Hydrocarbon Processing - February 2022 - 30

Digital Technologies
ity of intermediate streams and refinery
configurations. One of the selections of
heavy oils-sourced from Mexico-for
co-processing with 15 regular crude oils
is reported in TABLE 4. In this example, the
final co-processing decision was primarily
influenced by VR compatibility.
Due to its ability for rapid solutions,
FIG. 9. The prediction software's web page displays software features.
TABLE 4. Prediction softwarea
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Mexico
crude
(A)
Arab Medium
Arab Light
Arab Heavy
AM (60:40)
AM (70:30)
AM (80:20)
Kuwait
Compatible
A ≥ 24 wt%
Compatible
Compatible
A > 5 wt%
A > 9 wt%
Arab Ex Light A ≥ 40 wt%
Compatible
Upper Zakum A > 20 wt%
Murban
Das Blend
Basrah Light
Iran Light
Iran Heavy
Mars Blend
phaltene flocculation
A > 38 wt%
A > 35 wt%
A > 8 wt%
A > 4 wt%
Compatible
Compatible
to precipitation
behavior in refinery operations. The prediction
of asphaltene flocculation to precipitation
behavior is depicted in FIG. 8.
Additionally, the prediction softwarea
model predicts the compatibility
of intermediate streams within various
refining units. This unique feature can
predict incompatibility hotspots in various
unit operations employed in refineries.
The prediction software's solutions
have been used by several refinery units
to address desalter upsets, the selection
of heavy crude combinations, and the
compatibility ranking of crude mixes.
The predictions and rankings of crude
compatibility have been observed in line
with field operations.
To enable increased margins, the prediction
software guides operators toward
30 FEBRUARY 2022 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
the K model has been used for scheduling
healthier feeds for the crude mix processing,
including monthly planning and realtime
monitoring of asphaltene precipitation
behavior. The continuous usage of
the prediction software resulted in an increase
in refining margins of $0.15/bbl-
$2/bbl vs. regular crudes.
solutions for the selection of heavy oil
Prediction softwarea
SN Heavy oil Regular crudes Crude compatibility VR compatibility Recommendations
1
A < 14 wt%
A < 24 wt%
Incompatible
A < 12 wt%
A < 16 wt%
A < 22 wt%
A < 40 wt%
Incompatible
A < 20 wt%
A < 41 wt%
A < 35 wt%
A < 9 wt%
A < 30 wt%
A < 1 wt%
A < 24 wt%
A < 14 wt%
Incompatible
Incompatible
A < 12 wt%
5 wt% < A < 16 wt%
9 wt% < A < 22 wt%
Incompatible
Incompatible
Incompatible
38 wt% < A < 41 wt%
Incompatible
8 wt% < A < 9 wt%
4 wt% < A < 30 wt%
A < 1 wt%
A < 24 wt%
enlarging their crude oil baskets, including
new and opportunity crude oils for
processing. In this case, for example, heavy
oil was to be selected for co-processing,
which the prediction software predicted
that specific crudes were compatible;
however, the intermediate streams-especially
the vacuum residue (VR)-derived
out of the crude mixing process in
certain compositions were incompatible,
since they could lead to severe fouling in
the VR heater/furnace when handling or
processing VR in the delayed coker. Based
on the VR compatibility, some of the
crude oils were avoided for co-processing.
In certain instances, the prediction
softwarea
not only guides the user to a
compatible composition, but also advises
not to include certain compositions in the
crude basket, based on the incompatibilmodules
and
features. The prediction software package
offers different modules that provide a
variety of options to meet refinery blending
needs. This software package has three
modules, as depicted in FIG. 9. The first
module is for crude oil blend compatibility
and has two submodules. Module 1A is
used to predict crude blend compatibility
for known blend compositions. Module
1B is used to predict the most optimum
and compatible crude oil blends that can
be achieved using a set of crude oils. The
prediction software provides an option for
blend optimization of up to 10 crude oils.
This option considers different blending
constraints, such as blend compatibility,
blend viscosity, blend pour, blend acidity,
blend nitrogen, blend sulfur and total distillate
yield, and crude oil availability.
Similarly, Module 2 is used to indicate
possible bitumen within blends. Module
2 also has two submodules. Module 2A
can check if a given crude oil blend composition
has the potential for bitumen.
Module 2B is used for estimating the optimum
blend composition of crude oils
with bitumen potential.
The third module is used for fuel oil
blending, which enables the optimization
of cutter stock and also minimizes
the cost of production for a fuel oil of a
certain specification.
Takeaway. The authors' company's proprietary
crude compatibility softwarea
provides accurate prediction of crude
compatibility within minutes vs. weeks.
This software has been validated with
the composite results of nine different
compatibility tests available in literature
for accurate compatibility prediction.
http://www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Hydrocarbon Processing - February 2022

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