Concentrated solar power integration with refinery process heaters

Abstract

Crude oil heating is considered an energy-intensive process in the oil industry that requires a huge amount of heat to process the crude oil. There is scarcity of a thorough research that deals with the techno-economic viability of introducing renewable energy solutions to the refinery industry including its environmental benefits. Therefore, a renewable energy solution i.e. a parabolic trough system is reviewed and examined to support minimizing the burning of natural gas in crude heaters and relying on thermal heat from sun radiation to increase crude oil temperature prior to going into the fractionation column. The system is designed to support refinery operation during day time whereas system design and analysis were done from thermal and financial points of view. Furthermore, benefits such as natural gas savings, reduction in CO2 emissions, and total payback period are presented in the paper to reflect the feasibility of constructing such a solution. Moreover, a MATLAB simulation was carried out to define the design points for the solar field and related heat exchanger components. This is to assure that the system can operate during winter and summer seasons given that the direct normal irradiance (DNI) is typically variant throughout the year. It has been concluded that integrating a parabolic trough collector into the operation of an oil refinery, i.e. crude oil heater, can potentially result in natural gas savings of 555,515 MMBtu and can prevent 30,020 tons of CO2 emissions annually. Moreover, the system is anticipated to result in cost savings of approximately 1.65 M $ per year.