Abstract
Abstract In this work, the economic analysis of an industrial refining process involving upfront hydrotreating (HDT) and then distillation is presented. The process economics are compared with those obtained for traditional industrial refining units where distillation is carried out upfront and followed by HDT. Detailed pilot plant experiments were conducted in a continuous flow isothermal trickle bed reactor (TBR) and the crude oil was hydrotreated using a commercial cobalt-molybdenum on alumina as a catalyst. The main HDT reactions considered are: hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), hydrodeasphaltenization (HDAs) and hydrodemetallization (HDM) that includes hydrodevanadization (HDV) and hydrodenickelation (HDNi). The reaction temperature, the hydrogen pressure, and the liquid hourly space velocity were varied within certain ranges. The hydrotreated crude oil was distilled into various fractions: light naphtha (L.N), heavy naphtha (H.N), heavy kerosene (H.K), light gas oil (L.G.O) and reduced crude residue (R.C.R). Finally, experimental data, kinetics, and a reactor model are employed within a commercial process simulator (gPROMS) for the economic analysis of the refining process.
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