Question 73: There is increasing economic incentive to operate crude units to yield maximum middle distillate volume. What targets are you using to quantify the degree of separation between naphtha and kerosene and between diesel and gas oil? What amount of distillation curve overlap do you consider good practice? What guidance are you given to achieve the target separation?
Gopi Sivasubramanian (Foster Wheeler USA Corporation)
Middle distillates are maximized within the constraints of D86, flash point and density specifications. There is some optimization play between the pumparound heat recovery, which is specific to a unit, andmaximum distillate recovery. There are other unit constraints such as column overhead temperature, etc. that will require detailed analysis by someone who is familiar with such multi-parameter optimization.
Year
2014