Refinery products, evaluation

It is the heteroelements that can have substantial effects on the distribution of refinery products. Coupled with the changes brought about to the feedstock constituents by refinery operations, it is not surprising that refining the heavy feedstocks is a monumental task. Thus, initial inspection of the feedstock (conventional examination of the physical properties) is necessary. From this, it is possible to make deductions about the most logical means of refining. In fact, evaluation of crude oils from physical property data as to which refining sequences should be employed for any particular crude oil is a predominant part of the initial examination of any material that is destined for use as a refinery feedstock. 

M. E. Frank and B. K. Schmid, "Economic Evaluation and Process Design of a Coal—Oil—Gas (COG) Refinery," paper presented at Symposium on Conceptual Plantsfor the Production of Synthetic Fuels From Coal, AIChE 65th Annual Meeting, New York, Nov. 26, 1972. 

For over a decade, LNAPL occurrence has been investigated beneath an active refinery site in southern California. Numerous monitoring wells along with LNAPL samples have been used to evaluate the extent and character of LNAPL occurrence. LNAPL was found to occur as five pools. The main pools each consist of individual accumulations of distinct product types occurring under both perched and water table conditions. Two different recovery and mitigation strategies have been utilized. In relatively high permeability zones, a system of two-pump recovery wells was used to recover fluids recovered water is reinjected without treatment. In relatively low permeability zones, a system of one-pump recovery wells was used. In the latter case, recovered water is treated prior to disposal. 

The sources of wastewater generation in petroleum refineries have been discussed previously in this chapter. Table 5 presents a qualitative evaluation of wastewater flow and characteristics by fundamental refinery processes [5]. The trend of the industry has been to reduce wastewater production by improving the management of the wastewater systems. Table 6 shows waste-water loadings and volumes per unit fundamental process throughput in older, typical, and newer technologies [15]. Table 7 shows typical wastewater characteristics associated with several refinery processes [16]. 

Spectroscopic methods have played an important role in the evaluation of petroleum and of petroleum products for the last three decades and many of the methods are now used as standard methods of analysis for refinery feedstocks and products. Application of these methods to feedstocks and products is a natural consequence for the refiner. 

Thus, fractionation methods also play a role, along with the physical testing methods, of evaluating heavy oils and residua as refinery feedstocks. For example, by careful selection of an appropriate technique it is possible to obtain a detailed map of feedstock or product composition that can be used for process predictions (Chapter 3). 

The investments shown are estimated for an urban midcontinent location. As mentioned above, the estimate for the boiler plant is based on coal-fired burners with attendant stack gas sulfur dioxide (SC ) removal facilities. As indicated on Table XX, no allowance is made for (a) coal resource costs, (b) coal mining or handling, (c) conversion of coal to oil by SRC-II process, (d) SRC-II oil transportation to, or (e) refined product distribution and transportation from the refinery. These additional costs are not required to evaluate refinery processing costs. However, they should be included if it is desired to determine the overall economics of a specific synthetic crude oil refining project. 

Reduce ECU Catalyst Fines Evaluate possible performance of more attrition-resistant ECU catalyst to reduce fines production. (Subsequent review with catalyst vendors indicated the Refinery was already using the most attrition-resistant catalyst available.) Two other fines reduction options were considered. 

Thus process units in a refinery require analytical test methods that can adequately evaluate feedstocks and monitor product quality. In addition, the high sulfur content of petroleum and regulations limiting the maximum sulfur content of fuels makes sulfur removal a priority in refinery processing. Here again, analytical methodology is key to the successful determination of the sulfur compound types present and their subsequent removal. 

Organic sulfur compounds (e.g., mercaptans, sulfides, polysulfides, thiophenes) are present in petroleum products to a greater or lesser extent depending on the crude oil origin and the refinery treatment. The sulfur content of fuel oil (ASTM D-396) can be determined by a variety of methods (ASTM D-129,ASTM D-1552, ASTM D-2622, ASTM D-4294, IP 61, IP 63), with mercaptan sulfur in cracked stocks being particularly necessary for evaluation (ASTM D-3227, IP 342). 

Guidelines to Ensure Health and Safety of Workers and General Public. Operations of an oil shale industry will introduce a new set of industrial working conditions and possible public health risks as a result of plant operations or product distribution. The research directed toward this need will examine the potential health and safety risks to workers and the general public. All aspects of the fuel cycle will be examined from the mine and retort to the refinery and end use of the shale oil products. Protective measures, whether they be through controls, process modifications, or isolation of high risk areas, will be evaluated and effective measures will be applied. 

To satisfy the requirements of catalytic facilities in our refineries, catalyst production and sales have been thriving. Precise statistics for the catalyst industry are not available. But, in our evaluation, current sales of the main catalysts for cracking, reforming, and hydrogen pretreatment, are probably at an annual rate of 165 million dollars. Considering the future development of the apphcation of catalysis to the petroleum industry, sales may attain, by 1965, a level of 325 million dollars (see Table IV) (8). 

Data were also collected from a different bench top sulfur analyzer at a refinery laboratory over a period of one month. Again, all the measurements were carried out with one calibration curve. For the repeatability evaluation, two diesel products and a gasoline product were used. The gasoline and one of the diesel samples contain 50 ppm sulfur. The other diesel sample has 10 ppm sulfur. For each sample, two successive readings were obtained within 10 min. from two different specimens by the sample operator. A total of 26, 36, and 32 pairs of results were obtained over a month for the 50-ppm diesel, 10-ppm diesel and the gasoline samples respectively. The difference between each pair was calculated and the results are shown as histograms for the three samples (see Fig. 5). The repeat measurement standard deviation and the site repeatability were foimd and the results are listed in Table 4. 

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