
this
economically attractive. Basically,
this means that modern refiners
with lower operating costs can look
for additional opportunity markets
beyond their own regional markets.
This leads to the need to control
costs. Most people consider gasoline, diesel and other fuel products
as commodities, making it difficult
to extract premium pricing and
additional margins from a differentiated product. The reality is that
additional margins come from operating the refinery more efficiently
and more reliably than other
refiners.
While there are niche market
opportunities to extract higher
margins, overall the refining industry is a commodity market where
an individual refinery has limited
control over raw material costs and
finished product values. Refinery
net margins have historically averaged below $2/bbl. Refiners have a
significant investment in fixed
assets, which are expensive to
maintain and subject to on-going
environmental, health and safety
regulations. These realities give rise
to an industry focused on cost
reduction without jeopardising
plant reliability or safety. Top quartile refiners with high availability
also tend to operate more safely.
For the refinery operator, safety
and environmental compliance are

PTQ Q1 2013 63

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bete.indd 1

07/01/2013 17:27

at the top of every refiners list of

important concerns. Safety and environmental programmes represent a
large, on-going cost to the refinery,
and incidents can be extremely
expensive. With hundreds of
employees, many hazardous areas,
and with the presence of explosive,
carcinogenic and poisonous materials, refiners are extremely interested
in systems that can provide early
warning of pending failures and
prevent unsafe or environmentally
unfriendly conditions.
Unplanned shutdowns incur costs
beyond lost production. Emergency
shutdowns and subsequent startups
put
abnormal
wear-and-tear
demands on equipment, increase
catalyst and chemical losses,
produce off-spec products and
require additional manpower, overtime and expedited 24-hour service.
Just one unplanned shutdown in a
major FCC unit can cost a large
refinery over $1 million per day.
Similar costs can be incurred by
shutdowns in any of the refinerys
key process units. Based on the
Marsh Report, a majority of severe
incidents occur during startup and
shutdown (transition) and piping:
Losses in the refinery industry
have continued to increase over the
last few years and the causes highlight the ageing facilities in this
category. A significant number of
larger losses (over $10 000 000) have
been caused by piping failures or
piping leaks, leading to fires and/
or explosions. Several large losses
due to piping failures were due to
corrosion issues or using the wrong
metallurgy. ...Incidents occurring
during startup or shutdown
continue to cause significant dollar
losses. Marsh Report - The 100
Largest Losses 1972-2001, Large
Property Damage Losses in the
Hydrocarbon-Chemical Industries.

Utilising advances from digital

automation

Operations and engineering personnel represent a large fixed-cost

component in a refinerys operating
budget.
Any
opportunity
to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of refinery staff can be
translated into economic benefits by
increasing the value of the activities

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emerson.indd 2

they perform. Timely information

that helps identify sub-optimal
process control on critical loops is
the key to augmenting the performance of operations and engineering.
Modern systems with statistical
monitoring can report on control
loops with high variability or excessive alarms. What used to go
unnoticed in the past is now front
and centre to get attention.
Easy availability of process and
historical data through the continuous historian, integrated with
Microsoft Office and Internet access
tools, saves engineers and managers time and effort. Troubleshooting
operating
problems
can
be
completed quickly, and more timely
decisions can be made that save the
company money. Internet tools
allow specialists located anywhere
in the world access to plant data
and displays, to aid in problem

Utilising modern
digital automation
can address the
challenges and
opportunities for
cost reduction
solving and analysis. Key performance indicators, equipment alerts,
status information and quality data
are available in real-time for display
and alerting the appropriate personnel of impending problems before
they happen. These tools allow
refineries to accomplish more with
less by maximising their entire
staffs productivity.
In addition, modern systems with
simulation
capabilities
allow
frequent training on infrequent
events like startup, shutdown and
emergency situations. This ensures
operators are familiar with the
required actions to take should an
emergency situation occur. This
also helps familiarise new employees with operations prior to taking
on a live role in the refinery.
Utilising modern digital automation can address the challenges

and opportunities for cost reduction. For example, field instruments

that are equipped with smart diagnostics can alert key maintenance,
operations or safety personnel
about asset problems in real-time
before they fail or cause abnormal
operation. The key benefit is time
to act on the information since the
asset health information detects
problems long before the process
sees the effects. The diagnostics
can identify the root cause of the
troubled asset, so maintenance can
effectively correct the problem. In
addition, this same root cause
predictive diagnostic capability
can be utilised to identify and
plan for a smarter turnaround by
repairing only the assets requiring
work.
Efficient use of maintenance
resources, both for on-going maintenance and turnarounds, is an area
that can often be improved through
the use of modern technologies.
Process and control equipment
deteriorates over time and eventually
needs
attention.
Heat
exchangers,
compressors
and
turbines foul over time, becoming
less efficient and increasing production costs. Without maintenance,
instruments tend to drift, control
valves wear and process dynamics
change, decreasing the overall effectiveness of the control system. The
question of when to pull a piece of
equipment for repair is a complex
issue that should be based on its
performance history, the operation
performance cost of degradation,
the cost of repair and the risk and
consequence of a failure. In a costcutting environment, the appeal of
delaying maintenance activities
must be weighed against the
increased
risk
of
unplanned
shutdowns and the cost of operating
below
peak
equipment
performance.
Maintenance costs can be reduced
by improving the efficiency of the
maintenance staff, reducing the
frequency of unplanned shutdowns
and reducing unnecessary maintenance work. Studies have shown
that more than 60% of a typical
instrument technicians trips to the
field result in either no action or a
minor configuration adjustment that

PTQ Q1 2013 65

10/12/12 13:48:30

40

Proportion, %

35

35%

30

28%

25
20%

20
15
10

6%

5
0

Routine
check

No
Calibration Zero off
problems
shift

6%

4%

Plugged
Failed
lines
instrument

Figure 1 Advanced process control optimises distillation columns, enabling significant

energy savings

could be done from their office with

smart instruments (see Figure 1).
Refiner feedback estimated a
manpower saving of 1.6 hours per
instrument, per year, by automating
instrumentation work practices and
reducing trips to the field. For a
large refinery with over 10 000 process inputs, a digital solution could
save 16 000 hours per year, for
instrument and valve maintenance.
This provides the opportunity to
create a predictive maintenance
culture that acts on alerts and root
cause information in real-time,
rather than reactive. At the 2010
NPRA Reliability and Maintenance
Conference, a Gulf Coast refiner
indicated that reactive maintenance
cost their facility 50% more than
planned maintenance. Their focus
was to reduce the number of incidences of reactive maintenance.

Embedded APC

In the 1990s, many refiners took

advantage of advanced process
control (APC). However, APC
tended to be expensive and complex
to set up, understand and maintain.
The end result was many refiners
turned off APC within two years of
implementation.
Advanced control is still a desired
functionality for refiners because it
helps address energy cost savings
by improving the efficiency of fired
heaters and boilers (supply) and
distillations columns (demand).
While turned on, it also has the
added benefit of consistent, highperformance
operation
across
operating shifts, no matter who the
console operator is.

66 PTQ Q1 2013

emerson.indd 3

Reducing
process
variability
directly impacts a refinerys bottom
line in terms of energy efficiency,
capacity and quality. Modern
digital automation can automatically identify high variability in key
control loops to ensure visibility to
both operators and operations engineers.
Properly
tuned
and
performing control loops can extend
catalyst life and improve yield and
quality, which directly benefit the
bottom-line revenues.
APC applications reduce energy
costs by further stabilising the process and pushing closer to actual
equipment constraints and quality
specifications. Modern, embedded
APC applications are built with
these standard tools that allow fast
execution so distillation columns
can be operated at minimum reflux,
compressor recycles lowered, heater
excess air reduced, catalyst losses
minimised, heat recovery maximised and so on, all impacting the
total energy consumed by the refinery. Using APC technology, refiners
can be assured that the control
system only utilises the right
amount of energy needed to
economically recover the most valuable products.

Manual checked measurements

As was mentioned early in this article, older refinery designs had a

limited I/O count, only that which
was required to operate the refinery
safely. However, many process and
asset health measurements that are
not online are captured through
manual measurements on a daily,
weekly, monthly or longer period

of time basis, depending on the

expected mean time between failures. Only those assets deemed
critical enough to have online monitoring
provided
continuous
information to operations and/or
maintenance.
Manual measurements do not
always prevent asset failure and
they can also create a potential
safety hazard. Some examples
where additional danger is introduced are:
Manually dipping a tank to
confirm the level
Collecting pump data from a
pump within an alkylation unit
Taking temperature measurements on the crude unit preheat
exchanger train
Climbing ladders while holding
onto a clipboard.
On the example of the crude unit
heat exchangers, many bundles
have empty thermowells in between
tube bundles. For someone to
manually check the temperature,
they would need to get on a ladder
and take the measurement around
hot exchangers. Many people also
use a heat gun, but this can create
errors in the data collected, potentially leading to incorrect decisions,
such as to pull and clean for the
upcoming turnaround.
One recent solution has been the
use of wireless to capture missing
process and asset health measurements. On average, a refiner has
hundreds of process pumps with
only about 10% monitoring online.
The remaining pumps are checked
manually, typically once per month.
This has been found to be insufficient in preventing pump failures
and the potential safety and environmental incident associated with
unscheduled shutdowns. For example, one refiner sends a technician
out each morning to look for problems; a better approach would be to
have the information available in the
morning that identified the pumps
requiring attention and then to send
maintenance to service them.
Wireless asset health measurements
enable planned maintenance that
results in higher reliability.
Online
vibration
monitoring
determines whether a pump or
motor needs maintenance. These

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:48:40

Conclusion

Figure 2 Online monitoring tools help prevent unplanned shutdowns and reduce
time-consuming operator rounds

tools have demonstrated how

modern maintenance tools and
methodologies can be used in a
predictive manner to save both time
and money during a turnaround
without sacrificing reliability or
safety.
Online monitoring tools and automatic alerts can help prevent
unplanned shutdowns and their
associated costs (see Figure 2).
Certainly, not all of the causes of
unplanned shutdowns can be
addressed by process control and

automation systems, but faulty

measurements,
malfunctioning
instruments, operator error and
equipment failure are some of the
common problems that smart field
devices address. The online monitoring tools provide the opportunity
for a refiner to create a more predictive maintenance culture that acts
on information in real-time to
prevent shutdowns or safety incidents, rather than the traditional
reactive or preventive maintenance
culture.

Elemental Analysis
of Fuels

Advances in digital automation can

augment the next generation of
refinery staff to operate more efficiently, reliably and safely. The
younger generations are more conditioned to current digital technology,
thus embracing all of the real-time,
online information and capabilities
from smart instruments and modern
systems. Additional measurements,
and the benefit of time to act on the
early detection of wear or abnormal
operation, are the keys to ensuring
refineries can operate even better
than they did in the past.
Tim Olsen is a Refining Consultant within the
PlantWeb global refining industry solutions
group of Emerson Process Management, where
he supports Emersons technical and business
strategy. He is currently the Division Chair for
the AIChE Fuels & Petrochemicals Division,
holds a BS in chemical engineering from Iowa
State University with emphasis in industrial
engineering and process control, and an MBA
from the University of Iowa.
Email: Tim.Olsen@Emerson.com

To keep pace with the demanding quality requirements of

modern fuels, advanced, precise and easy to use analytical
technology is required. With a complete range of XRF and
ICP spectrometers, SPECTROs unique solutions for at-line
and laboratory elemental analysis are capable of meeting
the most demanding product specification testing
requirements.
Measure your fuels
- at sub 10-15 ppm levels of sulfur to ensure federal
government agency compliance
- at trace ppm levels for metal elements such as Cu, Ca, Mg,
Na, K, and P, to ensure low engine emissions as well as
trouble-free motoring
- with reliability, speed and accuracy for any particular application
- manually or fully automatically

Discover more exciting details at

www.spectro.com/fuels
www.digitalrefining.com/105.

Determination of Sulfur and other elements

at-line and in the laboratory

www.eptq.com

emerson.indd 4

Visit us at
Pittcon 2013,
17-21 March,
Philadelphia, PA,
USA

PTQ Q1 2013 67

10/12/12 13:48:52

cw.indd 1

11/12/12 17:10:49

Controlling film temperature in fired

heaters
Film temperature control is critical to the sucessful design of fired heaters,
especially for heaters employed in upgrading heavy feedstocks
JINYU JIAO, YURIY MORAYKO, MORTEN THEILGAARD and MICHAEL HO
WorleyParsons Canada

www.eptq.com

worley.indd 1

380

Film temperature, C

irect-fired heaters have been

widely used in the oil refining and chemical process
industries to heat the crude oil
contained in tubular coils by the
combustion of fuel within an internally
insulated
enclosure.
A
successful fired heater design relies
on many factors. Film temperature
control is one of the key factors that
play a crucial role in fired heater
design, particularly for units
processing heavy feedstocks that
are thermally unstable, such
as Canadian oil sands-based
feedstocks.
Film temperature determines the
susceptibility of a process fluid
towards coking. Bulk oil temperature plus a temperature rise across
the oil film sets the film temperature. In most applications, it is the
oil film temperature, not the bulk
oil temperature, that limits the
heater duty and the oil life.1 Film
temperature is an important factor
in fired heater design for many
reasons. Firstly, oil degradation
starts in the fluid film, since this is
the hottest place for the bulk oil.
Fluid life is shortened because of
degradation, which can lead to a
costly result. Secondly, if the film
temperature exceeds the limitation,
the stationary fluid film on the
inside tube surfaces is subject to
thermal
decomposition,
which
results in coke deposition at that
location. Coke deposits increase
resistance to heat transfer and raise
the tube metals temperature. Once
the tube wall temperature reaches
the design temperature, the heater
must be shut down for decoking
to avoid coil damage. Thirdly,
overheating of the fluid film

360
340
320
300
280
260

With steam injection

Without steam injection

240

From inlet to outlet

Figure 1 Effect of steam injection on film temperatures

accelerates the fouling rate. Fouling

requires more heat input and a
hotter tube metal temperature to
maintain the same heater outlet
temperature. These factors cause
heaters to shut down much more
frequently and eventually reduce
the whole plants profitability.
Due to the importance of the film
temperature, its control has become
a hot topic for fired heater designs,
especially
for
crude
heaters,
vacuum heaters and coker heaters.
In this article, some feasible methods of controlling the film
temperature for fired heater design
are presented. Methods including
steam injection, reducing tube size,
using double firing and lowering
the average heat flux are discussed,
and some methods are presented
with accompanying examples.

Steam injection

Steam injection is one of the best

options for lowering the film
temperature, as long as there are

no
unintended
consequences
downstream of the units. Steam
reduces the oil residence time by
increasing the fluid velocity. High
fluid velocity improves heat transfer in the film layer, which lowers
the
differential
temperature
between the tube wall and the bulk
fluid. Figure 1 shows the effect of
steam injection on film temperature for one crude heater. The
horizontal axis represents the radiant coil growth from inlet to outlet.
It can be seen that the film temperature drops around 20C after
injecting 1 wt% of steam into the
fluid.
The
results
shown
in Figure 1 arise from the simulation of a crude heater at a design
duty of 63 MW with diluted bitumen as the process feed. The
simulation was performed with a
commercial fired heater rating
program, FRNC-5PC, which has
been widely used and has been
proven to be reliable in predicting
heater performance.

PTQ Q1 2013 69

11/12/12 17:16:39

Film temperature, C

420
410
400
390
380
370
360

6.625 in tubes
4.5 in tubes

350

From inlet to outlet

Figure 2 Effect of tube size on film temperatures

Selecting the correct location and

amount of steam injection is critical.
It must be injected upstream of the
heater tubes with the highest film
temperature, yet far enough downstream in the radiant section to
minimise incremental pressure drop
to ensure charge pump capacity is
not exceeded.2
Steam injection can also change
the flow regime for two-phase flow.
The problem associated with slug
flow can be mitigated by steam
injection. However, it is not the
intention of this article to discuss
the effect of steam injection on the
flow regime because it is not related
to the topic. Caution is advised in
selecting a suitable steam condition
to match the process fluid condition, to make sure that no
condensation occurs after steam
injection into the process fluid.

Reducing tube size

Depending on the allowable pressure drop, fired heater coils are

usually divided into multiple passes
to accommodate the total flow and
to meet pressure drop requirements. For a given flow rate and
the number of flow passes, oil mass
velocity increases with reducing
tube size. A higher oil mass velocity reduces the oil residence time
and increases the film heat transfer
coefficient, therefore lowering the
film temperature. Figure 2 shows
the effect of tube size on film
temperatures. The horizontal axis
represents the heater coil growth
from radiant inlet to radiant outlet.
The results come from the simula-

70 PTQ Q1 2013

worley.indd 2

tion of a small heater with a design

duty of 15 MW. The heater is a
vertical cylindrical type with fourpass flow. To demonstrate the effect
of tube size on the film temperature, the radiant tube size is
changed from 6.625in to 4.5in, with
no change in the size of the convection tubes. More radiant tubes have
been added to the radiant section to
compensate for surface loss caused
by the reduction in tube size, to
keep the same heat flux. Case 1 is
for the heater with all tubes sized at
6.625in, while case 2 is for the same
heater with tube sizes changed
from 6.625in 4.5in, for the radiant
coils only. It can be seen that the
film temperature in the radiant
section has been decreased because
of the reduction in tube size.
Reducing the tube size increases
the heater pressure drop, which
requires a much higher pump head
upstream of the heater. Since film
temperature control is basically
intended to control the peak film
temperature, it is advisable to
reduce tube sizes for tubes with
peak film temperature only, to
minimise the increase in pressure
drop caused by reducing tube sizes.

Double fired vs single fired

A fired heater can be single or

double fired. The heat flux on the
tubes circumferential surface is not
uniform because of the shading of
radiant heat. The single-fired heater
receives radiant heat on one side of
the process tubes (directly from the
burner flame), while the other side
of the tubes, facing the heater wall,

gains radiant heat from the refractory. The portion of the tube facing
the burners has a higher local heat
flux, while the side facing the
refractory is much lower. For a
given fired heater with nominal two
diameter tube spacing and a very
uniform longitudinal heat flux
distribution, the local peak heat flux
(qm) is approximately 1.8 times the
average heat flux (qa) for singlefired heating. In contrast, the
double-fired heater has radiant heat
on both sides of the tubes, which
greatly reduces the peak flux to
about 1.2 times the average heat
flux.3 The correlations mentioned
above for single and double fired
can be simply represented in the
following equation:
qm = Xqa

(1)

where X represents the time factor,

which is approximately equal to 1.8
and 1.2 for single and double fired,
respectively.
The local film temperature can be
calculated
by
the
following
equations:4
Tf = Tb + Tf
Tf =

qm Do
( )

(2)
(3)

Kf Di

where Tf and Tb are film temperature and oil bulk temperature,

respectively. Tf is the film temperature rise and Kf is a film heat
transfer coefficient.
From the equations, it can be seen
that it is the localised heat flux, not
the average heat flux, that directly
governs the film temperature. For a
heater with a given average heat
flux, a double-fired heater has a
lower localised heat flux distribution
than a single-fired heater. A lower
localised heat flux reduces the film
temperature at that location. Figure
3 shows a comparison of the film
temperature between single and
double firing for the same heater
with the same average heat flux. The
results are from the simulation of a
vacuum heater with a design duty
of 50 MW. It can be seen that using
double fired can greatly reduce the
film temperature of the radiant coil
for the heater.

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11/12/12 17:16:50

Lowering the average heat flux

Other design considerations

There are other design considerations that should not be neglected

when designing a fired heater with
better film temperature control. The
radiant section heat flux at any
point in the heater is controlled by
the temperature difference between
the hot flue gas and oil in the tube.
The heat transfer rate increases with
the temperature difference between
the hot flue gas and the cold oil.6 In
a vertical up-fired heater, it is not
rare to see that heat flux is low at
the floor and gradually increases
along the length of the flame. It
is highest at the point where

www.eptq.com

worley.indd 3

380
360

Film temperature, C

The first step in designing a fired

heater is to set up the allowable
average radiant heat flux. For a
given heater, either single or double
fired, it is helpful to control the film
temperature by lowering the average heat flux. From Equation 1, the
localised heat flux reduces with
lower average heat flux, no matter
whether it is single or double fired.
Oil film temperature depends on
the heat flux and oil mass velocity.
Decreasing the heat flux reduces
the oil film temperature at a fixed
mass velocity.5
The average radiant section heat
flux is defined as the total radiant
section absorbed duty divided by
the total radiant section tube surface
area. For a given radiant duty of a
fired heater, the only way to lower
the average heat flux is to increase
the radiant sections surface area. It
may be reasonable to assume a relatively low average heat flux to
design a fired heater with very tight
film temperature control. However,
it is also noted that oil residence
time increases as the surface area
increases, which may partially
counteract the benefit of decreasing
the film temperature by lowering
the average heat flux. A lower average heat flux means more capital
cost in the heater coils, which is
another drawback in controlling the
film temperature by reducing the
average heat flux. Thus, the effect
on heater design of lowering the
average heat flux should be carefully evaluated before a decision
is made.

340
320
300
280
260
240
Single fired
Double fired

220
200

From inlet to outlet

Figure 3 Comparison of the film temperature between single and double firing

maximum combustion takes place

in the flame, then reduces at the top
of the fire box. Thus, real fired heaters may encounter more or less
significant heat flux imbalances.
This heat flux imbalance can cause
high film temperatures and high
rates of fouling formation. Efforts
should be made to optimise the
design parameters to minimise the
heat flux imbalance. These design
parameters include radiant section
height to width ratio, burner to
tube distance, number of burners,
flame shape and dimensions, and
radiant section tube layout.7
Flame impingement can cause
extremely high localised heat flux,
which results in a higher film
temperature and rapid coke formation. Flame impingement occurs
when a flame actually touches or
engulfs the tubes. Vinayagam has
discussed the causes of flame
impingement for a fired heater.8
Some precautions need to be
considered in the design of fired
heaters to prevent flame impingement occurring; for instance, an
adequate fire box to contain the
flame, more and equally spaced
burners, the correct type of burners,
and improved distribution of
combustion air flow.

Summary

Film temperature control is critical

to the successful design of fired
heaters, especially for those heaters
employed in upgrading heavy feedstocks. This article has discussed
several ways to control the film

temperature in the design of fired

heaters. These methods have been
discussed in detail and have proved
to be effective means of controlling
film temperature.
References
1 Pelini R G, Heat flux and film temperature
in fired thermal-fluid heaters, Chemical
Engineering, Dec 2008.
2 Hanson D, Martin M, Low capital revamp
increases vacuum gas oil yield, March, Oil &
Gas Journal, 2002.
3 Romero S, Delayed coker fired heater
design and operations, Rio Oil & Gas Expo and
Conference, 2010.
4 API 530, Calculation of heater-tube thickness
in petroleum refineries, 6th ed, Sept 2008.
5 Golden S W, Barletta T, Designing vacuum
units, Separations, Apr 2006.
6 Martin G R, Heat-flux imbalance in fired
heaters cause operating problems, Hydrocarbon
Processing, May 1998.
7 Nogay R, Prasad A, Better design method
for fired heaters, Hydrocarbon Processing, Nov
1985.
8 Vinayagam
K,
Minimizing
flame
impingements in fired heaters, Chemical
Engineering, May 2007.

Jinyu Jiao is a Mechanical Engineer with

WorleyParsons in Calgary, Canada. He holds an
MS degree in mechanical engineering as well as
a PhD in chemical engineering.
Yuriy Morayko is a Mechanical Engineer with
WorleyParsons in Calgary, Canada. He holds a
BSc degree in mechanical engineering.
Morten Theilgaard is a Mechanical Department
Manager for WorleyParsons in Calgary, Canada.
He holds a BSc in mechanical engineering.
Michael Ho has eight years experience in the
oil and gas industry in an EPCM environment.
He holds masters and bachelors degrees in
mechanical engineering.

PTQ Q1 2013 71

11/12/12 17:17:21

*ad copy 3.indt 1

10/12/12 16:40:47

High-capacity tray for debottlenecking a

crude distillation unit
Use of ultra-high-capacity trays in the most constrained section of a CDU enabled
over a 50% increase in throughput at less cost than other debottlenecking options
KAUSHIK MAJUMDER Shell Projects & Technology GIUSEPPE MOSCA Sulzer Chemtech
KENT MAHON Refining NZ

he main fractionator of the

crude distillation unit (CDU-1)
in the Whangarei refinery of
The
New
Zealand
Refining
Company (NZRC) was retrofitted
with high-capacity internals to
increase the unit throughput from
8500 t/d to 13 000 t/d. Ultra-highcapacity Shell ConSep* trays were
applied in the most capacityconstrained HGO pumparound
(mid circulating reflux) section of
the column, as no other firstgeneration, high-capacity tray was
found adequate to debottleneck this
section. By the application of these
trays, capex savings of the order of
$5.5-6 million were achieved

compared to other conventional

debottlenecking options. This was
the first application of ConSep trays
in a CDU main fractionator, and the
post-revamp test run established
realisation
of
the
expected
performance.
Whangarei
refinery
targeted
expanding its refining capacity
through the Point Forward Project.1
The project involved increasing the
throughput of the CDU-1 from 8500
t/d to 13 000 t/d, thereby increasing the distillate component to
downstream processing and generating additional long residue to
replace imported long residue for
loading the vacuum distiller. Figure

Main
fractionator
(C-150)

Preflash
vessel

Unstabilised
naphtha

Preheat
train-3
Preheat
train-2

1 shows a simplified process flow

diagram of CDU-1.
Shell Global Solutions International
(SGSi) carried out the feasibility
study for the expansion of CDU-1.
Several options were studied to
debottleneck the main fractionator:
Replacement
of the existing
column internals with high-capacity
internals including the ConSep tray
for the most capacity-constrained
HGO pumparound section
Installation of a new crude prefractionator column to separate off
light naphtha and reduce the load
to the main fractionator. The capex
for this option was found to be $6
million higher than for option 1

Kerosene
Furnace-2
Stripping
steam

Crude
desalter

Furnace-1

LGO
Stripping
steam
HGO

Preheat
train-1

Stripping
steam
Long residue

Crude
charge

Figure 1 Simplified process flow diagram of CDU-1

www.eptq.com

sulzer.indd 1

PTQ Q1 2013 73

10/12/12 13:57:21

Installation of a new heavy end

column to recover the heavy gas oil
(HGO) dropped into the long residue to ofoad the main fractionator.
The capex for this option was found
to be $5.5 million higher than for
option 1.
On the basis of a comparison of
the revamp options, NZRC decided
to proceed with the ConSep tray
alternative owing to this options
lowest capex and most favourable
economics.

Contacting
deck

Separator
deck

Swirl deck
downcomer

Swirl
tubes

Hi-fi
downcomer

Shell ConSep tray technology

Figure 2 Schematic of ConSep tray

2.0

Relative capacity

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

ConSep tray
Hi-fi calming section tray
Conv. downcomer tray
Structural packaging

0.0
0.01

0.10

1.00

Flow parameter, ()
Figure 3 Comparison of column internal capacities
Overview of ConSep tray applications
Location
UK
Australia
Germany
Australia
Singapore
Japan
Sweden
Sweden
USA
Canada
New Zealand
Singapore
China
Japan

Diameter
1.9
1.9
2.2
1.7
2.5
2.1
2.0
1.0
2.3
1.0
4.6
1.8
3.2
2.5

1 Limited by reboiler capacity

Table 1

74 PTQ Q1 2013

sulzer.indd 2

Application
NGL debutaniser
FCCU debutaniser
HCU main fractionator
NGL debutaniser
FCCU debutaniser
FCC debutaniser
FCC debutaniser
C3/C4 splitter
C3/C4 splitter
Depropaniser
Crude distillation
PO drying column
Ethylene fractionator
FCC debutaniser
2 Limited by feed to column

Installed
Capacity increase, %
1995
221
1996
302
1999
50
1999
151
2000
201
2006
10
2006
20
2007
50
2006
12
2007
20
2009
222
2011
202
2011
Target 25%3
2013 (scheduled)
Target 15%3
3 No data yet

The ConSep tray utilises the principle of de-entrainment by centrifugal

forces to remove the gravitational
limitation of jet ood. Separation of
the entrained liquid before entering
the next tray allows very high
vapour velocities to be achieved in
the column. The tray combines the
features of a contacting deck and a
separator deck in a single tray. The
basic features of the tray are shown
in Figure 2. The functioning of the
contacting deck, which in fact is a
normal tray, is limited by three
hydraulic mechanisms: jet ooding,
downcomer choking and downcomer backup. The use of a
separator deck inuences all three
mechanisms:2
The jet ooding limit is extended
as the entrained liquid is efciently
separated from the vapour to
prevent carry-over of liquid to the
tray above
The liquid entering the main
downcomer is largely coming from
the separator deck, where it is well
degassed. As a result, the downcomer liquid handling capacity is
substantially increased
To eliminate downcomer backup
limitation, the separator deck is
designed with low-pressure drop
swirl tubes. The contacting deck is
also designed with a relatively high
open area.
Figure 3 shows the expected capacity gain of the ConSep tray over
conventional trays and packing.3
The ow parameter () is dened
as:
=L
V

Pv

PL

where Lv represents the liquid-tovapour mass ow ratio and Pv

PL

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 18:05:10

represents the ratio of vapour-toliquid density.

Typically, the ConSep tray is capable of offering a 40-50% capacity
advantage over a wide range of firstgeneration, high-capacity trays. In
most revamps, the column retrofitted with the ConSep tray becomes
limited by other factors such as
availability
of
feed
and/or
constraints on auxiliary equipment,
including
reboiler,
condenser,
pumps and so on, even before the
full potential of the ConSep tray is
realised. Table 1 shows some applications of this tray along with
benefits achieved and constraints
faced.

LGO

Inter
reflux

Tray 14

Tray 13

Modifications of main fractionator

(C-150)

www.eptq.com

sulzer.indd 3

Tray 12

HGO +
inter reflux

HGO
vapour

Figure 4 Schematic of HGO pumparound section of C-150

800

TBP temperature, C

During the feasibility study, the

HGO pumparound section of the
column was found to be severely
limiting for the targeted throughput
of 13 000 t/d. This section was
already fitted with Shell Calming
Section (CS)* trays. Since the first
generation of high-capacity internals was found inadequate to
debottleneck this section, ultrahigh-capacity ConSep trays were
selected. The trays were designed
to achieve 33% more capacity
compared to the CS tray.
The HGO pumparound section
consisted of three contacting trays
with a tray spacing of 500mm. A
one-for-one tray replacement with
ConSep trays was selected. Figure 4
shows a schematic drawing of the
HGO pumparound section fitted
with these trays. For the remaining
sections of the column, the following internals were suggested:
Stripping section: Shell HiFi*
trays
Wash
section:
MellapakPlus
252Y** packing
All other sections: Shell CS trays.
As this was the first application
of ConSep trays in this service, a
detailed study was carried out to
address the risks associated with
this application and the mitigations
were applied in the design. The
trays were manufactured by Sulzer
Chemtech. To ensure proper
performance of the trays in a relatively new application, rigorous
quality control steps were followed

700
600
500
400
300
200
100

Test run blend

Design blend

0
100

20

40

60

80

100

Weight, %
Figure 5 Comparison of design and test run crude TBP

at the manufacturing site and a

detailed mock-up assembly of tray
components was carried out at the
refinery site prior to installation in
the column.

Post-revamp performance

From conception to implementation, the project took four years,

and the revamp was implemented

during a normal planned shutdown

in October 2009 without affecting
the
units
availability.
The
performance test run of CDU-1 was
conducted in September 2010.
Crude throughput was maintained
at 13 000 t/d, although the crude
blend used during the test run was
marginally heavier than the one
considered for the revamp design.

PTQ Q1 2013 75

11/12/12 18:05:29

run conditions to evaluate hydraulic loading of the ConSep trays. In

Table 3, the key performance
indicators for these trays operating
under test run conditions are
compared with the design conditions. During the test run, the trays
were operating 10-15% lower than
design capacity, even at a design
intake of 13 000 t/d, due to:
Heavier feed than in the design
case
Less preheat recovery of the order
of 10-12C due to limitations in the
crude preheat train.
Based on a review of operating
experience since startup and the

Key design and test run operating conditions of C-150

Parameters
Crude intake, T/D
Naphtha, T/D
Kerosene, T/D
Light gas oil, T/D
Heavy gas oil, T/D
Long residue, T/D
Strip steam, T/D
Top press, barg

Design
13 000
4405.0
1498.8
1517.0
2014.5
3573.3
106.9
1.65

Test run
13 077
3516.4
2169.3
1116.1
1731.9
4271.1
149.5
1.95

Parameters
Design
Flash Zone press, barg 1.90
Feed temp, C
361.5
Top temp, C
180.8
Kero draw temp, C
216.5
LGO draw temp, C
244.2
HGO draw temp, C
280.7
Flash zone temp, C
343.9
Bottom temp, C
333.3

Test run
2.24
345.0
175.7
223.4
250.1
278.3
327.3
322.061

Table 2

Comparison of the design crude

blend and crude blend used during
the test run is shown in Figure 5.
Key design conditions and test run

Naphtha ASTM D86

150
100
50
0

20

40

60

Kerosene ASTM D86

300

Temperature, C

200

Temperature, C

operating conditions of C-150 are

shown in Table 2. The product quality is compared in Figure 6 (a-e).
C-150 was simulated for the test

80

250
200
150
100
50

100

20

40

LV, %
Light gas oil ASTM D86

250
200
150
100
50

300
250
200
150
100
50

20

40

60

80

100

20

40

60

80

100

LV, %

LV, %
Long residue ASTM D86

700

Temperature, C

100

350

300

80

Heavy gas oil ASTM D86

400

Temperature, C

Temperature, C

350

60

LV, %

Test run blend

Design blend

600
500
400
300
200
100
0

20

40

60

80

100

Wt, %
Figure 6(a-e) Comparison of design and test run product quality

76 PTQ Q1 2013

sulzer.indd 4

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 13:57:54

test runs results, it could be

concluded that the revamp targets
for the CDU-1 main fractionator
(C-150) were achieved. No hydraulic constraint was experienced in
achieving the design intake of
13 000 t/d and the required product quality was achieved.

Key performance indicators for ConSep trays

Parameters
Froth backup/CS height, %
Tray pressure drop, mbar
Tube flood , %
Flow parameter
Overall column load factor, m/s
Flooding (CS tray), %

Design
68
12.3
73
0.17
0.12
133

Test run
60
9.2
60
0.19
0.10
112

Conclusions

The performance of Shell ConSep

trays in the HGO pumparound
section of the CDU-1 main fractionator met the target of capacity
enhancement without any drawback
compared to the pre-revamp conditions. During the test run, the trays
were operating at 10-15% lower than
the design capacity even at the
design intake of 13 000 t/d due to
heavier crude feed and lower feed
temperature. However, the built-in
capacity margin enabled stable operation for the trays at much above
the capacity limit of the first generation of high-capacity trays.
The options to debottleneck
columns already equipped with the
first generation of high-capacity
trays are limited. ConSep trays
provide an attractive solution for

www.eptq.com

sulzer.indd 5

Table 3

such cases. In this revamp project,

use of only three of these trays in
the
most
capacity-constrained
section of the column made it possible to retrofit the existing column
and made the capex option more
attractive over the other debottlenecking options.
* Shell ConSep, Shell CS and Shell HiFi are Shell
trademarks. ** Mellapak Plus 252Y is a Sulzer
Chemtech trademark.
References
1 Refinery expansion means NZ more self
reliant, media release by NZRC, 16 July 2010.
2 Wilkinson P M, De Villiers W E, Mosca
G, Tonon L, Achieve challenging targets in
propylene yield using ultra system fractionation
trays, ERTC 2006.

3 De Villiers W E, Bravo J L, Wilkinson P M,

Summers D R, Further advances in light
hydrocarbon fractionation, PTQ Q3 2004.
Kaushik Majumder is Distillation Team Lead of
Shell Projects & Technology in Bangalore, India.
He holds a bachelors degree from Jadavpur
University, India, and a masters and doctorate
from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Email: Kaushik.Majumder@shell.com
Giuseppe Mosca is the Global Refinery
Technology Manager of Sulzer Chemtech.
He holds BS and MS degrees in chemical
engineering from the University La Sapienza
Rome, Italy.
Email: Giuseppe.Mosca@sulzer.com
Kent Mahon is a Process Engineer at Refining
NZ. He was the Senior Process Engineer and
Commissioning Process Engineer during the
Point Forward Project.
Email: Kent.Mahon@refiningnz.com

PTQ Q1 2013 77

11/12/12 18:05:58

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Steam reformers for hydrogen and

synthesis gas
Modern steam methane reformer design is a complex process that needs to be
carefully optimised in terms of capital and operating costs
NORM PELLETIER and GOUTAM SHAHANI
Selas Fluid Processing Corporation, a division of Linde Engineering

Shale gas

The historic and future supply,

demand and pricing for US natural
gas in a recent Department of
Energy study is shown in Figure 1.
This graph shows total natural gas
production in the US, where shale
gas production will increase from 5
trillion cu ft in 2010 to 13.6 trillion
cu ft in 2035, representing an annual
increase of 4.1% per annum. This
growth in natural gas production
will make the US a net exporter in
the early part of next decade. The
price of natural gas is expected to
increase to ~$7.4/MMbtu (2010
dollars) in 2035 based on supply,
demand and incremental cost of
production. It is expected that natu-

www.eptq.com

selas.indd 1

History

30

Volume, trillions cubic feet

he popular press and scientic literature has been rife

with references to the discovery of vast quantities of shale gas in
North America. This resource has
become economically recoverable
due to advances in horizontal drilling and well fracturing or fracking.
The advent of shale gas has been
referred to as a game-changer,
which has the potential to make
North America energy independent
and the rening and petrochemical
sectors more cost competitive.
Many renery operations and
petrochemical processes require
large quantities of hydrogen (H2)
and synthesis gas (carbon monoxide [CO] and H2, also known as
syngas). The dominant method of
producing H2 and syngas is steam
reforming of light and medium
hydrocarbons. This technology will
become even more popular in the
future with the advent of relatively
cheap natural gas.

Projections
Net exports, 2035 = 5%

25

Net imports, 2010 = 11%

20
10

15

Henry Hub spot market

natural gas prices
(2010 dollars per million BTU)

10
1990

Domestic production
Consumption
2000

2010

0
1990

2010

2020

2035

2035

Figure 1 Total US natural gas production, consumption and net imports

Source: Annual Energy Outlook 2013, Energy Information Administration, June 2012

ral gas will be relatively cheap

compared to other fuels on an
energy equivalent basis. Based on
these projections, it is expected that
the dominant method of producing
H2 and syngas is set to remain
steam methane reforming.

Petrochemical and rening

The rening and petrochemical

sectors consume large quantities of
H2, CO and syngas, which are
collectively known as HYCO.
Hydrogen is used for rening crude
oil, which is increasingly becoming
heavier and more sour. Also, ever
more stringent environmental regulations will drive H2 demand. In
addition, H2, CO and syngas are
used in various chemical synthesis
reactions. A summary of the major
industrial gases applications in
rening and petrochemicals is
shown in Table 1.
As noted previously, the dominant method of producing H2, CO
and syngas is steam reforming of

natural gas. H2, CO and syngas

plants require a hydrocarbon feedstock such as natural gas or naphtha
and utilities such as water, electricity and nitrogen. The outputs are
H2, CO, syngas and varying
amounts of steam. Given that these
plants are designed to last decades,
it is very important to understand
the current and future costs of feedstocks. This is essential to make the
appropriate
trade-off
between
capital
cost
and
feedstock
consumption.
In particular, consumers of
tonnage quantities of industrial
gases have to make informed
investment decisions in an uncertain economic environment. Plant
owners/operators need to examine
carefully their HYCO needs in
order to develop the most costeffective plant conguration for a
steam reformer. This can be done
by partnering with an experienced
engineering company that owns a
complete technology portfolio for

PTQ Q1 2013 79

10/12/12 14:05:47

Industrial gases in refining and

petrochemicals

Carbon monoxide (CO) Hydrogen (H2)

Acetic acid
Hydrotreating
Formic acid
Hydrocracking
Polycarbonates
Ammonia
Toluene di-isocyanate
Aniline

1,4 Butanediol
Syngas (CO + H2)
Cyclohexane
Methanol
Caprolactum
Oxo-alcohols
2-Ethylhexanol

Hexamethylenediame (HMDA)

Hydrogen peroxide

Isononyl alcohol

Toluene diamine (TDI)

Table 1

producing H2, CO and syngas.

Ideally, the engineering and manufacturing companies have to work
together as a single team to identify
the most efficient and economic
plant design. This includes an indepth assessment of capital and
operating costs, taking plant reliability and process safety into
account in order to deliver an optimal solution. It is important to
consider all the industrial gases as
well as steam and utility needs at a
given manufacturing complex, in
conjunction with available feedstock
and wastes to develop the best
possible long-term solution. All of
these industrial gas requirements
have to be examined over a longterm horizon in a holistic manner.

Reformer

Steam reforming of hydrocarbon

feedstock to produce H2, CO and
syngas has been the dominant process for producing H2, CO and

syngas for over 80 years. A simplified block flow diagram of the

steam methane reforming process
showing how the reformer fits into
the overall plant is depicted in
Figure 2.
Conversion of steam/hydrocarbon mixtures is carried out in
catalyst-filled tubes heated from the
outside for the production of
syngases rich in H2 and CO.
Feedstock can be methane, ethane,
LPG or naphtha. The basic design
criteria for reformers are burner
design and configuration, heat
recovery from the hot flue gases
and furnace control. A variety of
design options with burners
arranged in the ceiling or at the

The engineering
and manufacturing
companies have
to work as a single
team to identify the
most efficient and
economic plant design
sidewalls of the furnace can be
considered. The blue-shaded steam
reforming block in Figure 2 represents the furnaces radiant section,
where the tubes receive most of the
input heat by radiation. In the
convection section, heat is recovered in both the process streams
and steam system by convective

Waste heat
recovery

Demineralised
water
Steam process

Feed

heat transfer. Some other considerations are:

Desired operating temperature
and pressure
Amount of export steam
Feed flexibility for natural gas,
LPG and heavy naphtha
Burners for low NOx generation
and low noise generation
Selective catalytic reduction for
NOx control, if required
Flue gas heat recovery by preheating feed, water and generating
steam
Fully automatic reformer using
advanced control technology.
For large installations, the topfired design combines both process
and physical benefits to minimise
the total cost of ownership. The
top-fired design allows either
modularised or stick-built construction, taking the relative differences
in shop assembly versus field
construction costs into account.
Furthermore, this configuration
results in a compact firebox, leading
to fewer burners relative to the
number of tubes. The smaller
surface area per unit volume when
compared
with
sidewall-fired
reformers minimises heat loss and
reduces construction time. The
main advantages of a top-fired
design are.
Easy access to burners
Simplified
combustion control
with fewer burners
Heat recovery flexibility (omega,
horizontal, vertical orientations
available)
Maximum reforming efficiency
Highest heat flux due to cocurrent flow.

Feed
pretreatment

Export
steam
H2 recycle

Steam
reforming

CO-shift
conversion

Pressure
swing
absorption

Hydrogen

Tailgas

Fuel

Figure 2 Steam reforming

80 PTQ Q1 2013

selas.indd 2

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:06:03

INNOVATION SQUARED
3D TRASAR For
Crude Overhead Systems
Nalco Downstream Energy
Services is the global leader in
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For more than 80 years, we have
worked to build an unrivaled level
of experience and expertise with
over 1,200 employees operating
LQPRUHWKDQUHQHULHVDQG
400 petrochemical plants across
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Systems is a patent pending new
technology that combines an
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(suite of chemistries and predictive
simulation software), and experts to
deliver real time overhead
FRUURVLRQFRQWURO7KLVLQQRYD
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amount of chemistry to be delivered
at the right time by automating best
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nalco.indd 1

11/9/12 11:54:21

Engagement

Stage
StageIII
I
1 year
Pre-feasibility
Project
development

Stage
Stage III
II
1 year
Feasibility
Project
development
study

Stage III
1 year
Project
development

Stage IV
2 years
Project
execution

Request
for
Market
research
quotation
(RFQ)
Energy analysis
Estimate
Project
scope
Proposal
Site screening
Permits

Request
Preliminary
for
quotation
design
(RFQ)
Economic
Estimate
evaluation
Proposal
Project
Permits
justification
Authorisation

Request for
quotation (RFQ)
Estimate
Proposal
Permits

Engineering
Equipment
Construction
Start-up

Figure 3 Project development

Furthermore, optimisation of the

reformer with the waste heat recovery section can be tailored to suit
multiple design cases for varying
feedstock, fuels and steam requirements. The use of computational
uid dynamic (CFD) modelling and
three-dimensional design programs
integrates process design with the
physical layout.

Design considerations

The cost of producing industrial

gases is a primary consideration for
most owner -operators. A schematic
depicting the important cost considerations is presented in Table 2.
While some plant owner-operators
may focus on initial capital cost,
others pay equal attention to annual
operating cost. In reality, both

capital and operating costs are

important. For a rigorous assessment, it is ultimately worth
examining the unit cost of the
industrial gas. This captures both
capital and operating costs in a
single metric that can be optimised
as a function of size, scope and
location.
It is usually very expensive to
achieve the last increment of
performance,
whether
it
is

extremely high purity (99.999%) or

extremely high on-stream (99.9%).
This entails adding features such as
multiple instruments in critical
control loops, multiple rotating
equipment and backup power
supply. All of this adds cost and
may not provide value. By relaxing
overly
stringent
performance
criteria, it is possible to save time
and money. This can best be
achieved by an early dialog between

Design considerations
Capital cost
Process selection
Size of plant
Infrastructure (cooling water, electrical)
Energy efciency
Operating cost
Purity
Pressure
Plant optimisation
Capital/energy trade-off
Local cost of energy
Utility
Water availability
Electricity
Steam
Operations
Reliability
Time to full production
Turndown

Table 2

82 PTQ Q1 2013

selas.indd 3

Figure 4 Large reformer with required process optimisation

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 18:06:55

the plant owner-operator and plant

designer. A large, modern reformer
with the required process optimisation is shown in Figure 4.

Project development

It is also very important to consider

the co-products that can be
produced from a single process
plant. In general, producing multiple products such as H2, CO, CO2,
syngas, steam and electricity from a
HYCO plant reduces the unit cost
of each product. Producing multiple products from a single
production plant can be very cost
effective, since the fixed capital and
variable operating costs increase
only incrementally. Furthermore,
these increased costs can be allocated to multiple products, thereby
reducing the unit cost of all products. In order to achieve this sweet
spot, it is essential to consider all
possible scenarios early in the
development of a project.
A high-level timeline of typical
project development is presented in
Figure 3. Typically, a large, complex
industrial gas plant can take up to
five years from concept to startup.
During pre-feasibility (Stage I), it
is important to consider all possible
scenarios including co-products,
feedstock and capital versus energy
cost trade-offs. As the project gets
better defined, different process
cycles can be examined in the feasibility stage (Stage II). Once project
development is authorised and
permits are applied for in project
development (Stage III), further
changes to scope should be resisted.
While some changes may appear to
be cost justified for a small portion
of the project, usually these changes
add cost to the overall project and
delay the schedule. It is important
to maintain discipline during
project execution (Stage IV) as
equipment is ordered and fieldwork
begins. Even the best-conceived
projects on paper can be disasters
in the field if proper engineering
work practices are not followed.

costs, taking current and future

requirements into account. The
optimum solution is application
and site specific and needs to be
custom engineered to a large extent.
In order to achieve the best overall
solution, early engagement with a
qualified engineering company is
essential.
Norm Pelletier is Product Manager of Steam
Reformers at Selas Fluid Processing, a division
of Linde Engineering, Blue Bell, PA. He has
15 years process engineering and sales

experience across Lindes fired equipment

product lines lines, including refinery heaters,
LNG vapourisers and thermal oxidisers as
well as his current position in hydrogen and
syngas reforming. He holds a bachelors
degree in chemical engineering from Villanova
University.
Goutam Shahani is Business Development
Manager at Selas Fluid Processing, a division
of Linde Engineering, Blue Bell, PA. He has over
25 years industry experience specialising in
industrial gases for the energy, refining and
chemical industries. He holds bachelors and
masters degrees in chemical engineering and
an MBA.

BCD Packing Ring leading operators and OEMs confirm:

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Conclusion

Modern steam methane reformer

design is a complex process that
needs to be carefully optimised in
terms of capital and operating

www.eptq.com

selas.indd 4

www.hoerbiger.com

PTQ Q1 2013 83

10/12/12 14:57:59

enersul.indd 1

6/12/12 13:25:03

VDU vacuum system revamp

Revamping a VDUs vacuum system delivered operational improvements in a
refinery, but also led to safer and more efficient handling of non-condensed gases
AHMET BEBEK
Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation

he non-condensed gases from

a vacuum distillation unit
(VDU) are considered to be
waste gas. Since waste gas has some
H2S and H2O content, the disposal
of this waste gas poses serious safety
and environmental problems. In this
respect,
engineers
at
Tpras
Kirikkale refinery redesigned the

VDU tower top outlet downstream

section to treat the overhead gases
(non-condensables)
leaving
the
vacuum column. In place of an
underground atmospheric pit, the
installation of a barometric seal
system for a VDU vacuum system
was achieved. The existing vacuum
unit operation was not affected by

the erection, commissioning and

startup of the revamped vacuum
system. As a result of the installation
of a new barometric seal system,
gaseous releases to the atmosphere,
exposure of personnel to gaseous
releases and the risk of back-flow of
air into the vacuum unit have been
eliminated. The seal system also
Vent to
atmosphere
Non-condensed
vapour to
furnace

Steam
H-1B

Vacuum
unit
vapour

Knock-out
vessel

H-1A

Vacuum
unit
vapour

H-2B

H-2A
E-1A

H-3B

H-3A

H-4B

H-4A
Drain

E-1B

E-2

E-3

E-4

Atmospheric pit

SW to SWS
feed drum
P1

HC to slops
P2

Figure 1 Vacuum system with atmospheric pit

www.eptq.com

tupras.indd 1

PTQ Q1 2013 85

10/12/12 14:08:02

Non-condensed
vapour to
furnace

Steam
H-1B

Vacuum
unit
vapour
H-1A

Vacuum
unit
vapour

H-2B

H-2A
E-1A

H-3B

H-4B

H-3A

Vent to flare

H-4A

Vent to safe
location

E-1B

V4

E-2

E-3

E-4

V3

V1

V2

P3
P1
P2

SW to SWS
feed drum
MC to slops

Figure 2 Vacuum system with barometric seal vessels

helped in the disengagement of

liquid and non-condensables, leading to improvements in reliability
(for instance, a lower level of plugging in the non-condensables line
and improved vacuum in the tower).
Lastly, waste gas is burned by
a
dedicated
burner
in
the
vacuum heater furnace, which represents a significant saving in energy
costs.

Vacuum system before revamp

The VDU vacuum system is a

booster type (in four stages) with a
condensate leg for each condenser
(see Figure 1). Each stage has two
ejectors. The system achieves a
pressure of approximately 13.3
mbara top pressure and a flash
zone pressure of 66.6 mbara. The
ejectors are driven by mediumpressure steam (12.75 kg/cm2 and
192C). Condensers downstream of

86 PTQ Q1 2013

tupras.indd 2

the ejectors use water as a cooling

medium.
The non-condensed vapour from
the last-stage ejector was passed to

Waste gas is burned

by a dedicated
burner in the vacuum
heater furnace,
which represents a
significant saving in
energy costs
the VDUs furnace via a small knockout vessel. This stream had a high
wet H2S content. It was common
(once a week) for this line to become
plugged. When this occurred, the

vacuum level in the VDU decreased,

resulting in a significant disturbance
to operations. While the plugged line
was steamed out, the non-condensables from the last-stage ejector were
directed to atmosphere, giving rise
to offensive smells in the area.
The condensed steam and hydrocarbons from each ejector condenser
were passed directly to an underground atmospheric pit. Overflow
separation of hydrocarbons took
place in this pit. The liquid hydrocarbon was sent to a slops system
and the aqueous phase was directed
for further treatment to the sour
water stripper unit.
Even when waste gas was burned
in the furnace, there was still
airborne H2S in the area surrounding
the
vacuum
columns
underground atmospheric pit, causing offensive smells. This was due
to fact that the atmospheric pit was

www.eptq.com

12/12/12 11:11:36

not sealed and waste gas dissolved

in the condensate was being
released to the atmosphere. Clearly,
there had to be an improvement in
the management of health, safety
and environment in the area.

The approach

Tpras Kirikkale refinery constantly

invests to minimise the adverse
impact of refining activities on the
environment, employees and the
public, to offer the safest possible
working environment. In this
respect, the existing vacuum unit
was revamped to prevent waste gas
release to the atmosphere, which
was causing safety problems for
personnel. The other basis for this
work was to prevent the risk of air
backflow into the vacuum unit to
deal with the case of failure of ejectors. Lastly, the revamp was
designed to eliminate operational
disturbances resulting from plugging of the waste gas line, which
was leading to a decrease in unit
capacity and loss of operating
margin.
The major component of the
condensed stream originated from
the vacuum towers non-condensed
vapour and from medium-pressure
steam as a utility. The installation
of a barometric seal system for the
VDU vacuum system seemed the
best option to solve the problems
mentioned, especially the health,
safety and environmental issues.
The existing vacuum units operation should not be adversely
affected by the erection, commissioning and startup of the revamped
vacuum system. The revamp should
not give rise to any negative impact
on the columns vacuum level.

New vacuum system

The underground atmospheric pit

was replaced with a barometric seal
system (see Figure 2). The purpose
of the barometric seal system was
to achieve good separation of noncondensed vacuum tower top
outlets after they are condensed by
the ejectors. In addition to this
change, the final-stage ejector
nozzles were replaced in order to
provide a pressure high enough to
send waste gas to the furnace.
There was no other design change

www.eptq.com

tupras.indd 3

to either the ejectors or the

condensers.
The configuration of the present
barometric seal system is described
below. The condensed hydrocarbons and water from the first-,
second- and third-stage condensers
pass to the first seal vessel via a
barometric seal leg. The condensed
hydrocarbons and water from the
fourth-stage condenser pass to the
second seal vessel. The noncondensed
vapour
from
the
fourth-stage condenser passes to a
waste gas seal vessel via a seal pipe
that is about 17m high, to prevent
ingress of air. The last vessel is the
knockout vessel. The primary
purpose of this vessel is to remove

The existing vacuum

units operation
should not be
adversely affected
by the erection,
commissioning
and startup of the
revamped vacuum
system
entrained liquid droplets in the
offgas stream before it is sent for
disposal. The offgas from this vessel
then passes to three separate locations: the vacuum furnace (a
dedicated waste gas burner), the
flare (when there are problems
sending to furnace) and the safe
location (only during startup). The
routes to the furnace or safe location are provided with flame
arresters.
Water in the water compartment
of the first seal vessel is circulated
between the other vessels at all
times to prevent any breakthrough
of H2S and thus prevent build-up of
corrosive and fouling material.
Excess sour water is pumped to the
sour water stripper unit. Since separation of water and hydrocarbons is
improved in comparison to the old
underground pit design (in which

hydrocarbon was sent to the slops

system), the hydrocarbon from the
seal vessels can be pumped to the
feed pool of the deep diesel desulphurisation unit.

Results

Tpras Kirikkale refinery redesigned the vacuum system of the

vacuum distillation unit. An atmospheric pit was replaced with a
barometric seal system. This change
resulted in good separation of noncondensed gases from the vacuum
towers top outlets after condensing
by ejectors. The achievements of
this revamp are:
Wet H2S release to atmosphere
from both the atmospheric pit and
the knock-out vessel has been
prevented
The possibility of exposure of
personnel to wet H2S release has
been avoided
The risk of a back-flow of air into
the vacuum unit has been
eliminated
The heating value of hydrocarbons in the waste gas can be used.
300 kg/h of waste gas is consumed
in a dedicated special burner in the
VDUs furnace. This results in a
saving in fuel of 1.4 Gcal/h
The reliability of the vacuum
system has been improved because
the seal system has helped in
disengagement of liquids and noncondensables. There has been less
plugging of the non-condensables
line to the furnace and an improved
vacuum level in the tower. In this
way, a decrease in capacity leading
to margin loss has also been
prevented
Separation of hydrocarbons and
water has been improved. As a
result, hydrocarbons are being sent
to the diesel pool instead of the
slops system, thereby avoiding
reprocessing in the crude unit and
so decreasing operational costs.
Ahmet Bebek is an Operations Superintendent
in the Production Department of Tpras
Kirikkale Refinery, Turkey. He holds a BS
in chemical engineering from Middle East
Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, a MS in
process systems engineering from Technical
University of Dortmund, Germany, and a MS
in industrial engineering from Middle East
Technical University, Ankara.
Email: Ahmet.Bebek@tupras.com.tr

PTQ Q1 2013 87

10/12/12 14:08:26

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itw.indd 1

11/9/12 11:45:38

Reducing carbon emissions with

antifoulants
Carbon emission regulations make refinery operation more costly, but appropriate
antifoulant treatment and monitoring can reduce these costs substantially
INDIA NAGI-HANSPAL, MAHESH SUBRAMANIYAM, PARAG SHAH and JAMES NOLAND
Dorf Ketal Chemicals

www.eptq.com

dorf ketal.indd 1

Asph al t e n e con t e n t , %








Ec
ua
do
ria
So Ma n
ro ya
o
N sh
O apo
M ri
Ra er ent
s ey e
Ra Bu 16
s dr
G a
N ha n
ow ri
b
E ro
So oc oz
u en
Za edi e
Al afr eh
R an
Be ayy a
la an
y
Ra ium
ta
Po wi
lv
Le Kh o
a
Ba ona fji
h 2
Le erg 2
PD ona an
Ar VS 24
ab A
H 22
e
M avy
ar
l
Kuim
ito

Figure 1 Asphaltene content of selected crudes

LHCCM
DSVEF
H
()(T.+
3#0#














Z

oY


3









Z

oY


3















Re f i n i n g GHG e mi ssi on s,
g CO2 e / MJ RBOB



Re f i n i n g GHG e mi ssi on s,
kg CO2 e / bbl oi l

he UN Kyoto Protocol set the

first binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
in 1997. Although the US and China
declined to participate, 37 industrialised countries and the European
Union now regulate carbon emissions, and the trend seems clear.
The EU Energy Pact targets a 20%
reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020,
and a carbon pricing scheme takes
effect in Australia in 2013.
These are challenging times for
refineries. Sulphur levels must be
reduced in finished fuels to meet
increasingly strict specifications
driven by new emission control
technologies in motor vehicles.
Meanwhile, crude feedstocks are
becoming heavier, higher in sulphur
and more difficult (and energy
intensive) to process.
Refineries are significant sources
of carbon emissions, much of it in
the form of CO2 from burning fuels
to distill, crack and hydrotreat their
feedstocks. In spite of the caps and
fees imposed on carbon, demand
for refinery products continues to
grow, increasing refinery energy
use and emissions. Heavier, sourer
crude feedstock adds to the
problem.
The costs are substantial: energy
costs for a typical refinery are 5060% of total operating costs,
excluding feedstocks.1 Efficiency,
always a high priority in refinery
operations, has never been more
important or more difficult to
attain.
Since crude cost is the single most
important determinant of a refinerys profitability,2 price differentials
on challenging crudes have considerable appeal, even though unit




Crude gravity, API

Figure 2 Greenhouse gas emissions decline with increase in API3

designs often limit feedstock flexibility and heavy crudes can lead to
fouling problems both of which
increase carbon emissions that must
be factored into the refinery operating cost model.
Consider the current approximate
prices of Murban crude (0.6 wt%
asphaltenes) and Maya (10.0 wt%

asphaltenes). Since Maya is $ 13.61/

bbl cheaper than Murban, a refinery
processing 100 000 b/d can save up
to $ 1 361 000/day in feedstock
costs alone. As the small sample of
crudes in Figure 1 shows, Maya is
just one of many common highasphaltene crudes.
Processing these heavy, high-

PTQ Q1 2013 89

10/12/12 14:19:03

sulphur crudes consumes more

energy and increases greenhouse
gas emissions (see Figure 2).
Calculations of actual costs can be
quite complex, in part because
different fuels are often used at various stages within the refinery. Fuel
oil and fuel gas are common choices
in refinery furnaces, and their energy
content and emissions differ.
Although it typically takes less refinery fuel oil to heat the feedstock to
the target temperature than would
be the case with refinery fuel gas
(refinery fuel oil has a calorific value
of 8740 kcal/m3 compared to 10 000
kcal/m3 for fuel gas), fuel oil carbon
emissions are usually higher per
unit of fuel consumed.
Refinery feedstock is another
important consideration. Crude
production may generate enough
CO2 emissions to make a given feedstock more costly overall. Oil shale
production, for example, has been
shown to contribute more heavily to
carbon emissions than the extraction
of other hydrocarbons.
These issues are increasingly
important because of the way
carbon emissions regulations work.
The Western Climate Initiative in
selected Canadian provinces and
California is running a cap-andtrade scheme. In Europe, the EU
Energy Pact contains key targets for
the year 2020, in particular a 20%
reduction in CO2 emissions (from
1990 levels) that is designed to
ensure that at least 20% of total
energy consumption comes from
renewable sources.

Emission Trading Scheme

To meet the new targets, many

countries will adopt Kyoto mechanisms such as the Emission Trading
Scheme (ETS), through which countries can buy carbon credits known
as emission reduction units. These
can be bought from clean development mechanism projects or carbon
emission reductions from joint
implementation projects.
European Union cap-and-trade
regulations are the largest such ETS
to date. Companies there are
granted emissions allowances that
they can buy, sell or trade with
each other, but at the end of the
year each company must have

90 PTQ Q1 2013

dorf ketal.indd 2

enough emissions allowances to

cover their total emissions.
The EU ETS regulates 46% of the
EUs CO2 emissions by capping the
amount of CO2 that can be emitted
from factories and plants. Once
Phase III (2013-2020) of the scheme
is under way, more restrictive
controls on emissions can be
expected, along with more efforts to
reduce carbon credit consumption.
Support for these schemes is not
unanimous. Canada withdrew from
the Kyoto Protocol in December
2011 to avoid heavy fines for failure
to meet emissions targets. China,
one of the worlds largest emitters of
greenhouse gases, has not signed the
Kyoto Protocol, but even there plans
are already under way to launch a
few pilot cap-and-trade markets and
to establish a fully operational
carbon market by 2015.
In spite of these regional differences, it is clear to refiners
worldwide that carbon costs are
becoming significant variables in the
refinery cost equation, and many are
actively seeking opportunities to
reduce emissions by increasing efficiency. Their first targets are the
systems that consume fuel for
instance, furnaces and preheaters
where efficiency depends on
feedstock, fuel source and combustion efficiency.
Efficiency gained from feedstock
changes must be weighed against
the profit potential from lowerpriced crudes. Changing fuel types
can entail a significant investment
and can have a substantial impact
on operations. Combustion improvers are a lower-cost option that may
help in some cases.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
is another alternative. As the name
implies, CCS limits the amount of
CO2 released into the atmosphere
by capturing CO2 and storing it in
geological formations underground.
This, too, is capital intensive. CCS
is the way of the future despite its
economic implications.

Antifoulants

Antifoulants offer another way to

improve efficiency, a proven
approach that entails little or no
capital investment. Antifoulants can
also improve gross margins by

enhancing refinery feedstock flexibility, and costs are usually very low
in comparison to the alternatives.
Uncontrolled fouling decreases
heat transfer efficiency and throughput, increasing fuel consumption
and carbon emissions. Feedstock
flexibility is impaired and, if left
untreated, fouling reduces throughput and can force units offline for
cleaning or repair.
Fouling is of two general types:
inorganic and organic. The former is
usually caused by elevated levels of
metals in refinery feedstocks, typically occurs between 150 and 360C,
and tends to increase the potential
for costly and dangerous corrosion.
Crudes produced from deep oceanic
locations often exhibit inorganic
fouling due to contaminants such as
salts, filterable solids, basic sediments and corrosion products.
Organic fouling generally occurs
above 250C in cracked streams,
often as a result of high asphaltene
content or incompatible blends of
asphaltenic and paraffinic crudes.
Whether the fouling is inorganic or
organic, success with antifoulants
depends on careful monitoring. Key
parameters include heat transfer
rates, heat exchanger duties,
approach enthalpies, feedstock
composition, CO2 emissions and
fuel combustion efficiency.
Selection of antifoulant is also
important, especially with todays
increasingly
sour
feedstocks.
Sulphidation is common with these
crudes, leading to iron sulphidepromoted fouling. In most cases,
antifoulants must therefore be effective on asphaltenes and iron
sulphide.
Antifoulants work by stabilising
asphaltenes that would otherwise
become destabilised when heated.
This prevents deposition of polynuclear aromatics that, upon further
heating, can form coke. Left
unchecked, fouling reduces heat
transfer from the heating media to
the cold stream and increases the
furnace loading needed to achieve
the required coil outlet temperature.
Figures 3 and 4 illustrate antifoulant functionality by comparing
untreated feedstock with treated
samples. Asphaltenes that agglomerate and settle out in minutes

www.eptq.com

12/12/12 12:48:32

safe & sound

Integrating people, process and knowledge for better performance.

Experion PKS Orion provides the only truly integrated safety and
security solution, supporting complete operational integration through
a single dashboard. Additionally, a new Universal Safety I/O module
supporting control in the field, the Universal Safety Logic Solver,
safeguards the process even in the event communication with the
Safety Manager is interrupted. This advance reduces cost while
increasing availability and efficiency.

www.honeywellprocess.com

2012 Honeywell International, Inc. All right reserved.

honeywell.indd 1

11/9/12 11:44:18

Without additive

With additive

Figure 3 Asphaltene dispersion studies with and without antifoulant

Agglomerated
asphaltenes

Dispersed
asphaltenes
11:41 am

3:50 pm

Figure 4 Testing under a microscope: agglomerated and dispersed asphaltenes

1.92

Throughput, /m3

1.90
1.88
1.86
1.84
1.82
1.80
1.78

Conclusion
No antifoulant

With antifoulant

Figure 5 Specic fuel cost with and without antifoulant

without
antifoulant
treatment
remained stabilised for an hour or
more in the test.
Experience indicates that antifoulants can increase furnace inlet
temperature by 5 to 15C in fouled
systems. It is possible to do even
better with periodic cleaning. The
way the antifoulant is applied has
considerable inuence on the

92 PTQ Q1 2013

dorf ketal.indd 3

Renery X was running at an average throughput of >300 000 b/d.

The average coil outlet temperature
(COT) when the feedstock was
treated with antifoulants met the
renery standard required to
produce target yields of downstream nished products. Without
antifoulant, the target COT was
often impossible to achieve, and
considerably more energy was
required (see Figure 5).
Antifoulant treatment signicantly reduced the fuel consumption
required to maintain target COT,
lowering specic fuel costs by
nearly 4% (see Figure 6). This saved
the renery approximately 41 000
per month on fuel alone.
At an average carbon credit value
of 16 per ton of CO2, renery
carbon cost savings would total
59 000, raising the overall nancial impact of antifoulant treatment
to approximately 100 000 per
month (see Figure 7).

results, and choosing the correct

injection point is especially important. A suction pump upstream of
the main fouling exchangers is
ideal.

Case study

The following case study illustrates

the potential benets of antifoulants
on fuel cost and CO2 emissions.

Carbon emission regulations make

renery operation more costly, but
appropriate antifoulant treatment
and monitoring have been shown
to reduce these costs substantially.
Antifoulants also allow reners to
enhance gross rening margins by
exploiting lower-cost feedstocks.
They reduce the fuel consumption
required to maintain coil outlet
temperatures for target throughput
rates. As a whole, antifoulants
are an environmentally friendly
choice with attractive economic
benets.

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:19:23

Specific fuel consumption,

kg/m3

7.98
7.96
7.94

41,000 in
59,000 in
fuel savings carbon credits

7.92
7.90
7.88
7.86
7.84

No antifoulant

With antifoulant

Figure 6 Specic fuel consumption with and without antifoulant

References
1 Based on a natural gas price of about $6/MM
Btu for a typical 100 KBPSD renery that emits
1.2-1.5 MM t/yr of CO2.
2 Stockle M, Carter D, Jones L, Optimising
Renery CO2 Emissions, Foster Wheeler
Technical Paper www.fwc.com/publications/
tech_papers/les/ERTC%20CO2%20paper%2
0Nov07.pdf
3 Brandt A R, Unnasch S, Energy intensity and
greenhouse gas emissions from California
thermal enhanced oil recovery, Energy & Fuels
2010: Keesom W, Unnasch S, Moretta J, Life cycle

www.eptq.com

dorf ketal.indd 4

assessment comparison of North American

and imported crudes. Technical report, Jacobs
Consultancy and Life Cycle Associates for
Alberta Energy Resources Institute, 2009.

India Nagi-Hanspal is Lead Renery Engineer,

Technical Services with Dorf Ketal Chemicals,
Mumbai, India. She holds a MEng degree in
chemical engineering from Imperial College
London. Email: indianagi@dorfketal.com
Mahesh Subramaniyam is Director of Research
& Development with Dorf Ketal Chemicals. He

Figure 7 Financial benet of antifoulant

treatment
holds a PhD in chemistry from Indian Institute
of Technology, Mumbai.
Email: drmaheshs@dorfketal.co.in
Parag Shah works in Global Renery Technical
Services with Dorf Ketal Chemicals in software
development for desalter adequacy testing and
monitoring fouling in preheat exchanger trains.
He holds a BEng in chemical engineering from
Mumbai University.
Email: paragshah@dorfketal.com
James Noland is Senior Director of the Process
Chemicals Division of Dorf Ketal USA, LLC. He
holds a BEng in chemical engineering from
Mississippi State University, USA.
Email: james.noland@dorfketal.com

PTQ Q1 2013 93

12/12/12 10:55:27

Focusing on your safety

We offer peace of mind when it comes to your process safety and productivity.
Metso is a single source for all your process control needs, from automation systems
to intelligent flow control solutions that are proven in the toughest conditions.
Our 30,000 professionals based in over 50 countries deliver sustainability and
profitability to customers worldwide.

www.metso.com/oilandgas

metso.indd 1

11/9/12 11:42:58

Towards a zero (net) carbon refinery

Review of options for refiners to reduce the carbon emissions from their refineries.
The technologies already exist to develop a refinery that has zero net emissions
MICHAEL STOCKLE
Foster Wheeler

he well-to-wheel emissions
for petrol and diesel can be
split into three main parts: oil
production and transportation, oil
processing and transportation, and
emissions from the consuming
engines. In order to reduce emissions and meet targets for carbon

reduction, it is likely that all three

parts of the chain will need to make
some contribution.
While the processing of oil in the
refinery
contributes
around
only 5-10% of the total well-towheel emissions, the opportunities
for reducing these are significant

due to the nature of the processes

used, the fuels available and the
fact that these are large-scale fixed
location processes making applications such as carbon capture and
storage (CCS) more practical than
they would be on individual
vehicles.

LPG
treater

LPG

LPG
Naphtha

H2
H2

SFG

Light
Naphtha

Naphtha
HDT

Naphtha

Naphtha
splitter

CDU

LPG
ISOM
H2

Heavy
Naphtha

H2

Crude

Iso-M
C4s

FG

CCR

Reformate Reformate

Gasoline

splitter

Heavy
reformate

SFG

Reformate
Treated gasoline

Kero
HDT

Kerosene

Jet
H2

Diesel
HDT

Diesel

H2

SFG
H2

LPG
Atmospheric
residuals

VGO

FCC

LCO
Naphtha
LCO/DCO

VDU

SFG

WN
Vacuum residuals

Diesel

SFG

FCC Nap
HDT

LCO/DCO
Diesel

SFG

Kerosene
Gas oil

Visibreaker

HSFO

Residue
Atmospheric residuals

SFG

Amine
treatment
FG

H2S

Fuel gas
system

SRU
LPG

Sulphur
Hydrogen
plant

H2

Figure 1 Refinery configuration

www.eptq.com

fw.indd 1

PTQ Q1 2013 95

12/12/12 12:13:12

no fossil fuel-derived carbon is

emitted).

5000

TPD of CO2

4000

Sources of CO2 in the refinery

Utilities

3000
2000
1000
0

HPU SRU
Visbreaker
FCC
DHT
Naphtha
CDU

Base sources

Figure 2 Base case carbon emissions

This article will look at the main

sources of carbon emissions from a
refinery and consider a range of
options for reducing the carbon
impact of the refinery, starting with
fuel substitution and energy efficiency, then moving on to how
technologies such as CCS and
renewable power generation could
be integrated into the refinery.
The article will look at the impact
of making these changes on refinery
economics and show one possible
solution that, at a sufficiently high
carbon price, could see a zero net
carbon refinery (that is, one where

Sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) in

the refinery can be categorised into
four main groups:
Fuel to process units
Steam and power production
Hydrogen production
FCC coke (where applicable).
The emissions of an individual
refinery depend on a number of
factors. The configuration of the
refinery is a key factor, as complex
upgrading refineries produce more
CO2 than simple hydroskimming
configurations, but they tend to
produce more of the fuels society
demands (gasoline and diesel) per
barrel of oil processed. The fuels
used in the refinery also have an
impact, as do the crudes processed.
Heavy, sour crudes require more
energy to process than do light,
sweet crudes.
In order to quantify the relative
sizes of the emissions, we can look
at a typical refinery configuration
and the CO2 emitted from it. In this
article, we have considered an FCCbased European refinery processing

CO2 emissions for typical fuels

Fuel
Calorific value, kJ/kg
CO2 tonnes/tonne

Methane
50 000
2.75
Ethane
47 500
2.93
Propane
46 300
3.00
Ethylene
47 200
3.14
Fuel oil
40 000
3.21
Hydrogen
119 900
0

CO2 tonnes/FOE* tonne

*Fuel oil equivalent
2.20
2.47
2.59
2.67
3.21
0

5000

TPD of CO2

Utilities

HPU SRU
Visbreaker
FCC
DHT
Naphtha

1000
0

CDU

Base

Figure 3 Comparison of impact of natural gas firing

96 PTQ Q1 2013

fw.indd 2

Utilities

3000
2000

150 000 b/d of Ekofisk Crude that

generates all power and steam onsite from refinery fuel gas and fuel
oil. Figure 1 shows the main configuration of this refinery. The
emissions from this refinery are
shown in Figure 2.

Options for reducing refinery carbon

emissions
There are a number of ways of
reducing the carbon emissions of a
refinery, ranging from relatively
simple, low-cost options to complex,
capital-cost-intensive options. These
options can be grouped into a
number of areas and we will
consider each area in turn.

Energy efficiency

Table 1

4000

Hydrocarbon fuels
contain very different
levels of carbon and
result in significant
carbon emissions
for the same level of
energy requirement

HPU SRU
Visbreaker
FCC
DHT
Naphtha
CDU

Nat. gas firing

The first area of focus is energy efficiency. The other options we pursue
will tend to be more expensive than
the current energy sources in the
refinery (if they were cheaper, they
would already be used) and so
making the most of the energy we
do use will become even more
important.
Even refineries that consider
themselves good performers in
terms of energy efficiency can do
more, and this is illustrated by a
recent study Foster Wheeler
completed for a top-quartile refinery in northern Europe. This study
resulted in operational improvement and investments being
identified that could save around
10% of the fuel used in the refinery,
and the potential projects had an
estimated payback of less than 18
months. In our example, we will
assume our base case 150 000 b/d
refinery has already achieved a
high level of efficiency and

www.eptq.com

12/12/12 12:13:23

Hydrocarbon fuels contain very

different levels of carbon and result
in significant carbon emissions for
the same level of energy requirement. Table 1 compares the impact
of different fuel sources on carbon
emissions.
Figure 3 shows the total refinery
CO2 emissions from our 150 000
b/d refinery, assuming all heat and
power
is
generated
on-site,
compared with likely emissions if
natural gas was imported into the
refinery for power generation.
We can see that moving from
fuel oil firing to natural gas firing
reduces emissions from the refinery by about 13%. Of course, the
economics of this option are highly
dependent on the relative prices of
natural gas and fuel oil. In the US,
where the differential between
natural gas and crude price is
wide, natural gas firing will be
increasingly attractive. In Europe,
the incentive will be lower, but
will still generally favour natural
gas firing where available. Figure 4
shows the natural gas price
required to break even on energy
cost versus fuel oil at varying
carbon prices.

30
25
20

$/tonne CO2
0
25
50

15
10
5
0

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

Fuel oil price, $/bbl

Figure 4 Natural gas breakeven price at varying carbon price

5000
4000

TPD of CO2

Fuel substitution

Natural gas price, $/MMBTU

will focus on other options to

reduce the emissions from the
refinery.

Utilities

3000
HPU SRU
Visbreaker
FCC
DHT
Naphtha

2000
1000
0

CDU

Base

Utilities
HPU SRU
Visbreaker
FCC
DHT
Naphtha
CDU

Low carbon
electricity purchase

Figure 5 Impact on carbon emissions of electrical power purchase

3,000,000
2,500,000

Captured
Emitted

In our example 150 000 b/d refinery, we have assumed that all of
the refinery's power requirements
are generated on-site. One way to
reduce the refinery's emissions
would be to generate this power
from low-carbon sources, either onsite or by purchasing green power
over the fence.
If we replace all of the on-site
power generation with imported
low-carbon power, emissions drop,
as shown in Figure 5.
This option reduces on-site emissions by 28%, but is dependent on
a reliable supply of green power. If
power was required to be generated on-site, options such as wind
and solar could be evaluated, but
again the dependability of these
sources may be an issue, and
investment is likely to be required

www.eptq.com

fw.indd 3

TPA CO2

Green heat and power

2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0

Base

Full post-combustion
Pre-combustion
capture
capture (except FCC)

Figure 6 Impact of carbon capture

in backup systems (which will not

offer a carbon saving) or energy
storage.
If we combined natural gas firing
and low-carbon power purchase,
we can achieve an emissions reduction by almost 40% from the
original base case. To make further

reductions in emissions, other, less

conventional options need to be
investigated. These could include:
Renewable sources of heat, such
as heat from concentrated solar
power (CSP) or electrical heating
from green power
Carbon capture

PTQ Q1 2013 97

12/12/12 12:13:35

Carbon capture

There are a number of ways that

carbon capture can be integrated
into the refinery. All three of the
commonly
proposed
capture
schemes (pre-combustion, postcombustion and oxyfuel capture)
can be used in the refinery, with all
three schemes technically viable in
some of the refinery processes.
Carbon capture can typically
recover up to 90% of the carbon in
the fuel and can enable a refinery to
get much closer to a zero carbon
target. We will look at two options.
The first one sees us change all of
the fired heaters in the refinery to
fire on hydrogen and capture the
CO2 produced in making hydrogen
(pre-combustion capture). For the
second, post-combustion capture
can be added on all sources of
carbon from the refinery.
Carbon capture can deliver a
large reduction in emissions, but it
still cannot achieve 100% carbon
emission-free processing in the
refinery. Even combining capture
with the other options considered,
using natural gas as fuel, importing
power and implementing CCS,
around 8% of the carbon emitted in
the base case is still emitted. Of
course, consideration also needs to

Bio-derived
Captured
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000

TPA CO2

Use of biomass-derived or other

low-net carbon fuels.
There are several potential
renewable sources of heat that
could be used in a refinery. Green
power could be used in electrical
heaters, and CSP or geothermal
power could be used as sources of
heat to generate steam. These
options have not been considered
in detail in this article, but could
offer opportunities for refiners
with easy access to abundant and
cost-effective sources of these types
of energy.

800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0

Carbon
emissions

Figure 7 Carbon emissions from the zero

net carbon refinery

be given to where the CO2 is stored,

but this is outside the scope of this
article.
To achieve a net emission of no
fossil-derived carbon, we need

Carbon capture can

typically recover up
to 90% of the carbon
in the fuel and can
enable a refinery to
get much closer to a
zero carbon target
alternative fuel sources that are not
fossil-fuel based. The obvious
choice here is biomass-based fuels.
The carbon from these sources has
been captured from the atmosphere
and will be captured again as plants
grow, absorbing the emissions. An
alternative option could be to use
hydrogen produced from electrolysis using green electricity, but the

Impact of bio-derived gas and carbon capture on emissions

Net emissions (TPA)
when using biogas
Biogas emissions as 0%
% of natural gas
20%

50%

80%

10%
68 830
82 418
102 801
123 184

Table 2

98 PTQ Q1 2013

fw.indd 4

% natural gas from biomass

20%
50%
70%
886
-202 944
-338 830
28 064
-135 000
-243 710
68 830
-33 085
-101 029
109 595
68 830
41 652

100%
-542 660
-406 774
-202 944
886

costs of this are high and significant

levels of power are required.
Therefore, this is not considered
further here.
A number of biomass-based fuels
could potentially be used in the
refinery, with everything from
wood chips to algae being potential
fuels for the utilities boilers. For the
process units, converting to solid
fuels would be more challenging:
so, in order to keep the assumptions simple, we will look at an
example where some of the
purchased natural gas is replaced
with bio-derived methane. This
could be produced from anaerobic
digestion or by methanation of bioderived syngas.
The production of the biogas uses
energy and, because this is not all
carbon-free, there are still some
emissions associated with using this
gas. In our example where we
combine power import, natural gas
import and full post-combustion
capture, our refinery still emits
around 140 000 t/y of CO2 (about
8% of the original emissions). To
get to a zero net carbon refinery,
this amount would need to be
equivalent to the bio-derived
content of the biogas.
Figure 7 shows the emissions on
the zero net refinery. Table 2 shows
the level of biogas firing required at
different levels of carbon reduction
achieved by the biogas.
From Table 2, we can see that at
high rates of replacement of natural
gas with biogas, it is possible to
actually achieve negative overall
emissions from the refinery and, in
effect, decarbonise some of the
product, although the impact on
products is small, with even the
most optimistic case reducing emissions from the products by about
only 2.5%.

Conclusions

We have seen that a number of

options exist for refiners to reduce
the carbon emissions from their
refineries. The technologies already
exist to develop a refinery that has
zero net emissions. The challenge in
achieving this is not technical, but
commercial, with refiners requiring
sufficient incentive and capital to
invest, and sufficient protection

www.eptq.com

12/12/12 12:13:49

against the impacts that lower

carbon emissions could have on
their competitive position in their
domestic and export markets.
Current high oil prices mean that
the returns on energy efciency are
good and most reneries are likely
to nd some attractive investments
in this area. Where natural gas is
available, changing from fuel oil
ring to natural gas ring is also
likely to be attractive. Steps beyond
these options are generally less
attractive nancially unless there is
a sufciently high carbon price or
appropriate level of government
subsidy.
Previous Foster Wheeler studies
have shown a carbon price of
around $60/t CO2 is required to
justify the investment in carbon
capture. The higher cost of
biomass-derived fuels means that
similar or higher levels of subsidy/
carbon tax are required to
make this option economically
attractive.

Current high oil prices

mean that the returns
on energy efciency
are good and most
reneries are likely to
nd some attractive
investments in
this area
This results in a hierarchy of
actions for any rener looking to
reduce carbon emissions:
Maximise design efciency and
operate efciently
Minimise the carbon in the fossils
fuels you use
Capture the carbon you cannot
avoid and/or move to low-carbon
fuels and power.
The right solution will, of course,

depend upon the specic circumstances and business objectives of a

particular renery, and the full
range of options need to be studied
in order to develop a robust technical
solution
and
optimised
investment plan.

Mike Stockle is Chief Engineer of Rening

Technology with Foster Wheeler and currently
works in the Business Solutions Group in
Reading, UK. During his time at Foster Wheeler,
he has worked on a number of rening projects,
ranging from a grassroots renery conguration
studies and FEEDs, through major renery
revamps, to a number of small studies. He is an
experienced LP modeller and has undertaken
a number of feasibility and front-end studies
looking at the impacts of changing markets
and legislation on reneries across the globe.
He holds an MEng in chemical engineering
from Nottingham University and is a Chartered
Engineer and a Fellow of the IChemE.
Email: michael_stockle@fwuk.fwc.com

Triple eccentric
Butterfly Valves
Check Valves
Double Block and Bleed
ESD Valves
www.zwick-armaturen.de
de
www.eptq.com

fw.indd 5

PTQ Q1 2013 99

12/12/12 12:13:59

Customer:

Challenge:

Result:

Ethylene plant, Saudi Arabia.

Overhaul and repair four critical steam turbines in 12 days.

Elliott coordinated six months of pre-planning

and completed the project four days early.

They turned to Elliott

for planning and execution.

The customer turned to Elliott because they understood that planning is everything
and that few companies can match Elliott in turnaround planning and execution.
Who will you turn to?

EBARA CORPORATION
www.elliott-turbo.com

C O M P R E S S O R S

elliott.indd 1

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The world turns to Elliott.

1/6/12 21:23:46

Modular design of smaller-scale GTL

plants
Modularisation is opening up opportunities for GTL plants to monetise small-scale
natural gas deposits both on- and offshore
Kenneth Roberts
Velocys

odularisation is a construction method that involves

designing and building
refinery and gas processing facilities as series of unitised (or
modularised) process and utility
systems. The units are designed
and fabricated in a controlled shop
environment, then shipped to the
project site, where they are installed
on foundations and connected
together. Compared to traditional
field construction methods, where
all materials are delivered to the
project site and then built on location, modularisation is proving to
be an effective solution for achieving fast-track project schedules, and
for building refining and gas
processing facilities in remote
locations. For example, Ventech
Engineers
International
LLC
(Ventech), based in Pasadena,
Texas, is an engineering, procurement and construction company
that specialises in the design and
fabrication of modularised facilities.
A project in Siberia illustrates
the capabilities of modularisation
when dealing with remote and
challenging environments. Ventech
designed, fabricated and shipped a
2000 b/d crude processing plant to
the remote Siberian town of Urai in
just six months after contract signing. Urais temperatures drop as
low as -45C (-50F), so the modules
were designed and fabricated to
accommodate these conditions. In
particular, the crude process
module was completely enclosed
and heated. Ventech personnel,
assisted by local labour, installed
the modules at the project site and
started refinery operations four
weeks after the modules delivery.

www.eptq.com

velocys.indd 1

Figure 1 Fischer-Tropsch module process unit

Ventech has applied modular

design and construction most
recently in the Kurdistan region of
northern Iraq. A large-scale expansion to a refinery in Kurdistan
started during 2010, with Ventech
providing a 20 000 b/d modularised crude processing plant that
was added to the existing 20 000
b/d
refinery.
Made
up
of
26 modules, the new crude unit
was designed and fabricated at
Ventechs Pasadena fabrication site.
The modules were shipped to the
port of Mersin, Turkey, then transported by truck to the project site
in Kurdistan, where the refinery
was erected in 16 weeks.
The refinery has continued to
expand in a modular fashion; once
completed in 2013, total capacity
will be over 185 000 b/d and it
will remain the sole producer of

Courtesy of Ventech

unleaded gasoline in Iraq. In all,

Ventech has provided modularised
crude distillation units, naphtha
hydrotreaters, catalytic reformers,
isomerisation units, demercaptanisation systems, gas plants and
supporting utilities to this threephase project. Modularisation has
made the difference in this
geographically and politically challenging location, enabling expansion
work to be accomplished quickly.

Design concepts for modularisation

In modular plant design, the different process units are contained in

separate modules. For ease of shipment to any location, Ventech
fabricates its modules to a standard
size of 13.5ft wide x 12ft high x 40ft
long. Each of the modules and
its associated equipment has a
reference
code,
which
helps

PTQ Q1 2013 101

10/12/12 14:27:48

communicate where the module

will be installed on the plot plan.
Connections between the modules
are designed to be similar in configuration so that construction is
relatively straightforward. Ventech
estimates that, with modularisation,
approximately 70% of a project is
already complete even before the
modules are shipped from their
facility. This greatly decreases field
construction time to deliver an
operational facility (see Figure 1).
These methods also facilitate easy
disassembly and relocation, if
necessary, at some point in the
future. For example, a remotely
located gas processing facility could
be easily taken apart and moved to
a new natural gas source if an existing supply was depleted in its
current location.
Applying modularisation to refinery construction has advantages
with regard to productivity, product quality and ensuring the safety
of construction personnel. Since the
modules are built in a well-lit,
climate-controlled
environment,
work can continue around the clock
regardless of weather conditions,
for greater productivity and easier
quality control. Since module height
is restricted, safety is enhanced, as
workers build at limited heights
within the fabrication facility.

Modularising GTL

The same advantages of modular

construction of refineries are being

applied to the construction of
distributed GTL plants. The GTL
process involves two operations: the
conversion of natural gas to a
mixture of carbon monoxide (CO)
and hydrogen (H2), known as
syngas, followed by a FischerTropsch (FT) process to convert the
syngas into paraffinic hydrocarbons
that can be further refined to
produce
a
wide
range
of
hydrocarbon-based products, including
clean-burning,
sulphur-free
diesel and jet fuel. Speciality products including food-grade waxes,
solvents and lubricants can also be
produced from the paraffinic
hydrocarbons.
Large,
commercial-scale
GTL
plants, including the Sasol Oryx and
the Shell Pearl plants (both located
in Qatar), have been built at enormous capital cost. The Oryx plant,
designed for production levels of
34 000 b/d, cost around $1.5 billion
to build. The Shell Pearl plant, with
an ultimate design capacity of 140
000 b/d of GTL products and 120
b/d of natural gas liquids, cost
around $18-19 billion. Conventional
GTL plant designs rely on economies of scale to drive positive
financial returns and are viable only
where there are large supplies of
low-priced natural gas.
However, another option being
developed smaller-sized and
distributed GTL plants shows

promise for deriving value from

smaller accumulations of unconventional gas that would otherwise be
left underground, such as shale gas,
tight gas, coal bed methane and
stranded gas (gas fields located too
far from existing pipeline infrastructure). A small, modularised
GTL plant has the flexibility to be
installed close to the trapped
resource and then used to process
that resource locally. Associated gas
(gas produced along with oil) is
another area of opportunity for
modularised GTL plants. This gas
is typically disposed of either by reinjection, at considerable expense,
back into the reservoir or by the
wasteful
and
environmentally
damaging practice of flaring, which
is subject to increasing regulation.
Modularised GTL plants enable this
otherwise wasted gas to be
converted into additional revenue.
In the larger economic picture, a
modular GTL capability can be the
key factor that enables the construction of upstream projects that
would otherwise be cancelled
because of poor results derived
from economic models. For example, some shale gas discoveries are
being hampered by high development costs, which result in marginal
economics due to gas prices that
are often low. These projects can be
enhanced by converting the gas to
higher-value clean fuels produced
in the GTL process.

ITW

Innovative
Technologies
Worldwide

HIRING EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS WORLDWIDE

ITW is a fast growing Company, marketing and implementing unique and patented Production Units Online
Cleaning, Tank Cleaning, Decontamination and Reclamation technologies, along with Specialty Chemicals.
Given the considerable success, ITW is expanding its markets and activities and is looking for experienced
professionals worldwide. The candidates should have minimum a 5 years experience in at least one of these
fields:
x
refining/petrochemicals process specialty chemicals sales
x
refining/petrochemicals process technology, operations, maintenance, turnaround
and should be ZLOOLQJWRWUDYHOQDWLRQZLGHDQGZRUOGZLGHDORQJZLWKEHLQJSURQHWRKDUGZRUNLQJDQGVDOHV
Having a technical degree and good market knowledge is also required.
The available positions will cover: technical sales, implementation of ITW technologies on the field,
sales and operations management.
Interesting compensation plans will be given along with serious career possibilities. Please contact:
ITW S.r.l. S.Cusumano 96011 Augusta - Italy
102 PTQ Q1 2013

velocys.indd 2

jobs@itwtechnologies.com

www.itwtechnologies.com
www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:27:56

Distributed GTL plants, using

smaller Fisher-Tropsch (FT) reactors
and located near the natural gas
source, can be designed for use in
both offshore and remote on-shore
locations. The FT reactors developed by Velocys, the US-based
member of the Oxford Catalysts
Group, employ microchannel technology. This is a developing field of
chemical processing that intensifies
chemical reactions and reduces the
dimensions of the reactor systems
by increasing the heat removal
capability to enable reactions to
occur at rates 10-1000 times faster
than in conventional systems. This
makes it possible to use more active
FT catalysts.
Velocys reactors are the only FT
reactors to use a highly active FT
catalyst developed by Oxford
Catalysts to accelerate FT reactions
by a factor of 10-15 times compared
to conventional reactors. Individual
reactors are designed to produce
125 b/d of FT product, and desired
plant capacity is reached by linking
together, or numbering up, multiple
reactors to meet the availability of
gas feed. For example, by linking
up 40 individual 125 b/d reactors,
a capacity of 5000 b/d can be
achieved with a natural gas feed
rate of approximately 50 million cu
ft/day. As a result, the distributed
GTL plant technology developed by
Velocys has the flexibility to scale
production to match the available
resource. Plants of this type can
also be used as a flexible and
economical way to expand the
capacity at existing petroleum refineries when an economic gas supply
is available.
Velocys is currently working with
Haldor Topse and Ventech to
design a modular GTL plant using
its microchannel FT reactor (see
Figure 2). The modular GTL plant
will be comprised of standard-sized
13.5 x 12 x 40ft (4.1 x 3.65 x 12m)
modules that will be built in
Ventechs fabrication facility. In
these GTL plant designs, autothermal reforming (ATR) reactors from
Haldor Topse will be used to
produce the syngas feedstock for
the Velocys FT reactors. Haldor
Topse is also providing the hydroprocessing unit that takes raw

www.eptq.com

velocys.indd 3

Syngas

0.25 to 10mm
High heat flux
10 times higher than
conventional reactors

0.25 to 10mm

FT products

Figure 2 Microchannel FT reactor internals

products from the FT reactor and

produces finished fuels.

First commercial plant

The first company to select the

modular GTL plant design is
Calumet Specialty Products Partners
L.P., an independent producer of
speciality hydrocarbon products in
North America. Calumet plans to
use the modular GTL plant, which
has a nominal capacity of 1000 bpd,
in the expansion of its Specialty
Products facility at Karns City,
Pennsylvania. The very pure,
paraffinic hydrocarbons produced
by the GTL plant will be used as
feedstock for some of Calumets
1500 products, including food-grade
waxes, solvents and lubricants.
Calumet was attracted to the idea
of modular GTL technology because
it offers the ability to use readily
available, low-cost natural gas to
reduce overall costs, increase the
security of feedstock supply and
improve product quality.
The GTL plants modules will be
fabricated in Ventechs Texas fabrication facility, then transported by
truck to the Karns City site for
installation and integration with
Calumets existing refinery. Velocys
engineers are working with Ventech
and Haldor Topse on the plant
design, which is due be completed
by late 2012. Fabrication is expected
to begin during the first half of 2013
and the modular GTL plant would
come on-stream during the second
half of 2014.

Courtesy of Oxford Catalysts Group

More projects

Meanwhile, both Velocys and

Ventech expect that the Calumet
project will be just the first of many
small-scale modular GTL plants
announced, several of which are
already undergoing preliminary
design. Velocys continues to receive
numerous inquiries about the
microchannel technology, not only
for distributed GTL but also for
biomass-to-liquids (BTL) applications. For example, Solena has
recently chosen the Velocys FT
process for its GreenSky London
Project, which will produce renewable jet fuel in the UK.
Given the low natural gas prices
in the US, and the small and often
remote nature of many gas deposits
around the world, interest in modular
distributed
GTL
plants
incorporating microchannel FT reactors is expected to grow. Once the
Calumet GTL plant comes on
stream, Velocys, Ventech and Haldor
Topse are confident that such
plants will prove to be the best way
forward for monetising stranded
and undervalued natural gas.
Kenneth Roberts is Senior Business
Development Director with Velocys, Houston,
Texas. With over 35 years experience in the
energy industry, he supports engineering
and business development activities in
collaboration with Ventech and Haldor Topse
for the modular GTL design. He holds a BS in
mechanical engineering and a MBA in strategic
planning from the University of Texas at
Austin.

PTQ Q1 2013 103

10/12/12 14:28:05

So Advanced,
Yet So Simple.

Commercially Proven Route for the Production of Gasoline through

Methanol Synthesis and Conversion
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Companys Methanol to Gasoline (MTG) Technology, was commercially operated in
New Zealand for over 10 years. Now we offer the second generation MTG technology which provides:
t
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exxon.indd 1

10/12/12 11:14:52

Starting up hydrotreating units with

cracked feeds
A catalyst sulphiding process enables the introduction of cracked or heavy feeds
to HDS units without the recommended three-day delay following changeover
RANDY ALEXANDER, Reinder Van Bruggen and Pierre Dufresne
Eurecat US

efiners can realise significant

operating margins by processing cracked feedstocks such as
coker naphtha and light cycle oil
(LCO). Unfortunately, after catalyst
change-outs
on
hydrotreating
(HDS) units, catalyst manufacturers
recommend that the refiner only
process straight-run feeds for at
least the first three days of the catalyst cycle. This delay in processing
cracked feeds has several potential
costs including:
Lost profits from processing
cracked and heavy feeds
Storage costs for a three-day
supply of straight-run feed
Storage costs for three days of
cracked feed that must be held
aside for processing later
The purchase of additional
straight-run feed if a three-day
supply is not available.

Problem with cracked feeds

Cracked feeds such as coker naphtha contain significant quantities of

highly reactive olefins and diolefins, while cracked gas oils also
contain polynuclear aromatics. If
these components are exposed to
the hyperactive catalytic sites that
exist on freshly sulphided catalysts, coke and gums will form that
readily deposit on the catalyst
surface. Such deposits tend to
obstruct the catalysts pores and
inhibit access to the active sites,
leading to a permanent loss of
catalyst activity and a reduction in
cycle length.
To avoid the adverse effects of
cracked feeds at startup, catalyst
manufacturers typically recommend
a break-in period of at least three
days, feeding only straight-run

www.eptq.com

eurecat.indd 1

product to the unit. During this

three-day break-in period, a small
amount of soft coke will form on
the catalyst surface, gradually
tempering the hyperactivity of the
catalyst. Once catalyst activity has
stabilised, cracked feeds can be
introduced to the unit without the
risk of premature coke and gum
formation.
Eurecat has developed an ex-situ
treatment that allows the introduction of cracked or heavy feeds
without the recommended three-

Catalyst
manufacturers
recommend a breakin period of at least
three days, feeding
only straight-run
product to the unit
day delay. This process, called
Totsucat
CFP,
combines
the
Totsucat activation process with an
additional step to protect the catalyst from the harmful effects of
cracked feed, ensuring long-term
reactor performance irrespective of
when cracked feeds are introduced
to the unit.
This is a carefully controlled
procedure that gently moderates
the hyperactivity that occurs immediately after catalyst sulphiding.
Catalysts treated with this are
fully sulphided and activated prior
to loading. The activity will mimic a

catalyst that has already been conditioned with straight-run feed for
three days. Cracked and heavy feedstocks can be gradually introduced
during the first hours of a startup
without causing permanent damage
to the catalyst. Coke and gum
deposits will be minimised, since the
catalyst activity has been carefully
stabilised following activation.
Recent unit data also show that
this treatment can significantly
reduce the deactivation rate of a
hydrotreating unit, allowing the
refiner to extend their cycle by as
much as 50%.

Totsucat catalyst activation process

Unlike with other pre-sulphurisation processes, Totsucat-treated

catalysts are delivered to the HDS
unit totally activated and ready to
work immediately. The uncertainty
of incomplete activation is eliminated and startup time is greatly
reduced.
The advantages of the process
include:
Load-and-go reactor startups. The
catalyst is fully sulphided and activated and does not require any
additional sulphiding agents or
complex activation procedures
No sulphiding exotherms since
the sulphiding step is completed in
Eurecats equipment
No need for additional hydrogen
at startup
Minimal sour water formation
during startup
The hazards and odours associated with sulphiding chemicals are
avoided since spiking agents are no
longer needed at startup
No need to measure H2S levels in
the recycle gas

PTQ Q1 2013 105

10/12/12 14:32:54

720

y = 0.1642x + 634.51
R2 = 0.4682

710

Temperature, F

700
690
680
670
660
650
Cycle 24 normalised
Cycle 25 actual
Cycle 25 normalised

640
630
620

20

40

60

80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280

Figure 1 Reactor temperature (WABT) after 90 days on oil

Deactivation = 3.7F/month
SOR WABT = 645F
Previous deactivation = 8.9F/month

720

Temperature, F

700
680
660
640

Normalised previous cycle T-req.

Normalised current cycle T-req.
Actual cycle

620
600

30

60

90

120

150

180

210

Days on stream
Figure 2 Reactor temperature (WABT) after 180 days on oil

Current cycle deactivation = 4.2F/month

SOR WABT = 645F
Previous cycle deactivation = 7.8F/month

760

Temperature, F

740
720
700
680
660
640

Normalised previous cycle T-req.

Normalised current cycle T-req.
Actual cycle

620
600

30

60

90

120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330

Days on stream
Figure 3 Reactor temperature (WABT) after 330 days on oil

Negligible amounts of H2S are

released during reactor heat-up,
protecting sulphur-sensitive units
downstream and avoiding the need
to are undesirable byproducts

106 PTQ Q1 2013

eurecat.indd 2

Circulating high concentrations of

wet H2S during in-situ sulphiding
can cause severe corrosion problems. Totsucat eliminates this issue
since only low concentrations of

Circulating high
concentrations
of wet H2S during
in-situ sulphiding
can cause severe
corrosion problems
dry H2S will be recirculating
through the system.
Starting a unit with Totsucattreated catalysts is similar to a
restart after an emergency shutdown. Once the reactor is loaded,
it only requires heating up to the
start-of-run temperature. Timeconsuming drying steps, holding
steps and tests to determine H2S
concentrations are not required.
Startup time is reduced to a few
hours, while startup risks are minimised. The catalyst bed will
achieve peak performance since
sulphiding and activation are
controlled
at
very
precise
conditions.
The treatment is particularly
useful for:
Critical path units where lost
production time is costly
Units with temperature limits,
where effective sulphiding is difcult, if not impossible, to achieve
Reneries with limited hydrogen
supplies
HDS units that run in parallel or
series, where only one unit is taken
down while the other is still
operating
Units that cannot tolerate H2S
breakthrough to downstream units
Units that utilise gas-phase startup, increasing the risk of
catastrophic exotherms during insitu sulphiding
Units where the use of sulphiding
chemicals
is
undesirable
or
uneconomical.

Case study 1

A diesel hydrotreater (DHT) located

on the US East Coast was loaded
with Totsucat CFP-activated catalyst in the summer of 2011. This
moderate-pressure unit (800 psi
with a hydrogen partial pressure of

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:33:07

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700

In situ with break in

Totsucat CFP Run 1
Totsucat CFP Run 2

WABT, F

650
600
550
500
450

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Days on oil

Figure 4 Reactor temperature (WABT)

140

Inlet to bottom T in situ break in

Inlet to bottom T Totsucat CFP Run 1
Inlet to bottom T Totsucat CFP Run 2

Temperature, F

120
100
80
60
40
20

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Days on oil
Figure 5 Inlet to bottom T

Coke r
n aph t h a
f e e d, 00 b/d



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Days on oil
Figure 6 Coker naphtha feed rate

550-600 psi) processes up to 46 000

b/d of a mix of 35-40% straight-run
feed and 60-65% cracked stocks,
including 30% LCO. The reactor
holds 106 000 lb (48 tons) of CoMo

108 PTQ Q1 2013

eurecat.indd 3

catalyst. Due to the severity of the

feeds being processed and the size
of the reactor, the rener typically
achieves cycle lengths of less than
12 months before the end-of-run

(EOR) temperature is reached, forcing a unit shutdown and a catalyst

change.
The following data compare the
reactor weighted average bed
temperature (WABT) for two cycles:
one utilising Totsucat D-treated
catalyst (Cycle 24) and another
where Totsucat CFP was used to
activate and protect the catalyst
(Cycle 25). Figure 1 shows the
WABT for the unit after 90 days.
Cycle 24 was considered a successful run since it was one of the
longest cycles achieved by this unit.
But, in Cycle 25, LCO was introduced in signicant quantities on
Day 2. After 90 days on oil, Cycle
25 exhibited a lower deactivation
rate than Cycle 24.
Figure 2 conrms that the deactivation rate of the catalyst remains
much lower with Cycle 25 at
180 days on oil. The rate was only
4F (2.2C) per month versus 9F
(5C) per month for the previous
cycle.
Figure 3 shows that the trend
continued past the normal EOR for
this unit. Unit run data show that
the lower deactivation rate with
Cycle 25 continued until EOR. This
allowed the rener to extend the
cycle to 420 days, which is approximately 60% longer than anticipated
for this catalyst ll.
In comparing the two cycles, the
rener explained that Cycle 25 was
actually more severe than Cycle 24.
For Cycle 25, an additional
325 000 barrels of LCO had been
accumulated offsite during the
turnaround and required treatment.
Therefore, in addition to the normal
amount of LCO processed, an additional 3000-5000 b/d was fed to the
reactor for the rst 90 days of Cycle
25. The rener also explained that
this unit had averaged a deactivation rate of 20F (11C) per month
over the last 10 cycles.
In the past, the catalyst manufacturer recommended that a gentle
and lengthy startup should be
employed for this unit in order to
avoid premature activity loss.
In this case, Totsucat CFP has
proven that a run can be signicantly extended without the
need for a gentle startup, allowing
the rener to gain signicant

www.eptq.com

12/12/12 10:59:06

margins by processing much more

LCO.

Case study 2

A naphtha hydrotreater (NHT)

located in a Gulf Coast renery is
now on its eighth cycle using
Totsucat CFP to pre-activate the
catalyst. The unit processes 35 000
b/d of feed consisting of 25-50%
coker naphtha. Due to limited storage capacity, the rener struggled
to delay the introduction of cracked
feeds and typically brought them in
prior to the recommended threeday break-in period.
Figure 4 shows the reactor
temperature for a typical cycle as
compared to two cycles utilising
Totsucat CFP ex-situ activation.
The rst run, dened as in-situ
with break-in, utilised a catalyst
that was sulphided in-situ and
then fed only virgin feed for three
days. For the other two cycles, the
reactor was loaded with treated
catalysts and progressively fed
coker naphtha during the rst day

of the cycle. Both of these latter

runs showed steady performance.
Figure 5 denotes the temperature
difference across the reactor during
each cycle. On average, Totsucat
CFP provided a temperature gradient across the bed similar to the
in-situ cycle.
Figure 6 shows that the amount
of coker naphtha fed to the unit
during each run was comparable.
The reners experience shows
that using Totsucat CFP preactivated catalysts can extend run
length without the need to delay
cracked feeds for three days at the
beginning of the cycle.

Conclusion

The addition of CFP to the Totsucat

process enables the rener to begin
introducing cracked stocks to their
hydrotreater on the rst day of a
unit startup without the need for
the three-day break-in period utilising only straight-run feed. In a
moderate-pressure diesel HDS unit,
catalyst treated with this process

exhibited a greatly reduced deactivation rate, extending the unit cycle

length by 60%. And in a coker
naphtha unit, it helped extend unit
cycle length by over 50%.

Randy Alexander is the Director of Sales and

Marketing for Eurecat US, Houston, Texas. He
has over 25 years experience in the areas of
hydrotreating and hydrogenation catalysts, is
responsible for sales and marketing of catalyst
sulphiding and regeneration services and for
directing new product development, and holds
a bachelors degree in chemical engineering
from the University of Texas and a MBA from
the University of Houston.
Email: ralexander@eurecat.com.
Reinder van Bruggen joined Eurecat France in
2003 as Area Sales Manager and is currently
Totsucat Product Manager. He holds an MSc in
chemical engineering from Twente University
of Technology, The Netherlands.
Pierre Dufresne is Vice President, Research and
Development, for Eurecat SA. He holds a degree
from the Chemistry School of Mulhouse and a
PhD from the University of Lille. He has coauthored around 70 patents.
Email: p.dufresne@eurecat.fr

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11/13/12 10:40 PM

PTQ Q1 2013 109

12/12/12 10:58:27

EXTEND
YOUR REACH

ATTEND THE 2013

AFPM ANNUAL MEETING
Dont miss out
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Marriott Rivercenter
San Antonio, Texas
March 17 19, 2013
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The 2013 program has something

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Breakout sessions cover nearly
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6/12/12 12:54:27

Optimising a process scheme for

platforming heaters
Thermal imbalance resulting from an existing process scheme for CCR platforming
furnaces is addressed by process schemes for distributing heat load more uniformly
ADIL REHMAN, SUMAN PACHAL, SHYAM K CHOUDHARY, UGRASEN YADAV and M K E PRASAD
Technip KT India

oncern over safety issues,

especially in industries such
as rening, lead operating
personnel to be more and more
reluctant to operate their plants
near design or permissible limits,
thereby avoiding the risk of mishap
or industrial accident. On the other
hand, they are under pressure to
increase their prot margins.
CCR platforming heaters in an
operating oil renery have been in
operation for the last 30 years or so.
Due to the existing process scheme,
a thermal imbalance in all four of
the CCR platforming units heaters
had been observed in terms of
permissible limits for tube metal
temperatures and uneven bridgewall temperatures. The operator
decided to engage a consultant to
analyse the problem and to come
up with an optimised process
scheme, thereby avoiding operation
of the furnaces near the design
limits of the process coils.
The study was carried out based
on various document and data
provided for the existing system in
the form of DCS output to obtain
full details of the process.

Methodology of study

The feed property grid was generated using PRO II and a

thermodynamic method (Grayson
Streed). A reasonable process-side
fouling factor in the convection
zone has been considered, which is
quite likely to happen over a long
period of operation. The CCR platforming heaters were studied using
commercial software (FRNC-5PC
Version 4.18 Mod 7.6) with the
following assumptions and data for
modelling: radiant heat loss of 2.5%;

www.eptq.com

technip.indd 1

ambient air temperature of 17C

and relative humidity of 95%, as
per
the
meteorological
data
provided by the client; maintaining
the oxygen percentage at the outlet
of the convection section by keeping the quantity of air the same as
in the existing operating case in
order to account for the ingress of
air, which might have taken place
over a long period of operation.
The algorithm followed for the
study is shown in Figure 1.

Step 1

Step 2

Fluid in this case is dened and

identied as process feed entering
the reactor. Thus, process uid entering Reactor 1 is called Fluid 1,
process feed entering Reactor 2 is
Fluid 2 and process feed entering
Reactor 3 is Fluid 3. This denition
of uid is shown in Figure 2.

Step 5

Step 6

Comparison of existing scheme with

proposed scheme
The existing scheme according to
DCS outputs is summarised in the
process ow diagram shown in
Figure 3. The proposed schemes
results obtained from FRNC have
been summarised in the form of

Utilise the collected data to

develop a base case
simulation model

Step 3

Step 4

Denition of uid

Evaluation and checking the

completeness of input data
provided by the client

Step 7

Review the results of the

simulation model for the
actual case

Develop simulation models

for proposed options

Review the results of different

simulation models for
proposed options

Comparison of various
options and selection of most
optimised option

Preparation of a study report

and issue the report for client
review and comments if any

Figure 1 Algorithm followed for the study

Fluid 1
Packinox

Convection +
501A and 501B

Reactor 1

Fluid 3
Reactor 3

Furnace 502

Fluid 2
Furnace 503

Reactor 2

Figure 2 Denition of uid

PTQ Q1 2013 111

10/12/12 14:37:10

process flow diagrams shown in

Figures 4, 5 and 6 for proposed
Options I, II and III, respectively.

Results and discussion

Mechanical aspects
Option I

This scheme is identical to the existing scheme with regard to the

process flow pass arrangement
inside the heaters. Thus, modifications inside the heater are minimal
with respect to the existing scheme.
However, the north-side interconnecting process header between
501A and 501B needs to be cut in
order to connect the process outlet
of 501A to the inlet of Reactor 1.
Similarly, the outlet of Reactor 2
needs to be connected to the inlet of
501`B. Also, the outlet of 502, which
goes to Reactor 2 in the existing
scheme, needs to be dismantled and
rerouted to the inlet of 503.
Ultimately, this scheme would
require a lot of external mechanical
modifications and rerouting of hot
piping, cutting of large-sized process
headers and so on, and thus would
require a long shutdown time.

Option II

Option III

In this scheme, the interconnecting

north-side header between 501A
and 501B needs to be blinded/
dismantled and the outlet of 501B,
which goes to the inlet of Reactor
1 in the existing scheme, needs to
be routed to Reactor 3. Similarly,
the outlet of Reactor 2, which goes
to the inlet of 503 in the existing
scheme, needs to be rerouted to
the inlet of 501B, and the outlet of
502, which goes to Reactor 2 in the
existing scheme, needs to be
connected to the inlet of 503. The
interconnecting north-side header
between the inlet and the outlet of
502 needs to be dismantled/
blinded. This option would require
changes inside the heater process
flow pass arrangement (single pass
for 501A and 501B in Option II,
against double pass for 501A and
501B in the existing scheme). This
scheme would require a lot of
external rerouting of heater outlet
and inlet piping to and from the
reactors and thus would directionally require a longer shutdown
time compared with Option I.

This scheme is similar to the existing scheme with regard to the

process flow arrangement inside
the heaters. The interconnecting
north-side header between 501A
and 501B need not be cut.
However, the Packinox outlet,
which goes to the inlet of 501A in
the existing scheme, now needs to
be routed to the inlet of 502. The
Reactor 1 outlet, which goes to the
inlet of 502 in the existing scheme,
needs to be routed to the inlet of
501A. Similarly, the outlet of 502,
which goes to the inlet of Reactor
2 in the existing scheme, needs to
be routed to the inlet of Reactor 1.
Apart from external rerouting,
there is no cutting/dismantling of
interconnecting headers and no
change in heater internal pass flow
arrangements, with respect to the
existing scheme, in Option III.
Thus, Option III would directionally require minimum mechanical
modification
and
rerouting
compared with Options I and II,
and consequently would require
the least shutdown time.

Convection
section
Abs duty 3.48 MW
501.4C
30.59 Barg

471C
31 Barg

Platformer heater
B-501A

Platformer heater
B-501B

Platformer heater
B-502

Platformer heater
B-503

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 0.12 MW
Max. TMT 499C
Bridgewall temp. 476C

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 2.11 MW
Max. TMT 532C
Bridgewall temp. 649C

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 9.1 MW
Max. TMT 575C
Bridgewall temp. 889C

(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 3.05 MW
Max. TMT 560C
Bridgewall temp. 874C

497C
30.59 Barg

498C
30.46 Barg

515C
30.33 Barg

510C
29.55 Barg
432C
29.63 Barg

Reactor 1
D-501

Reactor 2
D-502

506C
28.97 Barg
479C
29.05 Barg

Reactor 3
D-503

Mix stream (80 t/h + 32.2 t/h)

Recycle gas
32.2 t/h

80 t/h

Packinox
C-516

Figure 3 Existing process scheme

112 PTQ Q1 2013

technip.indd 2

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:37:21

Convection
section
Abs duty 2.07 MW
471C
31 Barg

490.1C
30.59 Barg

Platformer heater
B-501A

Platformer heater
B-502

Platformer heater
B-503

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 3.1 MW
Max. TMT 540C
Bridgewall temp. 707C

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 7.14 MW
Max. TMT 545C
Bridgewall temp. 814C

(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 1.96 MW
Max. TMT 544C
Bridgewall temp. 761C

515C
30.46 Barg

490.1C
30.59 Barg

Reactor 1
D-501

494.3C
29.69 Barg

432C
29.76 Barg

Reactor 3
D-503

Mix stream (80 t/h + 32.2 t/h)

510C
29.61 Barg

479C
29.05 Barg

506C
28.97 Barg

Reactor 2
D-502
479C
29.11 Barg

Platformer heater
B-501B

Recycle gas
32.2 t/h

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 3.05 MW
Max. TMT 531C
Bridgewall temp. 698C

80 t/h

Packinox
C-516

Figure 4 Proposed process scheme (Option I)

Convection
section
Abs duty 2.07 MW
471C
31 Barg

490.1C
30.59 Barg

Platformer heater
B-501A

Platformer heater
B-502

Platformer heater
B-503

(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 3.11 MW
Max. TMT 552C
Bridgewall temp. 707C

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 7.14 MW
Max. TMT 545C
Bridgewall temp. 814C

(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 1.96 MW
Max. TMT 544C
Bridgewall temp. 761C

490.1C
30.59 Barg

515C
30.57 Barg

Reactor 1
D-501
Mix stream (80 t/h + 32.2 t/h)

494.3C
29.79 Barg

432C
29.87 Barg

Reactor 3
D-503
506C
29.19 Barg

510C
29.71 Barg

479C
29.05 Barg

Reactor 2
D-502
479C
29.21 Barg

Platformer heater
B-501B

Recycle gas
32.2 t/h

Packinox
C-516

80 t/h

(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 3.05 MW
Max. TMT 542C
Bridgewall temp. 698C

Figure 5 Proposed process scheme (Option II)

www.eptq.com

technip.indd 3

PTQ Q1 2013 113

10/12/12 14:37:32

Convection
section
Abs duty 2.2 MW
491.1C
30.59 Barg

471C
31 Barg

Platformer heater
B-502

Platformer heater
B-501A

Platformer heater
B-501B

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 4.55 MW
Max. TMT 509C
Bridgewall temp. 765C

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 4.56 MW
Max. TMT 547C
Bridgewall temp. 784C

471C
29.7 Barg

510C
29.57 Barg

Reactor 2
D-502

(Double-pass design)
Abs duty 2.98 MW
Max. TMT 536C
Bridgewall temp. 652C

Platformer heater
B-503
(Single-pass design)
Abs duty 3.06 MW
Max. TMT 559.8C
Bridgewall temp. 871C

515C
479C
30.53 Barg 29.07 Barg

Reactor 1
D-501

506C
29 Barg

Reactor 3
D-503

Mix stream (80 t/h + 32.2 t/h)

Recycle gas
32.2 t/h

Packinox
C-516

80 t/h

Figure 6 Proposed process scheme (Option III)

Maximum tube skin temperature

bridgewall temperature by fluid

number, we observe that, for Fluid
3, a maximum bridgewall temperature of 871C is encountered in
Option III, while Options I and II
result in a bridgewall temperature
of 698C. A comparison of bridgewall temperatures is shown in
Figure 8 for the various proposed
process schemes compared with that
encountered in the existing scheme.

Bridgewall temperature

Imbalance in bridgewall
temperature

The maximum tube skin temperature encountered in Options I and

II is 545C, well within the permissible tube metal temperature of
559.8C. A comparison of maximum
tube metal temperature is shown in
Figure 7 for various proposed process schemes compared with that
encountered in the existing process
scheme.

Heating for Reactor 1: comparing

bridgewall temperature by fluid
number, we observe that, for Fluid
1, a maximum bridgewall temperature of 707C is encountered in
Options I and II, while Option III
results in a bridgewall temperature
of 652C
Heating for Reactor 2: comparing
bridgewall temperature by fluid
number, we observe that, for Fluid
2, a maximum bridgewall temperature of 814C is encountered in
Options I and II, while Option III
results in a maximum bridgewall
temperature of 784C
Heating for Reactor 3: comparing

114 PTQ Q1 2013

technip.indd 4

Imbalance in the bridgewall temperature has been observed in the actual

scheme, with hot flue gases at 631C
for 501A to 822C for 503. This, as
such, is not good for intermediate
tube supports in the convection
section and would result in uneven
thermal expansion problems.
The problem of imbalance in the
bridgewall temperature has been
addressed in Options I and II,
where bridgewall temperatures are
almost in the same range, from
707C for 501A to 761C for 503,
thereby reducing uneven stresses
on heater hardware and minimising

flue gas maldistribution and associated hot flue gas mixing problems.
The problem of imbalance in the
bridgewall temperature has also
been addressed in Option III, where
bridgewall temperatures are almost
in the same range, from 765C for
501A to 871C for 503, thereby
reducing uneven stresses on heater
hardware and minimising flue gas
maldistribution and associated hot
flue gas mixing problems.

Suitability of furnace hardware

The existing case bridgewall

temperature for 501A is 631C. It
has been found that the bridgewall
temperature for 501A is 765C,
which is the maximum for Option
III, against 707C for Options I and
II. However, a bridgewall temperature of 765C is well below the
permissible limit of 950C. Thus,
the furnace hardware of 501A is
suitable for all options.
The existing case bridgewall
temperature for 501B is 669C. It
has been found that the bridgewall
temperature for 501B is a maximum
784C for Option III, against 698C

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:37:42

SOGAT2013Ad1 BLEED216x303mm for PTQ.pdf 1 12/6/2012 4:23:00 PM

CM

MY

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FOR PROGRAMMES & REGISTRATION

please visit www.sogat.org

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Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi

March 24-28

2013
March 24

Workshops
Process Optimisation (Day 1)
Filtration and Separation (Day 1)
Acid Gas Injection
H2S Safety Detection and Survival Solutions
March 25

Workshops
Process Optimisation (Day 2)
Filtration and Separation (Day 2)
Reducing Liquid Flaring and Oil Wastage
during Sour Well Testing and Intervention
Claus and Tail Gas Treatment
March 26-28
th

9 International
SOGAT Conference
March 25-28

SOGAT Exhibition

Officially
Supported by

Official
Media Partner

Organised by

Shaila DSa

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Dome Exhibitions

PO Box 52641

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Tel: +971 2 674 4040

Fax: +971 2 672 1217

6/12/12 13:30:14

Tube metal temperature, C

Convec. + 501A/B
(double pass)

Convec. + 501A
(double pass)

Convec. + 501A
(single pass)

Convec. + 502
(double pass)

610
590
570
552

550
530

540

532

536

510
490

Burner flexibility and utilisation

470
450

Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

Proposed
scheme III

502 (double pass)

503 (single pass)

502 (double pass)

503 (single pass)

Furnace 501A/B
(double pass)

545

545

547

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

Proposed
scheme III

Furnace 501B
(single pass)

Furnace 503
(single pass)

Tube metal temperature, C

Case

Furnace 502
(double pass)

610
590
570

575

550
530
510
490
470
450

Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Tube metal temperature, C

Case

Furnace 503
(single pass)

Furnace 501B
(double pass)

610
590
570

559.8

560

550

542
531

530
510
490
470
450

Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

Proposed
scheme III

Case
Figure 7 Maximum tube metal temperatures for three process schemes

for Options I and II. However, a

bridgewall temperature of 784C is
well below the permissible limit of
950C. Thus, the furnace hardware
of 501B is suitable for all options.
The existing case bridgewall
temperature for 502 is 893C. It has
been found that the bridgewall
temperature for 502 is a maximum

116 PTQ Q1 2013

technip.indd 5

The existing case bridgewall

temperature for 503 is 822C. It has
been found that the bridgewall
temperature for 503 is a maximum
871C for Option III, against 761C
for Options I and II. However, a
bridgewall temperature of 871C is
well below the permissible limit of
950C. Thus, the furnace hardware
of 503 is suitable for all options.

814C for Options I and II, against

652C for Option III. Option III
brings about relief to the heater 502
by bringing down the bridgewall
temperature to the lowest among
all three options and is well below
the permissible limit of 950C. Thus,
the furnace hardware of 502 is suitable for all options.

It has been found that, for the existing scheme, the burner for 501A is
operating at a very low load (27.6%
of design load). The total available
facility of 10 burners has not been
utilised and only one burner is put
into operation. Thus, burner flame
stability, fuel gas pressure control,
optimum excess air requirement
and control may be some issues of
concern.
In Options I and II, the burner
needs to be operated at around 62%
of the burner design load, which is
quite good from the point of view
of operations and burner utilisation,
while there is better utilisation of
the 501A burner in Option III,
where the burner load is 96.5% of
design load capacity.
It has been found that for the
existing scheme, the burner for
501B is operating at almost half
load (48.6% of the burner design
load). In all, 9 out of 10 burners are
put to use.
In Options I and II, the burner
needs to be operated at around 61%
of the burner design load, which is
quite good from the point of view
of operations and burner utilisation,
while there is better utilisation of
the 501B burner in Option III,
where the burner load is 98.5% of
design load capacity.
For the existing scheme, burner
502 is operating at around 88% of
design load, which is a good level
of utilisation. All 15 out of 15 burners are put to use.
In proposed Options I and II, the
burner needs to be operated at
around 64% of the burner design
load, which is quite a good load
from the point of view of operations and burner utilisation, while
the level of utilisation of the 502
burner in Option III is 23% of
burner design load capacity. Since

www.eptq.com

10/12/12 14:37:53

Conclusion

Considering mechanical aspects,

including time required for carrying
out the modifications, and process
aspects, such as maximum tube
metal temperature, thermal imbalance
and
burner
flexibility,
improvements would be best
addressed by carrying out modifications to the existing process scheme
recommended in proposed Option
III to achieve the desired process
optimisation within the least time.

Bridgewall temperature, C

900
850

Convec. + 501A/B
(double pass)

www.eptq.com

technip.indd 6

707

707

Convec. + 502
(double pass)

700
650

652

649

600
550
500
450
Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

Proposed
scheme III

502 (double pass)

503 (single pass)

502 (double pass)

503 (single pass)

Furnace 501A/B
(double pass)

761

761

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

Proposed
scheme III

Furnace 501B
(single pass)

Furnace 503
(single pass)

Case

900

Furnace 502
(double pass)
889

850
800

784

750
700
650
600
550
500
450
400

Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Case

900

Bridgewall temperature, C

Adil Rehman is Principal Engineer, SyngasThermal-Oil and Gas and Special Projects,
Process & Technology Department with
Technip KT India Ltd, New Delhi. He holds a
masters degree in petrochemical engineering
from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
Email: arehman@technip.com
Suman Pachal is Senior Engineer, SyngasThermal-Oil and Gas and Special Projects,
Process and Technology Department with
Technip KT India Ltd. He holds a bachelors
degree in chemical engineering from University
of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
Email: spachal@technip.com
Shyam K Choudhary is Principal Engineer,
Syngas-Thermal-Oil and Gas and Special
Projects, Process & Technology Department
with Technip KT India Ltd. He holds a bachelors

Convec. + 501A
(single pass)

750

Furnace 503
(single pass)

Acknowledgement
Special thanks to Mr S Pachal for his
contribution to carry out the study and analysis
of the problem.

Convec. + 501A
(double pass)

800

400

Bridgewall temperature, C

there are 15 burners in 502, a few

burners may be put out of operation in such a way that uniformity
of heat distribution is maintained
(maybe by using an alternate burner
as far as possible) and keeping the
heat load of the burner above the
turndown limit.
It has been found that, for the
existing scheme, the burner for 503
is operating at 94.5% of burner
design load. In the existing scheme,
five out of five burners are put to
use. In proposed Options I and II,
the burner needs to be operated at
around half load (50% of burner
design load). There is better utilisation of the 503 burner in Option III,
where the burner load is 87% of
burner design load capacity, which
is quite good from operation and
burner utilisation point of view.

Furnace 501B
(double pass)

874

871

850
800
750
700

698

698

Proposed
scheme I

Proposed
scheme II

650
600
550
500
450
400

Existing scheme
(FRNC output)

Proposed
scheme III

Case
Figure 8 Comparison of bridge wall temperatures for three process schemes
degree in chemical engineering from BIT, Sindri,
India. Email: skchoudhary@technip.com
Ugrasen Yadav is Deputy General Manager,
Refinery & Petrochemicals, Process &
Technology Department with Technip KT India
Ltd. He holds a masters degree in chemical
engineering from HBTI, Kanpur, India.

Email: uyadav@technip.com
M K E Prasad is Head of the Process and
Technology Department with Technip KT
India Ltd. He holds a BTech degree in chemical
engineering from Osmania University,
Hyderabad, India.
Email: mkeprasad@technip.com

PTQ Q1 2013 117

12/12/12 11:01:05

5 -7 March 2013

NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
www.wraconferences.com/europeanfuels

THE EUROPEAN
FUELS CONFERENCE

14th Annual Meeting

UNITING THE EUROPEAN REFINING AND TRANSPORTATION

INDUSTRY IN NEW FUEL SOLUTIONS

3-DAY EVENT

5-7 March 2013

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KEY SPEAKERS:
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Head of Unit, DG Energy,
European Commission

Arthur Reijnhart,
General Manager
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Chris Beddoes,
Secretary General,
European Petroleum
Industry Association

Aksel Skjervheim,
Head of Fuel Markets,
Gasnor

Marco Schiavetti,
Director - Supply & Trading,
Saras

Ignaas Caryn,
Director Innovation and
Corporate Venturing and
Biofuels Strategy, KLM

Atanas Ivanov,
Deputy Chief
Process Engineer,
Lukoil

Marek Herra, Production

Director, Grupa Lotos

5 March

Excellent forum:
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and honest participants
contributed to positioning
some of the bricks of this
very complex puzzle.
Ron Timmers,
Head of Industry Segment,
Linde AG
Very informative conference,
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Al Haddad,
Senior Analyst
- Projects & Special Studies,
Kuwait Petroleum
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10/12/12 16:42:25

Improved hydrogen yield in catalytic

reforming
A process step that sends higher-boiling C6 hydrocarbons to light tops isomerisation
delivers an increase in hydrogen production from naphtha catalytic reforming
ROBERTO AMADEI
Chemical & Energy Development

he advanced fuel technology is a patented invention

(US Patent 6207040, European
Patent 0914405) and states that the
higher-boiling
C6 hydrocarbons,
including naphthenes, benzene and
hexane, are more profitably sent to
the light tops isomerisation process
rather than to catalytic reforming.
The critical full-range naphtha-splitting mode to be constructed in the
refinery (see Figure 1) requires
negligible investment.
The economic gains of advanced
fuel technology1 include:
A gain of more than 4% on the
recombined
isomerate-reformate
blend volume yield per 100 tonnes
of isomerisation-reforming feed.2
(This is mainly explained by the
good C6 isomerate octane and, in
particular, by the even better C6
blending isomerate octane, plus the
C6 isomerate weight yield being
much higher and the C6 isomerate
density being much lower than the
reformate
weight
yield
and
density.)
A gain of around three octane
number points on the recombined
isomerate-reformate blend (resulting from 5-6 more points of the
reformate RON1,3 acquired thanks
to the better reformability quality of
the reforming feed), exchangeable
for an additional gasoline yield.
These results are obtained by
managing the full-range naphtha
splitting unit in such a way as to
determine the two ranges of concentrations (0-4 vol% C7 hydrocarbons
in the tops, 0-0.5 vol% C6 hydrocarbons in the bottom, see Figure 1),
which
define
the
splitting
mode and are the necessary and
sufficient condition for performing

www.eptq.com

ced.indd 1

Light tops
(0-4 vol% C7)

Naphtha

Isomerisation
unit

Splitting
unit

Heavy naphtha
(0-0.5 vol% C6)

Catalytic
reforming
unit

Figure 1 The advanced fuel flow diagram

the advanced fuel technologys

functions.
Efficient separation by distillation
in the full-range naphtha splitting
unit can be achieved according to
different strategies, depending on
choices the refiner has to make
between highly efficient equipment,
which is more capital intensive, and
highly efficient operation, which
consumes more energy. The development in no way limits freedom
of choice in a compromise between
these options.
In practice, separation efficiency
can be improved by modifying the
equipment (for instance, number
and type of distillation stages, internals type) and/or the reflux ratio.
There is also the option to determine an optimum compromise
between improvements in equipment and reflux ratio.

Hydrogen

A further important feature of

advanced fuel technology is the
gain it offers in catalytic reforming
hydrogen production/availability.
The gain in production of catalytic
reforming
hydrogen
(net
of
increased use in isomerisation) is

estimated in the range of 28% to

over 48% based on conventional
hydrogen production in catalytic
reforming. When removing all or
nearly all of the C6 molecules (shifting them to the isomerisation
process) from the catalytic reforming feed, it has been demonstrated
in the refinery that the yield of catalytic reforming hydrogen increases
significantly. This is in agreement
with the theory that the reforming
feed quality, after C6 removal,
becomes much more favourable to
reformings dehydrogenation reactions with hydrogen production
and much less favourable to reformings hydrocracking reactions with
hydrogen consumption.
We will first analyse the basis of
the technology before examining
the results of the refinery runs.

Reformate octane number

First, we can consider the aromatisation catalytic reforming reactions:

1 naphthene 1 aromatic + 3 H2 - 48-55 Mcal/
kmol (million calories per thousand moles) (1)

1 paraffin 1 aromatic + 4 H2 - 60-65 Mcal/

kmol
(2)

It is well known that the delta

octane number [C8+ aromatics - C8+
(naphthenes + paraffins)] is much
higher (around four times) than for
[C6 aromatics - C6 naphthenes]. C6
paraffins cannot be considered
because the C6 paraffins that pass
through catalytic reforming do not,
for practical purposes, increase their
octane number. In fact, C6 paraffins
either crack or pass through unconverted (although an exception is

PTQ Q1 2013 119

11/12/12 14:58:40

nt
to of
be emission
shipped
ed
under that
the
all assembly
ately 150 000 lb
was 15ft (4.5m)
regard
to how
all
and over
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ducts
measured
her complicating
de
and
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e the
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ncluded a 7-inch
sey,
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ow welding that
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ted under field
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eto completed
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ards
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120 PTQ Q1 2013

ced.indd 2

$#%"

made for a 10% maximum quota of

normal hexane with a RON value
of about 26).
The heat absorbed in catalytic
reforming by a one-molecule
aromatisation reaction, generating
one aromatic molecule, is roughly
speaking about the same, irrespective of the number of carbon atoms.
This means that, with about the
same heat absorption, C8+ has a
delta octane from the aromatisation
of one molecule about four times
higher than for a C6 molecule.
Regarding one molecule, with
approximately the same heat
absorption, C8+ has a delta octane
four times higher than C6s delta
octane for a gasoline quantity on
average about 40% higher (because
the relevant gasoline weight is
exactly proportional to the molecular weight, while the relevant
gasoline volume is approximately
proportional).
The hydrocarbons C6, C7, C8, C9
and so on compete with one
another in order to make use of the
available heat. When C6 is present,
it provides a modest octane increase
by making use of a portion of the
heat subtracted from the availability of C7+. When C6 is present, in
order to increase the available heat,
the only option is to increase the
catalytic bed temperature.
When C6 is removed, the reformate octane increases automatically
due to the strong octane upgrading
available for C7+, which is simply a
result of the absence of C6. The
presence of C6 appears to be very
harmful to catalytic reforming
performance.
The highest boiling hydrocarbon
among all of the C6s is cyclohexane,
which in reforming has a fair
conversion rate (although lower
than the C7+ naphthenes), but a
relatively modest potential for
octane increase. As a consequence,
it is important to transfer as much
C6 as possible from the reforming
feed to the isomerisation feed. The
more C6 transferred, the better the
reforming performance and the
refinery economics.
The theory applies to any crude
oil and to any refinery configuration. This theory is in full agreement
with refinery experimental results.1

K>O:FIL+)*++.

17/9/12 12:36:32

The first conclusion is that the

removal
of
C6 hydrocarbons
increases significantly the reformate
octane number process variables
being equal and the catalytic bed
temperature, and consequently the
catalyst life, being equal. In order
to keep the reformate octane
number constant, it is necessary to
decrease significantly the catalytic
bed temperature.

Catalytic reforming hydrogen

production
Catalytic bed temperature decrease

When C6 is removed from the catalytic

reforming
process,
the
reformate octane number increases
significantly, which means that a
large decrease in the catalytic bed
temperature is necessary to obtain a
determined
reformate
octane
number.
We will now discuss hydrocracking reactions on the premise that
the categories of hydrocracking
reactions include the dealkylation
reactions. Hydrocracking reactions
are rather slow and very sensitive
to temperature, hydrocracking rates
decreasing rapidly as temperature
decreases. Thus, as soon as the C6s
are removed from the catalytic
reforming process, hydrocracking
decreases sharply. As a result, the
following main consequences arise,
all favouring a net increase in
hydrogen production during catalytic reforming:
A quantity of hydrogen molecules
is not consumed and is therefore
saved, the proportion of saved
hydrogen molecules being one
molecule for each hydrocarbon
molecule not cracked. In other
words, catalytic reforming hydrogen
production increases by one molecule for each molecule not cracked
The decrease in the contribution
of paraffins hydrocracking to reformate octane causes a compensating
increase in aromatisation, implying
a further increase in hydrogen
production
The decrease in paraffins and
naphthenes hydrocracking favours
dehydrogenation reactions and
produces hydrogen
By means of dealkylation, the
heavier aromatics are converted
into light aromatics such as toluene

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 14:59:06

JOIN MAJOR
INDUSTRY PLAYERS
AT ME-TECH 2013

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event organised by

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epc.indd 1

6/12/12 13:26:47

Reforming hydrogen
normalised yield, wt%

4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0

10

15

20

Feed C6 concentration, vol%

Figure 2 Reforming hydrogen normalised production vs C6- vol% in feed

Reforming hydrogen
normalised yield, wt%

3.2
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
0

Feed C6 concentration, vol%

Figure 3 Reforming hydrogen normalised production vs C6- vol% in feed

and xylenes. As C7 and C8 paraffins

are unfavourable for conversion to
aromatics, dealkylation has an unfavourable effect on aromatisation of
these light paraffins; hence, the
implied decrease in dealkylation
favours aromatising dehydrocyclisation reactions of light paraffins,
producing significant quantities of
hydrogen.

Replacement of C6 naphthenes
aromatisation by C7+ paraffins
aromatisation

Aromatisation of C6 naphthenes is
for the most part replaced by C7+
paraffins aromatisation rather than
by C7+ naphthenes aromatisation.
The reason for this is that, at the
stage when C6 is present, the
concentration of C7+ naphthenes in
the reformate is low, while the C7+
paraffins concentration is high. As
the reaction rate depends on the
concentration of the reactants, when
the equilibrium of catalytic reform-

122 PTQ Q1 2013

ced.indd 3

ing reactions is broken by the

removal of C6, the C7+ paraffins are
more likely to aromatise than are
the C7+ naphthenes. As we see from
reactions 1 and 2, the paraffin
aromatisation reaction yields 33%
more hydrogen than does the naphthene aromatisation reaction.
The second conclusion is that,
process variables being equal,
including the catalytic bed temperature and consequently the catalyst
life, the removal of C6 hydrocarbons
increases significantly the hydrogen
production yield from catalytic
reforming.

Confirmation of increased hydrogen

production

Any [full-range naphtha splitting]

unit built after 1950...is either a
simple depentaniser or a rather
intense deisohexaniser. Oil & Gas
Journal, 21 March 1994, p52.
Typical
splitter
designs...only
deisohexanise the reforming unit

feed. Oil & Gas Journal, 11

September 2006, p40.
We decided to conservatively
consider the typical naphtha splitter
as a deisohexaniser. A naphtha
deisohexanising splitter generates a
bottom cut (the heavy naphtha),
feeding catalytic reforming, containing around 15 vol% of the total C6
hydrocarbons. This is the base case
of our study.
That said, experimental confirmation of the gain in catalytic
reforming hydrogen production
versus C6 hydrocarbons removal
was examined. To this end, we
constructed a normalisation algorithm in order to bring proper
refinery run data to constant process variables.
We then considered normalised
catalytic
reforming
hydrogen
production versus the relevant vol%
content of feed C6. Our goal was to
describe the catalytic reforming
hydrogen production yield in two
situations:
A scarce concentration of C6 naphthenes, in particular of cyclohexane
originating aromatisation reactions,
in the reforming feed
A fair concentration of C6 naphthenes, in particular of cyclohexane,
in the reforming feed.
To this end, we constructed two
regression lines, corresponding to
these situations:
Catalytic reforming normalised
hydrogen production wt% on the
reforming feed versus feed total C6
hydrocarbons content vol%, for a
feed total C6 hydrocarbons content
from 15 vol% to 4 vol% (see
Figure 2)
Catalytic reforming normalised
hydrogen production wt% on the
reforming feed versus feed total C6
hydrocarbons content vol%, for a
feed total C6 hydrocarbons content
from 4 vol% to 0.3 vol% (see
Figure 3).
The plots gave us a percentage
increase of catalytic reforming
hydrogen production, when the
total C6 hydrocarbons content of the
reforming feed decreases from 15
vol% to 0.3 vol%. The resulting
increase is 54.59 vol%, the reformate
octane number and all the process
variables being equal (see Figures 2
and 3).

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:27:29

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We applied a safety margin of

15%, thus reducing the gain in
catalytic
reforming
hydrogen
production from 54.59 wt% to 46
wt% compared with hydrogen
production in the reforming base
case. The reforming feed of the base
case contains 15 vol% of the total C6
hydrocarbons.
Should the removed C6 not be
replaced at all that is, should
catalytic reforming not be replenished at all with good-quality feed,
almost free of C6 we would have
a decrease in the reforming feed
rate. This decrease would entail a
reduction in the gain of hydrogen
production from 46 wt% to 25 wt%
based on hydrogen production in
the reforming base case.

Trend in hydrogen production

increase

Generally speaking, C6 paraffins

originate nearly zero hydrogen.
Line 2 in Figure 3 is steeper than
line 1 in Figure 2; this was expected
because, from 4 vol% to 0.3 vol% C6
(see Figure 3), the cyclohexane
concentration in the C6 of the
reforming feed grows much more
rapidly versus the total content of
C6 hydrocarbons in the feed. In
such a situation, the beneficial
effects of C6 transfer from reforming to isomerisation, also enhancing
the hydrogen generation, grows
much more rapidly. That is to say,
in this range of feed total C6 hydrocarbons content, the hydrogen
production yield grows more
rapidly compared with the decrease
in feed total C6 hydrocarbons
content. This also means that, in
this range of feed total C6 hydrocarbons content, the improvement in
refinery economics, environmental
performance and energy savings
delivered
by
the
technology
increases more rapidly with the
decrease in feed total C6 hydrocarbons content.
As for line 1 in Figure 2, we can
also say that the increase in hydrogen production yield with the
decrease in feed total C6 hydrocarbons content is largely due to a
reduction in dilution of the reforming feed with a component (the C6
paraffins) that effectively does not
produce hydrogen.

124 PTQ Q1 2013

ced.indd 4

Hydrogen production increase

through partial exploitation of
reformate octane gain

We have seen that, through C6

removal, there is an important gain
in reformate octane points, the catalytic
bed
temperature
being
constant. In order to keep constant
the octane number of the isomeratereformate blend which would
otherwise decrease as a consequence of the shift of about 11 wt%
on full-range naphtha from reforming to isomerisation1 we must
retain a minor fraction of this gain;
that is, the reformate octane number
is increased above the base case
value. The increase in reformate
octane entails an increase in reforming hydrogen production. Hydrogen
production will increase from 1.25
to around 1.32 times the base case
value.
If we keep the other gained
octane points in reformate, the
gain in hydrogen production yield
in catalytic reforming will further
increase. But we can change at will
these supplemental gained reformate octane points into an
additional strong gain in volume
yield, on top of the gain resulting
directly from the C6 shift from
reforming to isomerisation. The
reforming catalytic bed temperature will thus decrease, so further
increasing the reforming catalysts
life, which has already increased
due to the lower feed rate
(in the case of non-replacement of
C6).
Returning to reforming hydrogen
production: as the base case hydrogen production is approximately 2
tonnes per 100 tonnes of reforming
feed, reforming hydrogen production after C6 removal is 2*1.32
tonnes% (2.64 tonnes%) on the base
case reforming feed rate.

Hydrogen production gain net of

increased use for isomerisation

Isomerisation hydrogen use of the

shifted C6 (11 tonnes per 78 tonnes
of reforming throughput1), evaluated at 0.6 wt% of the isomerisation
throughput, is worth 11*0.6/
100*100/78 = 0.08 wt% on the base
case reforming feed rate.
By subtracting isomerisation use
from the hydrogen production

figures, we arrive at 2.64 - 0.08 =

2.56% on the base case reforming
feed rate, equivalent to 2.56/2 =
1.28 times the base case hydrogen
production, or a 28% net gain in
hydrogen production on the reforming base case.
If the reforming feed rate is fully
replenished with good-quality feed,
we will have the full 46 wt% yield
increase and will retain a smaller
fraction of the gain in reformate
octane points obtained.
The result of the relevant calculation gives a net gain in reforming
hydrogen production of around
48% on base case hydrogen
production.

Economic and environmental

improvements

It is possible to exceed a 48% gain

in reforming hydrogen production
through the installation of additional catalytic reforming and
isomerisation capacities. This option
could be evaluated if we consider
that the current trend in crude oil
towards heavier and sourer quality,
as much as the trend towards
better-quality products, requires a
bigger and growing addition of
hydrogen (also keeping in mind
that on-purpose hydrogen production processes consume enormous
energy quantities).
In addition to the gain in hydrogen, the advanced fuel technology
delivers:
A strong gain in gasoline yield
A strong gain in gasoline octane
number (exchangeable at will for an
additional strong gain in gasoline
yield)
Prevention of benzene formation
Accomplishment, with a margin,
of the most stringent specifications
for gasoline benzene content (in
particular, for the US, accomplishment of the US Environmental
Protection Agencys requirement of
0.62 vol% average benzene content
for the whole gasoline pool, resulting in saleable benzene requirement
credits)
Major energy savings
Reduction in pollutants, both
in
gasoline
production
and
consumption
Higher capacity increase in gasoline octane production

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 16:27:48

 Improved engine operation and

maintenance.1,4

gain, net gain in catalytic reforming

hydrogen production and abatement
of
refinery
benzene
Economic value
production.
Calculations are provided with the
The transfer from catalytic
purpose of demonstrating the order reforming to isomerisation of any
of magnitude of the economics C6 hydrocarbon species appears to
involved. We will conservatively be beneficial. Among these species,
consider two of the approximately the most beneficial transfer concerns
three points of octane number the higher boiling ones, cyclohexgained by the technology. These ane transfer bringing the biggest
two points of octane gain are benefit.
The overall result of the technolcommercially worth, on the basis of
encompasses
important
the revenue difference between ogy
premium and regular grades, improvements in refinery economabout 0.02 * 2 = 0.04/litre of ics and environmental performance,
isomerate-reformate blend, or about climate change mitigation, energy
0.05/kg of full-range naphtha savings and improvement in gaso($0.07/kg or $70/tonne of full- line technical quality.
range naphtha).
We assume a gasoline revenue of
$3/gal, equivalent to $0.7926/litre.
On the basis of a conservative Acknowledgment
3 vol% gain and proportioning from Revised and updated from the Q&A Gasoline
earlier calculations,1 where the Processes answers and interventions at the 2011
assumed price of gasoline was National Petrochemical & Refiners Association
(now American Fuel & Petrochemical
$0.20/litre, we obtain a value of the
Manufacturers) Q&A and Technology Forum,
higher gasoline yield of $20.80/
9-12 October 2011, San Antonio, Texas.
tonne of full-range naphtha and a
lower byproducts value, to be
subtracted from the above figure, of References
$8.14/tonne of full-range naphtha. 1 Amadei R, A proposal for an economic and
Hence, the better gasoline yield environmental gasoline, PTQ, Summer 1999.
gives us a total net economic gain 2 Amadei R, Opposition Appeal Patent
of $(20.80 - 8.14) = $12.66/tonne of proprietor reply, European Patent Office,
European Patent Register, Munich, 16 June
full-range naphtha.
We assume a hydrogen cost of 2005, https://register.epo.org/espacenet/applic
ation?documentId=EI57C1OY1001J11&numb
$2150/tonne.5 On this basis, as the
er=EP97937512&lng=en&npl=false (accessed
reforming feed heavy naphtha of
29 Sep 2012).
the base case represents about 78% 3 Westphalen D, Shethna H, Refinery wide
of the full-range naphtha,1 and base simulation, Hydrocarbon Engineering, March
case hydrogen production is 2 2004.
tonnes per 100 tonnes of reforming 4 Amadei R, in the Attachment to Industry
feed rate, the hydrogen gain is basi- comment for the GHG Scoping Plan - 1st
cally worth between 0.02 * 0.28 * Workshop: An economic and environmental
0.78 * 2150 = $16.10/tonne of full- gasoline, California Environmental Protection
range naphtha and over 0.02 * 0.48 Agency, Air Resources Board, 30 July 2008,
* 0.78 * 2150 = $16.10/tonne of full- www.arb.ca.gov/lispub/comm2/bccommlog.
php?listname=sp-industry-ws(#7) (accessed
range naphtha.
29 Sep 2012).
Based on the figures above, we
5 Parihar P, et al, Optimise hydrogen
obtain a profit of $92.05-98.76/tonne management for distillate production,
of full-range naphtha. In an average Hydrocarbon Processing, March 2012.
refinery, with a full-range naphtha
splitting feed rate of 4000 tonnes/
day, total annual gain offered by
Roberto Amadei is Managing Director of
the invention considered results is Chemical & Energy Development, Genoa. Italy.
$134-144 million.
He has 40 years experience in oil refining and

Conclusion

The technology described offers

gasoline yield gain, gasoline octane

www.eptq.com

ced.indd 5

energy technology, planning and optimization,

and holds a PhD in chemical engineering from
the University of Genoa.
Email: ramadei1@alice.it

Visit our new website at

www.amacs.com

Our new clean-fuels

plant is straining the
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PTQ Q1 2013 125

12/12/12 09:52:37

IREP

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11/12/12 14:45:03

Product News
Everything including the laser
survey

Avevas new plant design software

suite, Everything 3D (E3D), began
shipping in December following a
third-quarter launch of the product.
The companys aim in developing
E3D is to pull together technologies
that will enable users to adopt
what it calls lean working practices, spanning engineering, design
and construction, with the aim of
speeding project execution and
reducing wastage in the design
process. The key elements of the
product include capture of laser
scanning data to create intelligent
objects, highly accurate 3D geometry, 2D drafting tools that fully
integrate with the 3D elements, and
intuitive
user
interfaces
for
common design tasks.
According to Aveva, it is no
longer enough to achieve error-free
designs. The availability of affordable new technologies makes it
practical to broaden the reach of
plant design to vendors, fabricators
and construction teams. The cost
savings of a lean approach come
from the ability of people away
from the design office to communicate status and construction
information
as
the
build
progresses.
An ageing population of engineers in mature markets and an
abundance of inexperience in
emerging markets is driving plant
design software to be easy to use,
quick to be trained on and to
support a faster time to production,
says the company. In addition, the
emergence of mobile and cloud
computing from the consumer
market into the business market
enables remote workers, specifically
those on the construction site, to
send as-built information back to
the design team via status updates
and laser scan data to enable rapid
corrective actions.
The Cambridge, England-based
company has been best known in
the refining industry for its PDMS

www.eptq.com

ind news copy 14.indd 1

plant design software, launched

almost a decade after it was
founded as CADCentre, a spin-off
of
University
of
Cambridge
engineering
departments
with
government cash support.
E3D supports PDMS data, but its
most significant design function is
to support accurate representation
of plant both at the design stage
and as-built. This is where laser
scanning and modelling capability
come to the fore. It is rare to
encounter an operating plant that
matches its pre-build design with
complete accuracy; the older the
plant, the greater the range of
discrepancies between the two. As
a result, a significant modification
or revamp calls for a complete
survey of the area of a plant that
will be affected. Without laser scanning as a viable option for data
capture in an operating plant,
surveying is a challenging and relatively
costly
operation.
The
hardware and software for data
gathering by laser are now mature
enough to become tools for capturing and transferring raw survey
data for use in modelling software,
enabling plant designers to detect
clashes between the new design
and the plants current condition,
and to create a modified design that
fits accurately.
The software recognises where 3D
data points represent a pipe or a
beam, for instance, and offers a
choice of the most likely corresponding catalogue items. The user
then selects the appropriate choice,
for example by choosing the correct
pipe specification, and the system
generates an intelligent 3D entity in
the design system, superimposed
on the as-built data. Thus, it
becomes possible to reverse engineer a laser survey into an accurate,
validated and usable 3D model of
the physical plant. The modelled
items can be intelligent, knowing
to which other items they are
connected, just as if they had been
designed in a 3D modelling

application from the outset. Once

they are captured in this way, it
becomes possible to associate these
objects with their counterparts in
the P&ID and other information
items such as datasheets, plot plans,
instrument loop diagrams and
single line diagrams, essentially
following the normal engineering
and design process but in the opposite direction.
In the build-up to E3Ds development, Aveva developed its own
laser model interface. A raft of
acquisitions includes, for instance,
the software division of Z + F UK,
developer of a vendor-independent
interface
for
laser
scanning
software.
When internal development and
acquisitions do not cover the range
of technologies that Aveva would
like to incorporate into its product,
the company develops partnerships
with technology suppliers. For
instance, it has formed an alliance
with Microsoft to speed up the
development of a tablet application
to support its recent technologies.
The mobile tablet application will
be based on Windows Azure technology, operate on Windows 8
devices and provide interactive
access to 3D design models.
According to Aveva, the relationship with Microsoft will enable it to
deliver a solution that adapts
Microsofts
version
of
cloud
computing to give users greater
control and visibility of their design
model, conceding that some users
may need time to be convinced
about feeding their design data into
a third-party cloud. Mobile technology will help improve design
productivity, allow more informed
decisions, and deliver fast and highquality projects, says Aveva. The
companys
Chief
Technology
Officer, Dave Wheeldon, described
to PTQ the enthusiasm he has
measured among customers for
tablet-based operations, in particular for a large-screen version under
development.

PTQ Q1 2013 127

11/12/12 18:14:06

Alphabetical list of advertisers

ABB Analytical

61

ABB Automation

107

ABB Consulting

93

AFPM Annual Meeting

Albemarle Catalysts Company

AMACS Process Tower Internals

IFC

Hoerbiger Kompressortechnik Holding

83

Honeywell Process Solutions

91

18

ITW Technologies

88 &102

IBC

Johnson Matthey Catalysts

123 &125

Aveva

54

Axens

OBC

KBR

52
51

64

ME-TECH 2013

Bryan Research & Engineering

41

Metso Automation

Criterion Catalyst & Technologies

Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corporation
DuPont Sustainable Solutions
Elliott Group

121
94

OHL Gutermuth Industrial Valves

Onis International

Optimised Gas Treating

68

Process Consulting Services

32

Sabin Metal Corporation

100

BETE Fog Nozzle

CB&I

78

KBC Advanced Technologies

Kurita Europe

104

48

23

126

Johnson Screens

BASF Corporation, Catalyst Division

Burckhardt Compression

International Refinery, Energy & Power

110

Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions

Haldor Topse

77 & 81

30
109

14 & 17

27

Samson

13

Emerson Process Management

SOGAT 2013

Enersul

Spectro Analytical Instruments

67

Sulzer Chemtech

72

ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company 25

UOP

42

Flexim

Yokogawa Europe

European Fuels Conference

118

Foster Wheeler

120

Grabner Instruments
Grace Catalysts Technologies

115

29

35

Zeeco

47

11

Zwick Armaturen

99

37

Zyme-Flow

62

For more information on these advertisers, go to www.ptqenquiry.com

128

PTQ Q1 2013

ad index copy 15.indd 1

www.eptq.com

11/12/12 18:49:38

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Stimulate the heart of

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