Study on optimal operation conditions in the heating process of a crude oil single-disk floating roof tank: Insights from exergy transfer analysis method

Abstract

Due to China’s high demand for foreign crude oil, reducing oil storage energy consumption has become the focus of national attention. In this paper, the mathematical model of the heating process of a single-disk floating roof tank is established. The variation law of the external exergy loss, internal exergy dissipation, exergy flow density and exergy transfer coefficient at different positions of the tank in the heating process are calculated and analysed. The obtained results show that the total exergy flow density is positively correlated with the coil temperature, the number of coil pipes and the diameter of the coil pipes. It is positively correlated with the tank level at the initial stage of heating. The exergy effective utilization rate is proposed to evaluate the energy consumption of the coil in the heating process of the storage tank. The obtained results show that the exergy effective utilization rate is negatively correlated with the liquid level and the temperature of the coil and positively correlated with the number and diameter of the coil, When the heating temperature is 100 °C, the maximum exergy effective utilization rate is 38.73 %.