Debottlenecking

Keywords production decline, economic decline, infill drilling, bypassed oil, attic/cellar oil, production potential, coiled tubing, formation damage, cross-flow, side-track, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), steam injection, in-situ combustion, water alternating gas (WAG), debottlenecking, produced water treatment, well intervention, intermittent production, satellite development, host facility, extended reach development, extended reach drilling. 

As a field matures, bottlenecks may appear in other areas, such as water treatment or gas compression processes, and become factors limiting oil or gas production. These issues can often be addressed both by surface and subsurface options, though the underlying justification remains the same the NPV of a debottlenecking exercise (net cost of action versus the increase in net revenue) must be positive. 

The capacity of PVA in 1995 was greater than 550,000 t. Several manufacturers have added capacity since 1987. Air Products Chemicals added 40,000 t of new capacity Chang-Chun, Nippon Gohsei, and Hoechst all debottlenecked their plants and a new small plant was built in Korea by Oriental Chemical Industries (10,000 t). 

Packed vs Plate Columns. Relative to plate towers, packed towers are more useful for multipurpose distillations, usually in small (under 0.5 m) towers or for the following specific appHcations severe corrosion environment where some corrosion-resistant materials, such as plastics, ceramics, and certain metaUics, can easily be fabricated into packing but may be difficult to fabricate into plates vacuum operation where a low pressure drop per theoretical plate is a critical requirement high (eg, above 49,000 kg/(hm ) (- 10, 000 lb/(hft )) Hquid rates foaming systems or debottlenecking plate towers having plate spacings that are relatively close, under 0.3 m. 

Demethanizer Overhead Expander and Multifeed Fractionation. Incorporation of an expander into the conventional high pressure demethanizer system eliminates bottlenecks in the refrigeration system, the demethanizer condenser, and charge gas compressor. It reduces the cost by lowering the refrigeration power. Multiple feed deethanization and ethylene fractionation debottlenecks the deethanizer, ethylene fractionator, and the refrigeration systems, thereby reducing power consumption. 

Plant Operation The purpose is to maintain and improve performance (i.e., product quality, rate, efficiency, safety, and profits). Examples include identification of plant conditions that limit performance (troubleshooting, debottlenecking) and exploration of new operating regions. 

Bubble caps at outlet side blowing liquid into downcomer limiting capacity. At high rates, separation was reduced as in entrainment. Calculations indicated this should not happen. Scan indicated problem. Debottlenecking activity. 

Equipment bottlenecks and some insight into the value of debottlenecking... 

Application of Mass Integration to Enhance Yield, Debottleneck the Process and Reduce Wastewater In an Acrylonitrile an Plant... 

The first step in the analysis is to identify the target for debottlenecking the biotreatment facility. An overall water balance for the plant (Fig. 4.4) can be written as follows ... 

Influent to biotreatment is reduced to 40% of current level. Therefore, the plant production can be expanded 2.5 times the current capacity before the biotreatment facility is debottlenecked again. 

In the pressure balance section, the significance of the pressure balance in debottlenecking the unit is discussed. Finally, fundamentals of both basic and advanced process controls are presented. 

Troubleshooting, optimization, and debottlenecking are three steps in a continuous process. There is some overlap and gray area among them. 

Optimization refers to maximizing feed rate and/or conversion with the existing equipment while reaching as many constraints as possible. It can be the response to changes in the feed quality, ambient conditions, or the market demands. Although it is not discussed separately here, it is the incentive for most debottlenecking projects. 

Debottlenecking often refers to hardware changes, small or large. It is directed at the bottlenecks identified during optimization. It includes projects that cannot be completed online, such as installing new internals in a vessel. Debottlenecking is the main focus of this chapter. 

Most FCC units are big profit makers. Therefore, they are operated to several constraints. Debottlenecking is the effort to locate and overcome these constraints. The profitability of an FCC operation is maximized when the unit is pushed simultaneously against multiple constraints. Debottlenecking means finding the constraint or combination of constraints that cost the refinery lost opportunities and arriving at the right fix. 

The main purpose of debottlenecking is to increase the refinery s profit margin. In the FCC, this usually means ... 

As with troubleshooting, a proper debottlenecking exercise must consider the effects of feedstock, catalyst, operating conditions, mechanical hardware, environmental issues, and the ability of the rest of the refinery to handle the additional feed/product rates and quality. 

Debottlenecking requires a comprehensive test run to determine the operation s present status. Elements of a test run include ... 

If the object of debottlenecking is to run heavier feeds, multiple test runs may be needed with heavy feed added in stages. 

Reactor temperature is usually directly controlled by adjusting the slide valve openings or changing the pressure differential between the regenerator and reactor. Mechanical design conditions of the reactor systems can limit operating at more severe conditions. To debottleneck these limitations ... 

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