Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022 - 29

Sustainability
sumption; satisfy the fuel oil requirements
for use within the new refinery;
and produce light products meeting
long-term specifications. The combined
total fuel oil production, including an estimated
internal fuel oil consumption of
9,300 bpd, is 234,000 bpd.
Al Zour Refinery is designed to produce
1 wt%-sulfur LSFO for the MEW
while producing 0.5 wt%-sulfur VLSFO
for internal fuel and export.
Fuel oil production and facilities.
Al Zour Refinery is a topping refinery
with fuel oil production coming from
the ARDS, crude distillation column
bottom and property corrections using
distillate yields, as required. The fuel oil
production is illustrated in FIG. 4.
The refinery has three 205,000-bpd
crude distillation units (CDUs) and
three identical 110,000-bpd ARDSs.
Each ARDS train has two identical
55,000-bpd reaction trains. The refinery
is designed to process 100% of the
atmospheric residue. TABLE 1 shows the
properties of fuel oil produced from the
ARDSs, confirming that Al Zour Refinery
can produce the VLSFO from each
ARDS.
CASE STUDIES
Various factors affecting refinery operations,
profitability and optimization
upon implementation of IMO 2020 have
been studied. The different scenarios for
each factor are detailed here.
Types of crude. Al Zour Refinery is
designed to process four distinct types
of crudes: KEC, Kuwait Heavy Crude
(KHC), Lower Fars and Eocene. Scenarios
with different crude mixes, as well
and their impact on refinery throughput
and fuel oil production, were studied. The
ARDS is designed to process two types of
feed: light crude and mixed crude.
* Light crude refers to the residue
coming from the CDU operating
with 100% KEC.
* Mixed crude refers to the residue
coming from the CDU, resulting
in a mixture of 25.5 wt% Eocene,
38.2 wt% KHC and 36.3 wt%
KEC (TABLE 2).
Therefore, TABLE 3 shows that Al Zour
Refinery is equipped to manage both crude
mixes and does not need a crude reduction
due to the new VLSFO specification.
FIG. 4. VLSFO production at Al Zour Refinery.
TABLE 2. Types of crude oil in Kuwait
Name
Kuwait Export
Crude (KEC)
API gravity
Specific gravity
Total sulfur, wt%
Asphaltenes, wt%
Basic nitrogen, ppmw
Nickel, ppmw
Total nitrogen, ppmw
Vanadium, ppmw
30.3
0.9
2.6
2.3
394.1
10.9
954.5
31.5
Economically, it should be noted that
mixed crude processing will be a superior
feed for the ARDSs.
Refinery units shutdown scenarios.
The following scenarios are considered:
1. Normal operation of the CDU
and ARDS (no shutdown). A
CDU turnaround is considered
only once every 6 yr, as per
design. An ARDS shutdown is
considered every year for catalyst
changeover. After the first year,
one train will be under a service
Kuwait Heavy
Crude (KHC)
24
0.9
3.6
5.5
561
19.4
1,828.2
43.6
Lower
Fars Crude
14.5
1
5
7.1
586.6
26.7
1,872
95.1
TABLE 3. Case studies on impact of various types of crude processing
Sl. No
1
Factors
Light crude
205,000 bpd
KEC in CDU-01
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Design CDU operational availability
Total crude charge
Atmospheric bottom
(ATB) yield
Total ATB production
Total ARDS capacity
ARDS residue yield
Total LSFO production from ARDS
Total crude throughput design
205,000 bpd
KEC in CDU-11
205,000 bpd
KEC in CDU-21
96.60%
615,000 bpd
KEC - 49.6%
303,200 bpd
330,000 bpd
78.50%
238,100 bpd
Eocene
17.7
0.9
4.4
5.6
609.5
16.5
1,341.5
49.4
Mixed crude
205,000 bpd
KEC in CDU-01
210,000 bpd
KHC in CDU-11
120,000 bpd
Eocene in CDU-21
96.60%
535,000 bpd
KEC - 49.6 %
KHC - 58.1%
Eocene - 68.1%
305,400 bpd
330,000 bpd
80.30%
245,200 bpd
Hydrocarbon Processing | JANUARY 2022 29
Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hydrocarbon Processing - January 2022
