The technical and economic analysis of processing and conversion of heavy oil cuts to valuable refinery products

Abstract

Abstract Many of the modern refineries are founded on converting/upgrading the heavy bases of low value to lighter products by higher added value like gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. In this work, some process configurations in heavy refinery cracking, converting and treating are technically and economically evaluated. In this purpose, four process configurations for refinery plants are suggested. These processes are evaluated and analyzed to obtain the most optimal configurations with the aim of achieving the most valuable refinery products. The difference of the processes is in heavy residue conversion and processing. These processes are included the Asphalt Air Blowing Unit (AABU, Type 1), Delayed Coker Unit (DCU, Type 2), Heavy Residue Hydro-Conversion (HRH, Type 3) and Solvent De-Asphalting (SDA, Type 4). The units are common in mentioned refineries cases and just ABU, HCU, DCU, HRH and SDA are different. In economic consideration, the payout period is considered as one of the standard methods of assessing the economic projects and economically estimating them. As results, the highest rate of gasoline is recorded in the refinery type of DCU unit and the highest amount of LPG/C4/C3, kerosene and gasoline production observed in refinery type of HRH unit. The construction of refinery with ABU unit has minimum investment (980 million $) and highest rate of return (19.4).