Filters

(2017) Question 41: What are some of your operating practices used to mitigate incursion of water slugs in crude feed from tankage? Are there any early warning devices or procedures currently being used successfully?

Plugs of water are problematic, in terms of causing desalting and crude column upsets. Pockets of water can form in the tank due to the characteristics of the crude. The primary defense is to minimize water in crude oil; but with current upstream practices, we know water will enter in with the crude. Having systems in place to reduce, mitigate, and handle water intrusion is important to maintain stable crude unit operations.
Read more

(2017) Question 55: Given the expansion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), “Big Data”, cloud-based technologies, and advanced analytics, how are you applying these cutting-edge aspects into their work processes and toolkit to optimize FCC yield, reliability, and safety performance?

With the advent of “Big Data” and cloud-based technologies, refiners are now able to harvest mega data in a process environment. Hundreds of thousands of values are being generated every few seconds to measure, monitor, control, and optimize plant operations. The major benefit of “Big Data” is to demystify the different plant data used by various parts of the organization by using with a common set of information that is utilized by all departments. In the modern refinery, the key is transparency in strategy, philosophy, and shared goals.
Read more

(2017) Question 56: 1973 FCC Process Question 13: When an older cat cracker is modified to incorporate riser cracking, has anyone encountered a limitation on the amount of conversion that could be obtained? In order to achieve maximum conversion, has anyone found it necessary to return to using a limited level of bed cracking?

Technip has a process in which a combination of riser cracking and bed cracking is used to maximize conversion. We have found that there are limits to the conversion that can be achieved in traditional riser cracking.
Read more

(2017) Question 57: Advanced (Closed)-Riser Termination Systems have been around since the 1990s. Explain any technology improvements you have seen based on experience and learnings.

The primary goal of a modern riser termination system which considers the close coupling of the primary and secondary separating devices is the reduction of residence time and, thus, the minimization of undesirable thermal cracking reactions. This post-riser cracking usually translates to dry gas yield at the expensive of other, more valuable products.
Read more

(2017) Question 58: What are your Best Practices for reliably measuring level in the bottom of the main fractionator?

The following tables list the demonstrated technologies to reliably measure main column bottoms (MCB) level. Regardless of the technology used, it is important to have redundant level indication. The Best Practice is to employ two level transmitters with a selector switch for MCB level control. For displacers, guided-wave radar, and dP level transmitters, redundant transmitters should be on independent vessel taps. There are benefits to having two different level technologies employed. For point level measurement, at least two points should be measured for high and low levels.
Read more

(2017) Question 59: We are reformulating our FCCU catalyst. What are your Best Practices to post-audit the catalyst change?

Preplanning is an important part of ensuring that the catalyst reformulation and post-audit are successful. Before the catalyst trial begins, it is important to define catalyst objectives and establish a clear evaluation plan on how these objectives will be monitored and evaluated for the trial. Sample and data collection guidelines and establishing a good base case should be done before the trial. It is critical that the samples and processed data needed to monitor the reformulation are routinely collected before and during the trial.
Read more

(2017) Question 60: With today’s current variety of new crudes, synthetic crudes, tight oils, bio-based streams, opportunity feeds, etc. that find their way to the FCCU, what new metal contaminants (excluding nickel, vanadium, iron, and sodium) do you see that impact catalyst and FCC performance?

In addition to the “standard” contaminants of nickel, vanadium, iron, and sodium, there are a variety of other feed contaminants that can impact FCC performance. For example, tight oils (also known as shale oils) can contain high levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium in addition to the iron normally found in them8. While bio-based feedstocks are not yet widely processed in commercial units, they would be expected to contain higher levels of calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium than conventional feed sources since these elements all play an important role in biological systems. High levels of phosphorous have been found on synthetic crudes.
Read more

(2017) Question 61: When performing catalyst evaluations and considering catalyst resistance to attrition about particulate matter (PM) emission requirements, what new or advanced attrition testing methods are you using to predict the performance of the new catalyst system? Are there third parties who can conduct a standard testing regime to multiple catalyst systems?

A number of operating factors influence catalyst losses from the regenerator that can lead to particulate matter (PM) emissions. These factors include: the number of fines present in the freshly added catalyst, the number of fines generated in the unit, the amount of catalyst transport to the cyclones by entrainment, and the cyclone performance.
Read more