Comparative analysis of different scenarios for the synthesis of refinery hydrogen network

Abstract

The more inferior crude oil and tighter environmental regulations and policies on the quality of the oil product are leading to the increased demand for hydrogen in refineries. It motivates the industries to improve the hydrogen recovery for cost reduction and sustainable development. This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model for the synthesis of refinery hydrogen network with the comparative analysis of several scenarios. A comprehensive superstructure integrated with hydrogen utility, process hydrogen sources, hydrogen sinks, fuel system, compressor, purifier and all the feasible interconnections between them is constructed. Two schemes of data extraction for the hydrogen consumers are firstly introduced. The comparative analysis is conducted on several scenarios, two schemes of data extraction for a hydrogen consumer, the optimal flow rate of hydrogen utility versus minimum number of connections, without/with the placement of compressors and purifiers, and without/with economic performance evaluation. Two case studies are solved to show the feasibility and applicability of the proposed approach. The results show that the optimal flow rate of hydrogen utility would change with different schemes of data extraction and increase with the decreasing of the minimum number of connections. The placement of compressor or setting the total annualized cost (TAC) may not affect the optimal flow rate of hydrogen utility. The optimal inlet purity for the purifier and number of connections can be determined via minimizing the flow rate of hydrogen utility.