Refinery Plant Research Articles

Performance assessment and process optimization of a sulfur recovery unit: a real starting up plant

Sulfur recovery units (SRU) have an important role in the industrial production of elemental sulfur from hydrogen sulfide, whereas the generated acidic gas emissions must be controlled and treated based on local and international environmental regulations. Herein, Aspen HYSYS V.11 with Sulsim software is used to simulate the industrial and treatment processes in a refinery plant in the Middle East. In the simulation models, in temperature, pressure, flow, energy, and gas emissions were monitored to predict any expected change that could occur during the industrial processes. The simulation models were validated by comparing the obtained data with actual industrial data, and the results showed low deviation values. The simulation results showed that the current process temperature conditions can work efficiently for sulfur production without causing any environmental consequences. Interestingly, the simulation results revealed that sulfur can be produced under the optimized temperature conditions (20° less than design temperatures) with a total amount of steam reduction by 1040.12 kg/h and without any negative impact on the environment. The steam reduction could have a great economic return, where an average cost of 7.6 $ per ton could be saved with a total estimated cost savings by 69,247.03 $ per year. The simulation revealed an inaccurate production capacity calculated by real data in the plant during the performance test guarantee (PTG) where the real data achieved around 1 ton/h higher capacity than the simulation result, with an overall recovery efficiency of 99.96%. Based on this significant result, a solution was raised, and the level transmitters were calibrated, then the test was repeated. The simulation models could be very useful for engineers to investigate and optimize the reaction conditions during the industrial process in sulfur production facilities. Hence, the engineers can utilize these models to recognize any potential problem, thereby providing effective and fast solutions. Additionally, the simulation models could participate in assessing the performance test guarantee (PTG) calculations provided by the contractor.

Cover Picture: ChemBioEng Reviews 1/2023

ChemBioEng ReviewsVolume 10, Issue 1 p. 1-1 Cover PictureFree Access Cover Picture: ChemBioEng Reviews 1/2023 First published: 11 February 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/cben.202370101AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract Oil Refinery, Chemical & Petrochemical plant. Copyright: zorazhuang Volume10, Issue1February 2023Pages 1-1 RelatedInformation

Heavy Metal Migration in Soil-Plant System in Conditions of Urban Environmental Pollution

This study is devoted to heavy metal soil migration to coltsfoot in urban pollution of Tyumen city. Soil and plant samples were collected in the summer of 2017 to 2020 at the control site, highway, engine-building, oil refinery, battery manufacturing, and metallurgical plants. Heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Pb, Cd, Ni, Co, and Cr) mobile and acid-soluble forms in soils, and metals concentration in plants were analyzed by atomic absorption and atomic emission spectroscopy. Metals concentration in soils of urban area exceeded the control by 1.1 to 20 times. Relative accumulation of metals decreased in the order: Pb > Cu > Zn > Ni > Cr > Fe > Co > Mn > Cd. Heavy metals mobility in soils decreased in the order: Cd > Mn > Pb > Zn > Ni = Cu > Co > Cr > Fe. Coltsfoot metal accumulation changed in the order: Fe > Zn = Mn > Pb > Cu > Cr > Co > Ni > Cd. The highest contamination for most of the metals was at the metallurgical plant, while Ni and Co concentrations were maximum at the oil refinery. Content of Cu, Zn, Fe, Cd, Ni, and Co in coltsfoot correlated with a concentration in soils. Bioconcentration factor showed the following metal bioavailability: Cu > Zn > Cd > Pb > Ni > Mn > Cr > Co > Fe. Heavy metal accumulation in coltsfoot should be taken into account during sanitary control of herb drugs based on this plant.

Optimization of chemical oxygen demand removal from petroleum refinery wastewater by electrocoagulation using tubular electrochemical reactor with a novel design

In this study, removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from petroleum refinery effluent was investigated using a new tubular electrochemical reactor (TER) design which operated at a batch recycle model. The electrochemical reactor comprises of two concentric electrodes namely spiral aluminum rode anode and hollow cylindrical stainless steel cathode. Four parameters were investigated: current density, sodium chloride concentration (NaCl), pH, and flow rate on the COD removal efficiency, and optimized using response surface methodology. Results show that current density is the most influential parameter on removal percentage where increasing current density results in increasing the removal efficiency. Another effect of lowering flow rate resulted in high removal of COD due to the increased resistance time of effluent passing on the surface of the anode with the newly adopted design. Finding of laboratory work were obtained under optimal working conditions such as current density of 26 mA/cm2, pH of 7.9, NaCl concentration of 1.1 g/L, and flow rate of 2 L/min. These were resulting in a COD removal efficiency of 73.36% with specific energy consumption of 30.61 kWh/kg·COD. Operating cost of the present system was found to be $2.185 m3 which is considered low and acceptable. Experimental results prove that the new design of TER is more efficient than the traditional design that uses in electrocoagulation system to treat wastewater generated from petroleum refinery plants.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ ПРЕДИКТИВНОГО АНАЛИЗА ЭФФЕКТОВ ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ РАБОТ ПО РЕМОНТУ И ТЕХНИЧЕСКОМУ ОБСЛУЖИВАНИЮ ОБОРУДОВАНИЯ

The article reveals the importance of predictive analysis in the activities of an industrial enterprise. It emphasizes the transformation of its role and functions as a tool for solving the problems of improving production efficiency in the conditions of increasingly widespread use of digital technologies in production processes. The purpose of the study, the results of which are presented in the article, was to evaluate the product of predictive analysisмanalytical information on the results of the implementation of the equipment operation monitoring system, which provides, among other things, the application of a number of digital solutions in the organization of equipment operation control in order not only to maintain the planned volume of production, but also to ensure high efficiency of production processes. The information base of the study was made up by the reporting data of the industrial enterprise “Atyrau Oil Refinery Plant” (ANPZ), Republic of Kazakhstan, on the results of the implementation in 2020 of measures to implement a system of work monitoring in order to synchronize, coordinate and optimize production processes by eliminating the causes of downtime and excluding unproductive use of working time.

Techno-economic assessment of small-scale gas to liquid technology to reduce waste flare gas in a refinery plant

The dissemination of toxic substances to the atmosphere and wasting energy by flaring are important challenges for natural gas facilities, and small-scale gas to liquid (GTL) technology can be used as an efficient method to reduce flaring. In this study, a validated model for technical simulation and variable sales prices of GTL products in five different scenarios are used to perform an accurate, comprehensive, and realistic techno-economic assessment of this technology to reduce flaring in the natural gas refinery. The detailed model of gas sweetening, syngas generation and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) units have been simulated in the Aspen HYSYS software. The technical results illustrate that the capacity of this plant is 686 barrels per day, and the main products of this plant are diesel and propane. The results demonstrate the economic feasibility of a small-scale GTL plant in all economic conditions unless oil prices decrease significantly in the following years. Based on the obtained results, rising oil price increases the simulated plant's internal rate of return (IRR) to 39.99%. Finally, the sensitivity analysis results indicate that the profitability of this plant can be guaranteed with low oil prices by reducing CapEx to US$ 50,000 per barrel.

Comprehensive integration of mass and energy utilization for refinery and synthetic plant of chemicals

Expensive industrial mass and energy mediums, including hydrogen, carbon oxides, and steam, heat and electricity derived from resources of coal, and/or petroleum and/or natural gas, are extensively consumed in refinery and synthetic plant of chemicals (SPC) to simultaneously manufacture value added products and generate emissions. Mass is the carrier of energy while energy is the driving force of mass conversion. Based on such dialectical relationship in chemical conversions, a mass and energy comprehensive integration methodology is proposed to minimize resource consumption and carbon emission. A hierarchical superstructure consisting of resources to intermediate feedstocks (IFs) and IFs to final conversions for refinery and SPC is constructed and a mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model is established to perform optimization. Case study results indicate that with intact productivity as individual networks, comprehensive integration can conserve coal consumption by 23.9%, natural gas consumption by 7.6% and total CO2 emission by 14.4%. The methodology in this work demonstrates that the interaction of mass and energy in chemical conversions is crucial to resource conservation and emission reduction and thus comprehensive integration is great progress in process integration.

Robust-heuristic-based optimisation for an engine oil sustainable supply chain network under uncertainty

This study configures various carbon regulation mechanisms to control carbon emissions following clean technology strategies in engine oil production. Considering clean technology strategies for designing a sustainable supply chain (SSC) in the engine oil industry, two carbon reduction policies, namely, carbon capacity and carbon emissions tax, are discussed to study the effects of environmental factors. A mixed-integer linear programming model that examines demand, technology, budget, carbon policies, and capacity constraints under several uncertainties is proposed for engine oil production from petrochemical resources, refinery plant production, and distribution system capacities. This study controls and mitigates risk and timing decisions for output decisions from a hybrid robust-heuristic-based method, wherein a modified scenario-based GA is used to eliminate the effect of uncertainties. The results indicate high-quality convergence of solutions for different strategic scenarios. We successfully apply the introduced model to address a real-world supply chain (SC) of the engine oil industry. The proposed model improves the state-of-the-art models for the engine oil SC. Finally, the study finding shows that managers can improve technologies with the lowest possible cost, maximum product profitability, and minimum possible losses in the production process and product quality through the carbon tax policy to reduce the environmental effects.

Oil removal from spent bleaching earth of vegetable oil refinery plant using supercritical carbon dioxide

The oil in the spent bleaching earth (SBE) matrix was successfully removed by applying the supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) extraction technique in a semi-continuous flow–type system. The SCCO2 extraction process was conducted at 40–80 °C and 20–30 MPa with extraction time of ∼180 min. The color of SBE matrix changes from the dark to dark-pale color after the SCCO2 extraction treatment exhibiting the substances including oil in the SBE matrix were successfully removed. The extracted oil yield was around 95% when the SCCO2 extraction process was performed at 40 °C and 30 MPa with 10% ethanol addition as a co–solvent. The GC analysis showed that the prominent fatty acid constituents in the extracted oil are palmitic and oleic acids, furthermore it can be fed as a feedstock to produce biodiesel fuel. Next, it can be proposed that SCCO2 extraction system is a viable way to extract oil from the SBE matrix.

The long uphill journey of Australia’s rare earth element industry: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT In recent years, several mining companies worldwide have made efforts towards establishing sustainable value-adding rare earth element (REE) supply chains to compete with China. Lynas and Iluka are two Australian mining companies that recently announced their plans to construct REE refinery plants to process and separate REE oxides in Western Australia and Texas, US. Though promising, such investments entail high risks. This work discusses the status of the Australian REE industry and uses SWOT and risk analyses to identify and evaluate the challenges and opportunities with respect to building an integrated rare earth supply chain outside of China.

Process modeling and optimization of an eco-friendly process for acid gas conversion to hydrogen

Hydrogen sulfide conversion to hydrogen is an attractive alternative for addressing energy problems, waste management, global warming, and supplying hydrogen in petrochemical and refinery plants. This research is focused on the development of an environmentally friendly process for the decomposition of hydrogen sulfide into hydrogen and elemental sulfur. The developed process includes a thermal cracker to produce hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide and a catalytic isothermal reactor to minimize emissions of sulfur contaminants. In the first step, a process flowsheet is planned for hydrogen sulfide conversion considering a real feed case. In the next step, the planned process is modeled based on the governing equations considering the heat and mass transfer resistances in the steady state condition. Then, optimum operating conditions of the designed process are determined considering the maximum hydrogen productivity and minimum contaminant emissions as objective functions. The results show that the designed process is capable to produce 51.03 kmol h−1 hydrogen and 84.92 kmol h−1 sulfur as main products. In addition, the rate of CS2 and COS emission is negligible in the proposed process.

Treatment of petroleum refinery wastewater by adsorption using activated carbon fixed bed column with batch recirculation mode

Water pollution and the lack of access to clean water are general global problems that result from the expansion of industrial and agricultural activities. Petroleum refinery wastewaters consider as a major challenge to the environment and their treatment is mandatory. The present work concerns with the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from petroleum refinery wastewater taken from Iraq's Al-Diwaniyah petroleum refinery plant by using an activated carb fixed-bed column operated at a batch recirculation mode. The fixed bed column used in this work was composed of three sections: upper, central, and bottom compartments. The bottom compartment serves as a feeding chamber to the central adsorption chamber while the upper compartment serves as a collecting effluent chamber. By adopting response surface methodology (RSM), in the pacts of various operational parameters such as packing level, pH, and time on the COD removal efficiency were investigated. The optimal conditions were an activated carbon packing level of 80%, pH of 5.7, and adsorption time of 73 min approximately, which resulted in a COD removal efficiency of 96.70%. The results indicated that the packing level of activated carbon had a major effect on COD elimination followed by pH, while time had a minor effect. The model equation's adequacy was demonstrated by its strong R2 value (0.975). The present study demonstrates that the adsorption system by activated carbon is an effective method for removingcondomODom Al-Diwaniyah petroleum refinery wastewaters.

Sustainable production of lignocellulosic bioethanol towards zero waste biorefinery

This study proposes a novel process design for lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol conversion with zero waste generation. In comparison to traditional bioethanol process, the proposed new process not only produces ethanol, but also converts waste streams into high value-added by-products by undergoing multi-stage refinery steps. The feasibility the proposed process design, especially the additional waste processing, has been carried out. The results showed that co-producing by-products could significantly contribute to the profitability by decreasing the ethanol minimum viable sales price from $2.24/gal to $1.78/gal, comparing with traditionally produced bioethanol. It was also found that ethanol minimum sale price is highly sensitive to the lignin price fluctuation. The water pollution can be avoided in the proposed process due to an additional water recycling step, however, there is a trade-off between reduced water pollution and increased CO2 emissions when fossil fuel is used as operation energy. The results showed that, to ensure proposed bioethanol plant have environmental advantage with traditional ethanol refinery plant, the CO2 emission per kWh for all kinds of electricity should not be over 0.11 kg/kWh. Thus, we suggest that the proposed concept of zero-waste bioethanol plants could be established in Countries with access of sufficient renewable electricity supply.

Energy and exergy studies of a Sulphur recovery unit in normal and optimized cases: A real starting up plant

Sulphur recovery units produce Sulphur from H2S gas to prevent any acidic gas emission against environmental regulation. A refinery plant in the middle east that started its official production in 2020 has an SRU plant to do this role. The plant was simulated and optimized using a special package for Sulphur in HYSYS named SULSIM. While energy is transformed into other forms, exergy is destructed in an irreversible process. A complete exergy study was conducted on different plant equipment to calculate the exergy destruction, the exergy efficiency and the percentage share of destruction. The study included the normal case, optimized case and a comparison between both cases. The thermal reactor has the highest destruction rate of 39551.79 kW, with a percentage share of 56.481% of total destruction. Then catalytic reactor1 with a destruction rate of 14000.22 kW and 19.993 percentage share. In general, the reactors participated with 88.88%, the reactors with the addition of the waste heat boiler shared with 97.07% of total destruction. The destruction distribution was approximately the same in optimized conditions. The total destruction rate of equipment was 70026.31 kW and 70301.72 in normal and optimized conditions respectively. Although from an energy point of view optimized conditions were better, the destruction exergy rate exceeds the normal conditions by 275.41 kW. In optimized conditions, some equipment destruction rate exceeds their values in normal conditions. From the energy point of view, 1.04 ton/h of steam was decreased in the optimized conditions saving 69247.03 $/year. The calculated destructed value from SULSIM for “Amine & Regenerator” is −115.56 kW, which is incorrect; the correct value is 2404.85 kW, which was calculated using standard HYSYS V.11.

Global trends in technologies and nanomaterials for removal of sulfur organic compounds: Clean energy and green environment

• Various Technologies for sulfur organic compounds removal from fuels were reviewed. • Several nanomaterials used in desulfurization of thiophenes were discussed. • Trending catalysts used in hydrodesulfurization of thiophenes were reviewed. • Trends in desulfurization technologies to achieve complete sulfur removal were highlighted. Sulfur compounds, which commonly exist in substantial amounts in produced oil, gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, cause a wide range of negative consequences including pollution, reduced engine efficiency, severe corrosion of pipelines, reactors, and equipment, as well as the poisoning of catalysts. Consequently, strict environmental rules and constraints are in place to keep the amount of sulfur in the air to a bare minimum. To achieve this objective, desulfurization or removal of sulfur is applied commonly in most refinery plants. In this review, numerous methods, adsorbents and catalysts used for the elimination of sulfur compounds are investigated. The review presents an overview of the emerging technologies for ultra-deep desulfurization to obtain ultra-low-sulfur fuels. The development of robust adsorbents and nanomaterials with ideal regeneration approaches is required to establish the capabilities of desulfurization processes. This review is expected to provide essential references and future directions for developing desulfurization technologies and materials for practical applications.

Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Selection of Botryococcus braunii Cultivation Technology for Bio-crude Oil Production

Bio-crude oil is a way to utilize bioenergy that can reduce the Indonesian government's dependence on fossil energy. Bio-crude oil can be obtained by carrying out a thermochemical process of biomass. Microalgae is a potential source of biomass and Botryococcus braunii is one of the promising types of microalgae for this matter. One of the units required in the conversion process of microalgae into bio-crude oil is the cultivation unit. The objective of this study is to determine the most effective and optimal cultivation technology to be applied to the bio-crude oil refinery plant. Location of the cultivation system is in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. A study was conducted for this purpose using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The cultivation systems proposed to be the alternatives were open raceway pond, flat panel photo-bioreactor, hybrid, and membrane photo-bioreactor. The AHP results showed that the open raceway pond was selected to be applied to the bio-crude oil refinery process. The biomass production potential of Botryococcus braunii from the cultivation unit in this study was 19.8795 ton/year/ha which could be processed into 11.5301 ton of bio-crude oil with a high heating value (HHV) of 553,448.8 MJ.

Demand-Side Flexibility in Power Systems: A Survey of Residential, Industrial, Commercial, and Agricultural Sectors

In recent years, environmental concerns about climate change and global warming have encouraged countries to increase investment in renewable energies. As the penetration of renewable power goes up, the intermittency of the power system increases. To counterbalance the power fluctuations, demand-side flexibility is a workable solution. This paper reviews the flexibility potentials of demand sectors, including residential, industrial, commercial, and agricultural, to facilitate the integration of renewables into power systems. In the residential sector, home energy management systems and heat pumps exhibit great flexibility potential. The former can unlock the flexibility of household devices, e.g., wet appliances and lighting systems. The latter integrates the joint heat–power flexibility of heating systems into power grids. In the industrial sector, heavy industries, e.g., cement manufacturing plants, metal smelting, and oil refinery plants, are surveyed. It is discussed how energy-intensive plants can provide flexibility for energy systems. In the commercial sector, supermarket refrigerators, hotels/restaurants, and commercial parking lots of electric vehicles are pointed out. Large-scale parking lots of electric vehicles can be considered as great electrical storage not only to provide flexibility for the upstream network but also to supply the local commercial sector, e.g., shopping stores. In the agricultural sector, irrigation pumps, on-farm solar sites, and variable-frequency-drive water pumps are shown as flexible demands. The flexibility potentials of livestock farms are also surveyed.

Investigation of Naphtha Hydrotreating (NHT) Unit Exergy Utilization: A Case Study of a Petrochemical Industry in A developing Country

The need for efficient energy use in refinery operations is the proffered solution to the poor management of energy resources which has resulted in the instability in oil products prices, irregular plant shutdowns experienced in refineries of developing countries and increased carbon emission to the atmosphere. This research work aims to carry out exergy analysis on major energy consuming units which will aid in determining sites and causes of primary energy losses and proffer solutions to maximizing energy utilization. The Naphtha Hydro-treating (NHT) unit of the case model refinery was successfully simulated using Aspen Hysys. The analysis revealed more than half (51.9 %) of the input exergy was lost to the environment and an irreversibility of 32.7% occurred in the Stripper column. Comparison was also made with the same unit at Kaduna refinery and petrochemical plant and the results showed a conversion efficiency of about 91.28% when compared to 44.35% from the old refinery though this could be attributed to factors like age of plant, inadequate maintenance etc. The positive value of the amount of heat recovered from that of the flue gas in the boiler and furnace gave an opportunity to recover the energy lost and integrated back to the system for economic viability of the plant which result in a payback period that is less than a year.

Concept for Biomass and Organic Waste Refinery Plants Based on the Locally Available Organic Materials in Rural Areas of Poland

The importance of developing efficient and environmentally friendly means of biomass conversion into bioenergy, biofuels, and valuable products is currently high in Poland. Accordingly, herein, two new energy and biofuel units are proposed, namely, POLpec and POLbp, which are used as reference sources for comparing energy consumption and biofuel production in other countries or regions in the world. One POLpec equals 4400 PJ (195.1 Mtoe), reflecting the annual primary energy consumption of Poland in 2020. Meanwhile, one POLbp equals 42 PJ (1.0 Mtoe), referring to the annual production of biofuels in Poland in 2020. Additionally, a new import–export coefficient β is proposed in the current study, which indicates the relationship between the import and export of an energy carrier. More specifically, the potential of biomass and organic waste to be converted into energy, biofuels, and valuable products has been analysed for the rural areas of Poland. Results show that the annual biomass and organic waste potential is approximately 245 PJ (5.9 Mtoe). Finally, the concept of a biomass and organic waste refinery plant is proposed based on the locally available organic materials in rural areas. In particular, two models of biomass refinery plants are defined, namely, the Input/Output and Modular models. A four-module model is presented as a concept for building a refinery plant at the Institute of Technology and Life Sciences—National Research Institute in Poznan, Poland. The four modules include anaerobic digestion, gasification, transesterification, and alcoholic fermentation. The primary reason for combining different biomass conversion technologies is to reduce the cost of biomass products, which, currently, are more expensive than those obtained from oil and natural gas.

Export Taxes and Trade Pattern: Case from the Indonesian Mineral Industry

The Indonesian government adopted mineral export taxes by imposing a high tariff on raw materials while waiving tariffs on processed products. Tariffs decreased following the progress of refinery plant construction. Based on the fixed effects panel regression at the commodity-country-pair level, this study finds that the export taxes system negatively reduces raw material export while increasing processed mineral export. Tariff stratification on mineral commodities distorts trade patterns, affecting business orientation in upstream and downstream sectors. Furthermore, tier tariff significantly elevates the export quantity of downstream products compared to flat export taxes, directly proportional to export value. Export contraction of raw materials resulted from tier tariff slightly lower than the flat type but with a higher exports performance of processed products. The shifting phenomena to the value-added industry indicate an effort for export taxes evasion. This finding is reinforced by the massive investment inflow in the mineral processing sector. Meanwhile, the exporter manufacturing industry positively correlates with the export performance of processed products and a negative direction with raw material, which aligns with the main finding.