Hydrocarbon Processing September 2012

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HydrocarbonProcessing.com | SEPTEMBER 2012
REFINING DEVELOPMENTS
Innovative solutions upgrade
heavy oil into cleaner
transportation fuels
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Cover Image: The Valero Port Arthur Refinery was commissioned in 1901 by Gulf Oil Co. to process Spindletop crude oil. This Gulf Coast refinery has
had many process additions and improvements throughout its history. In 2001, nearly $850 million was invested in a delayed coker and hydrocracker
to enable the plant to run heavy, sour crude. At present, the Port Arthur Valero refinery has a throughput capacity of 310,000 bpd. See page 20 for
more history of this refinery. Photo courtesy of Valero Energy Corp., San Antonio, Texas.
SEPTEMBER 2012|Volume 91 Number 9
HydrocarbonProcessing.com
SPECIAL REPORT: REFINING DEVELOPMENTS
39 Maximize diesel production in an FCC-centered refinery, Part 1
P. K. Niccum
47 Redefining reforming catalyst performance:
High selectivity and stability
P.-Y. Le-Goff, J. Lopez and J. Ross
55 Upgrade heavy oil more cost-efficiently
C. A. Cabrera and M. A. Silverman
63 CO
2
capture from SMRs: A demonstration project
W. Baade, S. Farnand, R. Hutchison and K. Welch
71 Increase FCC processing flexibility
with improved catalyst recycling methods
M. Lippmann and L. Wolschlag
79 Bio-isobutanol: The next-generation biofuel
R. Kolodziej and J. Scheib
87 Successful fouling control hinges on effective monitoring
X. Price, C. Teran, A. Vanhove and J. Casanova
BONUS REPORT: HEAT TRANSFER DEVELOPMENTS
95 What are the benefits of rigorous modeling
in heat exchanger design?
J. Cazenave
103 Prevent external corrosion of boiler tubes under refractory lining
K. Biramov, M. Maity, E. Al-Zahrani and M. A. Kareem
ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTIONSUPPLEMENT
E-109 What you dont know can hurt you
J. Glenney
E-112 Engineering and construction news
DEPARTMENTS
4 Industry Perspectives
6 Brief
9 Insight
13 Impact
19 Construction
30 Construction Boxscore
Update
120 Marketplace
124 Advertiser index
COLUMNS
33 Reliability
When not to use oil rings
35 Engineering Case Histories
Case 70: Twenty rules
for troubleshooting
37 Viewpoint
From mill to wing: How waste
materials could become the
next green aviation fuel
126 Automation Safety
Sticktion: A dangerous
failure mode
10 6
94
4SEPTEMBER 2012|HydrocarbonProcessing.com
P. O. Box 2608
Houston, Texas 77252-2608, USA
Phone: +1 (713) 529-4301
Fax: +1 (713) 520-4433
Editorial@HydrocarbonProcessing.com www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
President/CEO John Royall
Vice President Ron Higgins
Vice President, Production Sheryl Stone
Business Finance Manager Pamela Harvey
Part of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. Other energy group titles include:
World Oil and Petroleum Economist
Publication Agreement Number 40034765 Printed in USA
E15 should be made available when the
science shows it is safe for consumers and
consumers actually demand the fuel. Over
95% of cars and light trucks in the U.S. are
currently built to run on gasoline containing
10 percent ethanol, or E10, and todays auto
manufacturers will not warranty their engines
for the use of fuel with higher ethanol
content. They have good cause; a recent CRC
study issued in May shows that even the use
of E15 in EPA-approved vehicles can cause significant damage.
CHARLES T. DREVNA, President of American Fuel
& Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM)
After more testing than has ever been
completed for a 211(f) fuel waiver, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
approved the use of E-15 for use in 2001
and newer vehicles. Its use will grow
slowly over time as the resistance to its
use by the refining industry withers in
the face of compelling economics and
consumer choice.
BOB DINNEEN, President and
CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association
My answer is only in certain regions. Autos
in some countries like Brazil already use 25%
ethanol in the gasoline blend. Brazil is also
unique in that there is a large portion of the
auto fleet that can use 100% ethanol fuel
instead of gasoline. In the U.S., we expect the
E10 gasoline blend to remain the dominant
fuel product and do not expect widespread
introduction of E15 for at least another five
years. Most U.S. fuel retailers have been
reluctant to sell the E15 blend because use of
the fuel would void most new car warranties. Another barrier to the
introduction of E15 is that state-level fuel specifications would need
to be changed; something that took several years when ethanol was
first introduced in the late 2000s.
ALFRED LUACES, IHS Senior Director of Research
and Analysis, Global Petroleum Markets
EDITORIAL
Editor Stephany Romanow
Reliability/Equipment Editor Heinz P. Bloch
Process Editor Adrienne Blume
Technical Editor Billy Thinnes
Online Editor Ben DuBose
Associate Editor Helen Meche
Contributing Editor Loraine A. Huchler
Contributing Editor William M. Goble
Contributing Editor ARC Advisory Group
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HydrocarbonProcessing.com reader response:
Yes, within 5 years .................................................................................... 16%
Yes, within 10 years ................................................................................... 8%
Yes, but only in select regions .............................................................. 6%
No, not safe or economical ................................................................. 70%
Visit HydrocarbonProcessing.com to participate in future polls.
Is it reasonable for 15% fuel ethanol blends (E15) to be
used in passenger vehicles during the next decade?
Industry Perspectives
Key industry officials answer a poll question
from HydrocarbonProcessing.com
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|
Brief
European refiner affirms renewables project
Total has reaffirmed its partnership and financial backing to the
technology of renewable products company Amyris, the companies said
in a recent statement. Total dedicated an $82 million funding budget
over the next three years exclusively for the deployment of Amyriss
renewable farnesene and for the production of renewable diesel and jet
fuel. Upon completion of the research and development program, Total
and Amyris intend to form a joint venture company that would produce
and market renewable diesel and/or jet fuel, as well as nonexclusive
rights to other specialty products, the companies said.
Hydrocarbon Processing|SEPTEMBER 20127
BILLY THINNES, TECHNICAL EDITOR / Billy.Thinnes@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Brief
BP has agreed to sell its 266,000-bpd Carson refinery
in California and related logistics and marketing assets
in the region to Tesoro for $2.5 billion in cash. The deal value
includes the estimated value of hydrocarbon inventories and is
subject to post-closing adjustments. The company noted that
the sale is part of a previously announced plan to reshape BPs
US fuels business. BP also plans to sell its Texas City refinery,
in order to focus on its three northern US refineries, which the
company says are feedstock advantaged. Subject to regulatory
and other approvals, Tesoro will acquire the Los Angeles-area
refinery as well as the associated logistics network of pipelines
and storage terminals and the ARCO-branded retail marketing
network in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. The sale
also includes BPs interests in associated cogeneration and coke
calcining operations. The sale is expected to close before mid-
2013. BP will sell the ARCO retail brand rights and exclusively
license those rights from Tesoro for Northern California, Oregon
and Washington and continue to produce transportation fuels at
its refinery in Cherry Point, Washington.
Chemicals company Celanese said that a jury ruled in
its favor in litigation filed by Southern Chemical relating
to the terms of a multi-year methanol supply contract. The jury
said the contract, under which Celanese has paid Southern
Chemical about $130 million/year, should continue until its
expiration, adding that Celanese did not violate the terms of
the agreement. The contract, which expires in 2015, is valid for
Celanese operations in the US and Mexico. Celanese is the largest
methanol consumer in the US, while Southern Chemical is the
second-largest supplier (after Methanex). Under the contract,
Celanese received about 800,000 tpy of methanol from Southern
Chemical. Southern Chemical alleged that Celanese was not
using the purchased methanol solely for internal use, and was
instead shipping it to other chemical companies for more than the
contract price. Celanese officials, however, said they were selling
the material as methyl acetate and had been given clearance to do
so by the Southern Chemical president. Celanese plans to build
a 1.3-million tpy methanol plant in Clear Lake, Texas, which
would presumably replace the Southern Chemical supply once
the contract expires in 2015.
KBR and Shell Global Solutions plan to expand their
hydroprocessing technology alliance. In addition to
hydrocracking and hydrotreating, KBR will now market, sell
and provide technology and design packages for Shells deep-
flash, high-vacuum unit distillation and thermal conversion
technologies. KBR said the new alliance terms will help refinery
operators that want to improve their distillation performance to
optimize assets, minimize expenditures and capital investment
and debottleneck operations. To meet those goals, refiners can use
deep-cut vacuum distillation to maximize the recovery of distillate
from residue. The falling demand for residue fuel oil means that
refiners can use thermal conversion technologies to convert the
bottom of the barrel to higher value products.
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) will pursue a full
investigation to determine the causes of the August 6
fire at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California. A CSB
team of seven investigators arrived at the refinery several days
after the fire and conducted witness interviews while reviewing
documents at the site. The fire occurred when gasoil leaked from
an 8-in. pipe connected to a crude oil distillation tower in the
refinerys crude unit. Workers initially noted the leak and were
in the process of attempting repairs on piping connected to the
still-operating crude oil distillation tower when the leak suddenly
intensified. The gasoil immediately formed a large flammable
vapor cloud. Important issues to resolve in the investigation
include understanding why the pipe that later failed was kept
in service during a late-2011 maintenance turnaround and
what procedures and industry practices exist for responding to
a leak of combustible material from a running unit. The CSB
anticipates executing a site preservation and evidence testing
agreement with Chevron and other investigative groups and
arranging for independent testing of the leaking section of pipe to
determine the failure mechanism. Both Chevron and the United
Steelworkers, which represents hourly workers at the plant, have
been cooperating with the CSB team. Chevron has provided
assurances that its personnel will freely share their knowledge and
investigative information with the Board. Cal/OSHA, Contra
Costa County and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Kuwaits Equate Petrochemical Co. has shut down one
of its ethylene glycol units with a total capacity of
550,000 mtpy after a fire on July 31. The fire resulted from a
leak in part of a manufacturing unit. Equate said the fire was
contained and extinguished promptly, adding that production
operations of other production units were not affected. The
company anticipates that the shutdown of the damaged unit will
last six weeks.
UOP has been selected by Lukoil to provide technology to
produce blending components used to make high-octane
gasoline and petrochemicals at its facility in Nizhny Novgorod,
Russia. Lukoil will license an integrated suite of Honeywells
UOP technologies to produce high-quality gasoline blending
components, propylene and other petrochemicals, the company
said. Russia is the third largest energy consumer in the world,
and demand is growing due to increasing economic activity. The
suite of UOP technology will be used in a new integrated fluid
catalytic cracking complex. The new units, expected to start up in
2015, will produce more than 1 million tpy of gasoline blending
components and more than 170,000 tpy of propylene.
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Insight
STEPHANY ROMANOW, EDITOR / Stephany.Romanow@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Energy crisis: Time and talent wanted
Maximizing the energy potential from all hydrocarbon re-
sources is the main goal for all nations. More efficient utilization
of energynatural gas, coal and crude oilfacilitates economic
growth. As shown in the headlines from the last 90 years of Hy-
drocarbon Processing, progress comes in leaps and bounds, and
too often, is followed an economic crisis.
Natural gas has always been part of the energy and econom-
ic equation. In the early days, this hydrocarbon was originally
stripped to obtain the natural-gasoline components that were
blended into transportation fuels. Now natural gas is a major
segment of the global energy mix; its application has morphed
as better methods to use this hydrocarbon developed for power
generation and transportation fuels.
News about shale oil and shale gas were published back in the
1950s. However, technologies to extract and to process shale oil
needed time to advance, as now witnessed in current media. The
hydrocarbon processing industry has and continues to attract
great talent to unravel the present-day energy problems. New
solutions are investigated and researched to discover energy re-
sources for tomorrow.
Headlines from Hydrocarbon
Processing, September 2002:
Proactive strategies needed to improve petrochemical prof-
its. A recent analysis by SRI Consulting concludes that this in-
dustry continues to struggle from poor planning over the past five
years. By early 2001, fewer new petrochemical plants were under
construction. Likewise, large, high-cost producers have shut
down. The global petrochemical industry has begun the supply-
side rationalization process. Strategies for long-term survival over
the next 10 years by global petrochemical producers will involve:
1) Better integration and more flexibility in feedstock selection,
2) Building plants to capitalize on economy of scale 3) Investing
in new technologies, 4) Rationalizing or consolidating high-cost
operations and 5) Developing new products and processes.
Middle East emerging as dominant force in polypropylene
production. Processing capacity of polypropylene (PP) is set
to explode over the next five years in the Middle East and Africa
regions. Approximately 3 million metric tons of new PP capac-
ity will be built in the Middle East alone.
NSR update. In June 2002, The US Environmental Protec-
tion Agency (EPA) announced plans to modify the Clean Air
Acts New Source Review (NSR) program. EPA recommended
changes on the clarification for routine repairs and replace-
ment. The second set of changes will focus on emission mea-
surement policy.
Natural gas makes an impact on the HPI. Natural gas (NG)
continues to increase its role as a plant fuel, petrochemical feed-
stock, competitor for distillate markets and a motor fuel. The
New column being raised at the Stanlow (Chershire) refinery. The 240-
ton and 170-ft long column was constructed by Babcock & Wilcox at
the Renfrew works. Construction at the refinery will be completed by
January 1952. Petroleum Refiner 1951.
A 75-ton prefabricated steel column arrives by barge to be installed
at the Tidewater Oil Cos Flying A refinery near Wilmington, Delaware.
The column is a gasoline splitter to be installed at the refinerys gas
plant. Petroleum Refiner 1956.
Insight
NG supply/demand and pricing trends are important to refiners
and petrochemical manufacturers. In 1992, NG prices remained
lowaveraging $1.06 MMBtuand failed to climb during the
winter heating season. The Energy Information Agency believes
that NG consumption will increase 5.5%/yr.
Hydrogen supplies a major focus for refiners. Hydrogen
supply is becoming critical as the refining industry adjusts to
new environmental regulations and market-driven factors.
In Europe, growing demand for methyl-tertiary butyl ether
(MTBE) to sustain higher octane needs due to the lead phase-
out will require more hydrogen. In the US, gasoline reformula-
tion and tough diesel specifications will require refiners to also
consume more hydrogen. Growing demand for better quality
gasoline is placing more pressure on available hydrogen sup-
plies. Approximately 3.6 Tcf of hydrogen is consumed in the
US, with the refining industry responsible for half of the hydro-
gen consumption. With the upcoming changes in the gasoline
blending pool, the US refining market will need an additional
1.4 Tcf of hydrogen to meet new clean fuel requirements.
Methanol demand to grow rapidly through 1996. Metha-
nol (MeOH) is forecast to be one of the fastest growing pet-
rochemicals over the next five years. Increased blending of
MTBE in gasoline has radically changed MeOH demand pat-
terns. Oxygenate (MTBE) production will account for 60% of
the MeOH consumption in the US market. A recent rebound
in the formaldehyde market is also increasing MeOH demand.
Third oil crisis is likely before 1990. Energy champion and
economist, Dr. Daniel Yergin has released a new book based
on a four-year international research project at Harvard enti-
tled: Global in security, a strategy for energy. Dr. Yergin believes
a third oil crisis is likely before 1990, and oil prices will double
by 2000. (Oil prices averaged between $27.66/bbl to $33.56/
bbl in July 1982.) These trends are based on rising demand for
petroleum and economic recovery.
US refining capacity increasing. According to the American
Petroleum Institute (API), US crude oil distillation capacity is
forecast to increase to 17.7 million bpd (MMbpd) by March
1983; it is a 227,000 bbl increase over reported 1981 distilla-
tion capacity. The API survey also indicated that 2.3 MMbpd
of the US capacity was shut down in March 1982about
12.5% of the US distillation capacity. The increase reflects new
refineries and expansion projects under construction and ex-
pected to be complete by year end.
Acid rain: A growing controversy. Efforts continue to define
acid rain. The new debate focuses on EPAs efforts to roll back
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. It is estimated that
the new environmental rules will cost billions to implement.
In addition, the US Congress is reauthorizing the Clean Water
Act (CWA) to meet second stage treatment requirements by
1984. Questions still exist on best available technology (BAT)
for water treatment. Over 90% of the US chemical industry
met the CWA of 1977 rules. Nearly all major industries have
reduced discharges of conventional pollutants into navigable
waters to practical minimums.
European petrochemical industry looks for upturn. Eu-
ropes petrochemical industry should improve compared to
1981 growth numbers. Yet, many structural problems continue
for this industry. Lack of integration continues to plague the
European market, especially in taxation, safety standards, and
environment and health protection. European petrochemical
producers are at a disadvantage when compared to US and
Japanese producers. Europes present economic systems do
not support investment. In addition, studies show that bulk-
chemical production now exceeds local demand. For example,
Europes plastic industry suffers from 40% over-capacity pro-
duction. National expansions have collectively overshot re-
gional demand. The European chemical industry needs struc-
tural reorganization to eliminate overcapacity and investment
to further develop high-value specialty products.
To see more headlines from 1972 to
1923, visit HydrocarbonProcessing.com.
Side view of the new superheaters constructed at the Neches Butane
Products Port Neches, Texas facility. Petroleum Refiner 1958.
The North Rincon Gasoline plant raises a 97-ft absorption oil still
column. The facility has a design capacity of 35 Mcfd. The new
facility is part of the Shell Oil Co. and Cities Services Oil Co. project.
Hydrocarbon Processing and Petroleum Refiner 1961.
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refinement redefined

clean fuel, turning bottom of the barrel into top of the line.
of other residue-upgrading technologies, turning the bottom of the barrel into more
proven technology that processes low-quality residue streams like vacuum residue into
from every barrel.
Impact
BILLY THINNES, TECHNICAL EDITOR / Billy.Thinnes@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Taking a glance at
mergers and acquisitions
Energy price fluctuations present both
near-term challenges and interesting op-
portunities for the oil and gas mergers
and acquisitions (M&A) market. As De-
loitte Consulting points out in a recently
released report, current depressed North
American natural gas prices (prices far be-
low the market rates in other continents)
will likely continue to attract both do-
mestic and international supermajors that
have money to spend on natural gas assets
at low prices. Deloitte believes the long-
term outlook for US natural gas holds
promise, as gas gradually gains domestic
market share, and as prospects for LNG
exports from the US improve.
The consulting company sees buying
interest and E&P activity in liquids-rich
shale plays continuing, as well as mid-
stream consolidation and infrastructure
investment, as that segment restructures
and invests to serve the rapidly changing
North American energy landscape. Ac-
cording to Deloitte, a resurgent North
American energy market and the invest-
ment needs that accompany that resur-
gence should set the stage for sustained
M&A activity over the longer term.
Downstream M&A. Only nine refining
and marketing (R&M) deals took place
during the first half of 2012, compared to
12 transactions in the first half of 2011 and
13 during the second half of 2011 (Fig. 1).
However, the total value of transactions
picked up during this years first half to
$10.6 billion, up 36%, when compared to
$7.8 billion in the first half of 2011, and
several orders of magnitude larger than the
$2.6 billion during the second half of 2011.
We actually saw a good increase in
deal value year over year in this segment,
said Roger Ihne, a principal at Deloitte
Consulting. This was primarily driven by
two large deals that took place outside the
US: one in Asia and one in Europe.
One refinery acquisition during this
period was notable not for its size but for
the industry affiliation of the buyer. A ma-
jor international airline announced in the
second quarter of 2012 that it would buy
a Trainer, Pennsylvania, refinery for $180
million. The company intends to upgrade
the refinerys capabilities so that it can
produce a much higher proportion of jet
fuel, giving the airline a source of fuel in a
region of the US that has very little jet fuel
production, as well as exchanges to allow
jet fuel to be supplied throughout other
geographic areas.
This is certainly a unique situation that
has everyone intrigued both within and
outside the industry, said Mr. Ihne.
From integrated to independent.
Ownership within the R&M segment of
the energy industry has been transformed
over the past decade as large integrated
companies have high-graded their
portfolios, selling or spinning off their
downstream assets to focus on higher-per-
forming upstream operations. Now, over
two-thirds of US R&M operations are in
the hands of independent rather than in-
tegrated companies. Many of these inde-
pendent operators have benefited over the
past two years from rising profits in the US
due to advantage-priced crude supplies
from Canada and the developing tight oil
plays in America, but long-term prospects
are more uncertain.
Gasoline demand in the US is down
5% compared to last year, said Mr. Ihne.
Long-term demand for refined products
in the US is still uncertain due to stricter
corporate average fuel economy and re-
newable fuel standards, as well as future
competition from natural gas-based trans-
portation fuels.
However, reduced domestic consump-
tion of gasoline and distillate fuels has
largely been offset by exports of refined
products from US Gulf Coast refiners to
Mexico, South America and Northern Eu-
rope. Fig. 2 provides an overview of the net
exports of US petroleum products from
January 2010 to May 2012.
Without export demand, US refin-
ers would likely be challenged to operate
near the 85%-plus capacity they reached
this year, and could instead be facing in-
creased rationalization of exiting capac-
ity, said Mr. Ihne.
The cloudy regulatory and competitive
landscape creates an uncertain environ-
ment for many of the newly independent
players in this segment.
Refiners now have varying degrees
of balance sheet strength, said Trevear
Thomas, another Deloitte Consulting ana-
lyst. The question is whether that is sus-
Total deal count
Corporate value
Asset value
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
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2Q12 1Q12 4Q11 3Q11 2Q11 1Q11
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FIG. 1. Refining and marketing M&A deals by value and count.
,500
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1,000
1,000
500
0
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FIG. 2. Net exports of US petroleum products.
Impact
14
tainable long-term, or whether that situa-
tion will lead to consolidation.
A crucial issue for refiners located
along the Gulf Coast is whether the Key-
stone pipeline project will be allowed to
move forward. Many of the refineries in
this region are designed to process heavy,
high-sulfur crude oil.
Refining assets in the Gulf are some of
the most sophisticated in the world, said
Mr. Ihne. They can process heavy crude
from Canada and the new tight oil supplied
from various US plays, but unless refiners
gain access to that oil, we will have assets in
the US that have a comparative economic
advantage to the rest of the worldbut,
nonetheless will have to rely on higher cost
imported crude from elsewhere.
Compliance in emerging
risk areas
Ernst & Young recently held a seminar
on risk compliance for todays global oil
and gas companies. One session in particu-
lar during the seminar focused on emerg-
ing risk areas in the energy market, which
include antitrust, the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act (FCPA) and financial state-
ment fraud. To avoid such potentially dam-
aging missteps, many energy companies
are upping their investment in compliance.
The addition of chief compliance officers
and the hiring of compliance profession-
als to work in key business regions enable
companies to better implement formalized
risk assessments and audits on a regular
basis. Communication between the com-
pliance, internal audit and legal functions
occurs on a daily basis, and many compa-
nies have a structure process to identify,
rank and mitigate emerging risks.
Regardless of size and scope, however,
all compliance programs need the support
of senior managers and the board of direc-
tors, session panelists said.
Compliance must be taken seriously,
and senior management must set the
proper expectations, said Jeff Johnston, a
partner at Vinson and Elkins. Companies
must be willing to walk away from busi-
ness if there is something unethical about
the project. You cannot send employees
into high-risk countries without signifi-
cant amounts of training and a structured
plan for how they are to operate.
The tone at the top is the most impor-
tant element, said John Freeman, general
counsel for Technip USA. There has to
be more than a formal code of conduct;
senior management must talk about com-
pliance in a way that shows commitment
to following the law.
In recent years, the FCPA has become
a focal point for international energy com-
panies. Most companies have some level
of compliance program in place to train
employees on the FCPA as well as audit-
ing behavior in the field.
Yet antitrust issues continue to grow in
importance as the energy industry relies
more heavily on joint ventures and part-
nerships that require sharing of informa-
tion and cooperation among competitors.
The government certainly has not re-
duced its antitrust efforts, Mr. Johnston
said. Last year there were a record num-
ber of antitrust cases and a record number
of fines. Regulators are very focused on
the energy industry. They are on the look-
out for collusion, and they arent afraid to
move in if they suspect anything.
After 50 years of operation, the Groningen gas field in
the Netherlands is now, and also for the coming de-
cades, able to continue supplying its clients. The facili-
ties have been fully modernized. One key success factor
was the long-term relationship of the operating com-
pany NAM and its contractors. Siemens has updated the
www.siemens.com/oilandgas
Solutions for the oil and gas industry
compression and variable-speed drive technologies to
ensure the adaptation of the gas supply to fluctuating
demand, to slash maintenance requirements, and to
maximize environmental performance. Highest availabil-
ity and low power consumption of all units are the best
basis for an eco-friendly and successful operation.
Nothing can stop
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Eco-friendly compressor technology boosts production
E
5
0
0
0
1
-
E
4
4
0
-
F
1
4
0
-
V
1
-
4
A
0
0
Impact
16
Antitrust issues can also arise during
the acquisition process. We are very
concerned about gun-jumping, Mr.
Freeman said. There are still a lot of
people who dont understand that you
cant act as one company prior to the
closure of an acquisition. While you can
do integration planning, you cant share
competitive information.
To increase awareness of antitrust reg-
ulations, companies should implement
mandatory training for all employees who
have any contact with competitors/part-
ners. Because many antitrust violations
occur informally, follow-up monitoring
and auditing are difficult and the bulk of a
companys efforts must be up front.
Most violations of this nature dont
have a paper trail, Mr. Freeman said.
They happen when people are talking to
one another at dinner or after a meeting,
and information is shared inadvertently.
Future bright
for molybdenum
Roskill recently released a market out-
look on molybdenum. The company ex-
pects that molybdenum growth rates will
exceed global GDP rates to 2016.
Global demand for molybdenum
bounced back from the impact of the
global economic downturn, growing by
just over 11% in 2010 and a further 9% in
2011, according to the report. China now
accounts for around 31% of global mo-
lybdenum demand and its growth rates
continue to outpace those in other coun-
tries. While global demand for molybde-
num is forecast to grow at an average of
4.6% per year to 2016, Chinese demand
is forecast to increase by 7.5% per year.
The principal engines of growth will be
increased use of stainless and other steels
containing molybdenum in process,
power and desalination plants, in oil and
gas production and distribution and in
motor vehicle components. The greater
use of molybdenum steels and high per-
formance alloys and catalysts, combined
with robust growth in the economies of
the BRIC countries and other countries
in Asia and South America, will ensure
growing future demand for molybdenum.
Mine capacity sufficient to meet
demand until 2015. Primary molybde-
num mines were the first to respond to the
recovery in demand in 2010, but, in 2011,
growth in output of byproduct molybde-
num from copper mines outpaced growth
from primary mines. In 2012, mine ca-
pacity is sufficient to meet demand and
supply is likely to show a surplus over the
next three years. Roskill lists some 60 new
projects and expansions that could poten-
tially produce molybdenum, yielding an
additional 240 ktpy, indicating that long-
term mine supply is assured. Around 33%
of new projects identified in 2012 are lo-
cated in North America, 28% in Central
and South America and 10% in China. In
the next two years, byproduct output is
likely to grow at a higher rate, but, from
2014 on, new Chinese molybdenum-only
projects will redress the balance. In the
past, insufficient roasting capacity has re-
sulted in a bottleneck, but additional ca-
pacity has been installed and further ad-
ditions are under construction in Chile,
China and the US by Codelco, Molymet,
China Molybdenum and JDC.
WorleyParsons is a leader in designing solutions to meet clean fuels regulations that now
face reners around the world, including government mandates on sulphur, aromatic, and
oxygen content of fuels. We have extensive experience with the two major types of clean
fuels projects: reformulated gasoline and ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD), and our renery
services are backed by over 60 years of global experience in grass roots, revamp, and
expansion projects.
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2012 Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
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technology
Construction
HELEN MECHE, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Helen.Meche@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
North America
CB&I has a contract from Enter-
prise Products Partners L.P. for the li-
cense and basic engineering of a propane
dehydrogenation unit on the Texas Gulf
Coast. The unit will use the CATOFIN
propane dehydrogenation process from
Lummus Technology that uses Sd-
Chemies latest CATOFIN catalyst to
produce 1.65 billion lb/yr (approxi-
mately 750,000 metric tpy) of polymer-
grade propylene.
The Carlyle Group L.P. and Sunoco,
Inc., have agreed to form Philadelphia
Energy Solutions, a joint venture (JV)
that will enable the historic Philadelphia
refinery to continue operating. The re-
finery, reportedly the oldest continu-
ously operating one on the East Coast,
processes 330,000 bpd of oil into various
refined products and was scheduled for
shutdown in August 2012.
Under agreement terms, Sunoco will
contribute its Philadelphia refinery as-
sets to the JV in exchange for a non-
operating minority interest. The Carlyle
Groups investment will flow directly to
the refinerys balance sheet to fund fu-
ture capital projects, facility upgrades
and enhance the refinerys working capi-
tal. Carlyle will hold the majority inter-
est, and oversee day-to-day operations of
the JV and the refinery.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, with
economic support from The Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania, will invest in
several capital intensive projects that are
critical to the long-term economic viabil-
ity of the facility. Planned improvements
will help the environment through re-
duced waste and emissions, and will also
reduce reliance on foreign oil supplies.
Projects include upgrade of the refin-
erys catalytic cracker and the building
of a mild hydrocracker and hydrogen
plant, as well as the construction of a
high-speed train unloading facility at the
refinery. The JV is also exploring other
significant capital projects, including the
creation of new businesses based on the
availability and abundant levels of natural
gas from the Marcellus shale.
KBR will provide front-end engineer-
ing, detailed engineering and procure-
ment services to DuPonts Industrial
Biosciences Group for what is said to be
a first-of-a-kind plant to be constructed
in the Midwest US. The facilitywhich
will reportedly be DuPonts first cellu-
losic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa
will process 1,300 tpd of corn stover and
produce 27.5 million gpy of ethanol.
Used as a blending component in gas-
oline, the ethanol produced will enable
fuel manufacturers to meet the US Envi-
ronmental Protection Agencys (EPAs)
mandated requirements for ethanol de-
rived from cellulosic sources.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for the
second half of 2012, with a 12-month to
18-month construction period.
Braskem has selected Jacobs Engi-
neering Group Inc. to provide profes-
sional technical services for portions of
the Marcus Hook refinery near Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania. The 781-acre
refinerys propylene splitter assets were
acquired by Braskem in late June 2012.
Jacobs initial scope of work includes
retrofitting the new acquisitions so
Braskem can more efficiently process
propylene for use in its adjacent polypro-
pylene plant. Jacobs operations in Mt.
Laurel, New Jersey, and Conshohocken,
Pennsylvania, are expected to execute
the work.
South America
Honeywell has been selected to up-
grade the safety and control system at
Staatsolie Maatschappij Surinames re-
finery to Honeywells Integrated Control
and Safety System (ICSS) solution. The
upgrade, which is being designed and
implemented within the context of the
Suriname Refinery Expansion Project,
will double the refinerys capacity and
expand its range of products and fuels.
The project is being managed by Saipem
as the main contractor responsible for en-
gineering, procurement, module prefab-
rication and construction management.
Developed on the strengths of Hon-
eywells Experion Process Knowledge
System (PKS) architecture, ICSS offers
simplified operations, integrated process
control and safety controllers. The solu-
tion will equip Staatsolie with best-in-
class compliance, reliability and safety for
its refinery production units.
The upgrade includes the expansion
of Honeywells Alarm Management Sys-
tem, Operational Insight Software and
OPC Desktop Historian solutions cur-
rently installed at the site.
CH-IV Internationals president, Jef-
frey P. Beale, has congratulated EcoElc-
trica L.P. for the safe construction,
commissioning and commencement of
service of an expansion to its existing liq-
uefied natural gas (LNG) terminal locat-
ed in Peuelas, Puerto Rico. The termi-
nal expansion doubles the EcoElctrica
facilitys regasification capacity, allowing
it to send natural gas to the Puerto Rico
Electric Power Authority for use in its ex-
isting power-generating facilities.
CH-IV International provided owner
engineering services to EcoElctrica.
This included preparing the front-end
TREND ANALYSIS FORECASTING
Hydrocarbon Processing maintains an extensive
database of historical HPI project information.
The Construction Boxscore Database is a 45-year
compilation of projects by type, operating
company, licensor, engineering/constructor,
location, etc. Many companies use the historical
data for trending or sales forecasting. The
historical information is available in comma-
delimited or Excel
and can be custom sorted

to suit your needs. The cost depends on the size
and complexity of the sort requested. You can
focus on a narrow request, such as the history
of a particular type of project, or you can obtain
the entire 45-year Boxscore database or portions
thereof. Simply send a clear description of the
data needed and receive a prompt cost quotation.
Contact Lee Nichols at 713-525-4626
or Lee.Nichols@GulfPub.com
Construction
engineering and design (FEED) used to
permit the expansion project; regulatory
support during the projects permitting
and construction; negotiation of an engi-
neering, procurement and construction
(EPC) contract; and oversight during
the projects construction, commission-
ing and startup.
A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AGs
Global Engineering and Construction
Group has a contract to provide engi-
neering, procurement services and con-
struction management (EPCm) for PD-
VSA Petrleo S.A.s El Palito refinery
expansion project in Venezuela. Foster
Wheeler will execute the project in con-
sortium with Toyo Engineering Corp.
and Y & V Ingeniera y Construccin.
Foster Wheeler and its consortium
partners have previously completed the
projects front-end engineering and de-
sign (FEED).
The expansion will include a 140,000-
bpsd crude/vacuum distillation unit,
a 24,500-bpsd naphtha hydrotreating/
continuous catalytic-reformer complex, a
58,000-bpsd vacuum gasoil hydrotreater, a
45,000-bpsd diesel hydrotreater, an 80-mil-
lion-scfd hydrogen-production unit, a 250-
tpd sulfur-recovery/tail-gas treatment unit,
a new flare system, amine regeneration and
sour-water stripper facilities, along with
relevant utilities, interconnecting units and
offsites. These include marine facilities and
a new product storage tank farm.
The expansion is intended to double
the refinerys capacity to 280,000 bpsd,
processing heavy and extra-heavy crudes
from the Orinoco Belt, and increasing
production of clean fuels. The project is
expected to be completed during 2016.
Europe
INEOS Technologies has licensed its
Innovene G, Innovene S and Innovene
PP processes to ZAO Vostochnaya Neft-
echemicheskaya Co. (ZAO VNHK),
a subsidiary of OJSC NK Rosneft, for
VNHKs new petrochemical complex in
Nakhodka, Russian Federation. All VN-
HKs units will incorporate INEOS latest
polymer technology advances and will
ensure a competitive advantage for pet-
rochemical complex customers in both
domestic and global markets. Engineer-
ing work is now underway.
Royal Vopak, Greenergy and Shell
UK Ltd. have reached an agreement with
the joint administrators of Petroplus Re-
fining & Marketing Ltd., to purchase as-
sets of the former Coryton refinery, UK.
The three companies plan to develop and
invest in a state-of-the-art import and
distribution terminal to be managed by
Vopak. The initial storage capacity will
be around 500,000 m
3
, with potential to
expand up to 1 million m
3
in later stages.
The Valero Port Arthur Refinery
was commissioned in 1901 and has
had many process additions and im-
provements throughout its history
(see pg. 38). In 2001, nearly $850 mil-
lion was invested in a delayed coker
and hydrocracker to enable the plant
to run heavy, sour crude as shown
on the September 2012 cover of HP.
Other investments include the recent
expansion of the coker to 95,000 bpd
from 85,000 bpd. The most recent
expansion of the crude and vacuum
units has increased the refinerys abil-
ity to process lower-cost, heavy sour
crude oil and increased throughput
capacity to 310,000 bpd. The refinery
is strategically located on the Texas
Gulf Coast, approximately 90 miles
east of Houston. The refinerys loca-
tion accommodates its extensive lo-
gistics system, which includes access
to Gulf Coast water-borne crude oil
via the refinery docks or through the
Nederland, Texas, terminals of Sun or
Oil Tanking. The milestones of this
refinery are:
Commissioned in 1901, with
many upgrades since then
One of four refineries acquired in
the purchase of Premcor in 2005
Total throughput capacity of
310,000 bpd
Has ability to process 100% sour
crude oil, of which up to 80% can be
heavy sour crude oil
Production includes convention-
al, premium and reformulated gasoline
before oxygenate blending, as well as
diesel, jet fuel, petrochemicals, petro-
leum coke and sulfur
Strategically located on 4,000
acres on the Port Arthur Ship Channel
Crude oil received from the Vale-
ro dock or by pipeline
The Port Neches docks crude
oil receipts transferred by the Valero-
owned Lucas pump station, located
about 13 miles from the refinery
Refinery production distributed
into the Colonial Pipeline, Explorer
Pipeline and Teppco Pipeline or across
the refinery docks into ships or barges
Employs approximately 820 indi-
viduals.
Awards and honors. This refinery is
one of only two Texas refineries Envi-
ronmental Management System certi-
fied. It is TCEQ Clean Texas Program
Bronze member and has received EPA
National Partnership for Environmen-
tal Priorities, 2008 Pollution Preven-
tion Achievement Award. This refin-
ery has attained more than 1 million
hours without a lost-time injury.
Texas-based refinery has a long history
Construction
21
Vopak, Greenergy and Shell will be
equal shareholders of the new joint ven-
ture (JV), which will acquire and de-
velop the assets and the site. After reach-
ing final agreement on the future design
and operational capabilities, Vopak, on
behalf of the JV, will execute the new
facilitys development and will operate
the terminal when the works have been
completed. Greenergy and Shell will sign
long-term contracts with the JV.
The conversion will involve opera-
tional, technical, safety and environ-
mental enhancements to the refinerys
current infrastructure, including modern
blending technology.
Linde Engineering, a division of the
Linde Group, is set to build a new Al-
pha-SABLIN plant for producing linear
alpha olefins (LAOs) in Nizhnekamsk,
Russian Federation, which, upon com-
pletion, will be operated by OAO Nizh-
nekamskneftekhim (NKNH). NKNH
awarded Linde Engineering contracts
for license, basic/detail engineering, and
supply of equipment and materials for
revamping NKNHs existing LAO plant.
The plant is expected to come on-
stream by mid-2014, supplying NKNH
with 37.5-kiloton/yr of LAO, with maxi-
mized production of C
4
and C
6
fractions.
The revamp project will partially make
use of the existing equipment of NKNHs
former LAO plant with implementation
of Alpha-SABLIN technology.
Alpha-SABLIN is a superior and flex-
ible full-range process for producing LAO
by selective catalytic oligomerization of
polymer-grade ethylene, jointly developed
and owned by Linde Engineering and
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC).
BASF plans to expand its vinylfor-
mamide (VFA) plant in Ludwigshafen,
Germany. In addition, the company in-
tends to increase the polymerization ca-
pacity in Ludwigshafen, and build a new
polymerization line for VFA in China, to
further process the feedstock from Lud-
wigshafen. This facility will be built at the
Zhenjiang site, Jiangsu Province.
The total investment is in the three-
digit million euro range and will create
about 40 new jobs worldwide. Produc-
tion is scheduled by the end of 2014.
Zeeland Refinery N.V., a joint ven-
ture of TOTAL and LUKOIL, has select-
ed Burckhardt Compression to deliver
one process gas compressor API 618 for
the refinery expansion in Nieuwdorp,
The Netherlands. The compressor will
be used within the diesel-hydrotreating
process as a hydrogen makeup gas com-
pressor. The compressor is scheduled to
be delivered in mid-2013.
LyondellBasells Spheripol process
technology has been selected by ZapSib-
Neftekhim L.L.C, a fully owned subsid-
iary of SIBUR, for a new 500-kiloton/yr
single-line polypropylene (PP) plant to
be built in Tobolsk, Russian Federation.
Startup is projected after 2017.
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. has
a design and fabrication contract from
INEOS Enterprises Ltd. for two gas-gas
heat exchangers to be installed in a sulfu-
ric-acid plant at Runcorn, Cheshire, UK.
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Construction
22
INEOS Enterprises selected Jacobs
proprietary Chemetics radial-flow gas-
gas heat-exchanger design over other
available designs on the basis that it pro-
vides the most appropriate design and
technical solution for INEOS Enterpris-
es plant. The equipment is expected to
be fabricated at Jacobs facility in Picker-
ing, Ontario, Canada.
BASF plans to build a butadiene-
extraction plant at its Verbund site in
Antwerp, Belgium. The plant will have
a production capacity of 155,000 metric
tpy and is scheduled to start up during
2014. The investment amount will be in
the high double-digit million euro range.
Energy Bio-Chemicals has selected
the technology of UOP Ltd., a Honeywell
company, to boost yields at Romanias larg-
est synthetic-rubber production facility.
The Romanian company will use Honey-
wells UOP KLP process to purify butadi-
ene, a monomer used to produce synthetic
rubber, at its CAROM Onesti styrene-bu-
tadiene-rubber facility. The project is part
of the companys modernization invest-
ment program to upgrade its butadiene
installation and increase production.
The KLP process increases the yield of
butadiene, while also eliminating acety-
lene, a difficult-to-handle and unwanted
byproduct, from the process. UOP will also
provide a proprietary caustic Merox unit to
remove sulfur from the crude C
4
feedstock.
The contract includes licensing, engineer-
ing, technical support and catalysts.
Africa
Shell Petroleum Development Co.
has awarded Saipem with an engineer-
ing, procurement and construction
(EPC) contract for the Otumara-Sa-
ghara-Escravos Pipeline Project, which
will be developed approximately 65 km
northwest of Warri, Nigeria.
The contract encompasses the engi-
neering, procurement, fabrication and
commissioning of a network of pipelines,
ranging in diameter from 12 in. to 4 in., for
a total length of 40 km, in a swamp area,
to connect the clients flowstations in the
Otumara, Saghara and Escravos fields.
The project, scheduled to be com-
pleted in 18 months, is strategic for Shell
to comply with Nigerian environmental
regulation, which targets zero flaring in
the country.
Fluor Corp. has started work on a
new project for Sasol Technology Pty.
Ltd.s Tar Separator Project in South
Africa. The new contract is for engi-
management (EPCm) services for the
replacement of 24 duplex stainless-steel
separator tanks.
The gas-liquor separation units sepa-
rate various gaseous, liquid and solid
components from the gas-liquor streams
that originate in the gasification, gas cool-
ing, Rectisol and phenosolvan units. En-
gineering is underway, with construction
to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The 24 separation units weigh between
80 tons and 100 tons each.
Construction will begin using shifts
working 24 hours per day, seven days per
week to shorten the construction schedule,
and to enable ongoing production while
the project is underway. Construction is
expected to be complete by mid-2015.
Middle East
Saipem has signed a lump-sum en-
gineering, procurement and construc-
tion (EPC) contract with Saudi Ar-
amco and Sumitomo Chemical for the
naphtha and aromatics package of the
PETRORabigh II Project, expanding the
integrated refinery and petrochemicals
complex in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia.
The scope of work includes the EPC
of two processing units: a naphtha re-
former unit and an aromatics complex.
The project will be completed by the
fourth quarter of 2015.
Once the expansion is complete, the
PETRORabigh complex, whose original
production was more than 20 million tpy
of petroleum and petrochemical products,
will process an additional 30 million scfd
of ethane and 3 million tpy of naphtha.
Samsung Engineering has an award
from Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co.
(TAKREER) to provide a carbon-black
unit and a delayed-coker unit. At a value
of $2.48 billion, it is the eighth order re-
ceived in five years from ADNOC, the
national oil company of UAE and the par-
ent company of TAKREER.
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Construction
23
The units will be located in the refin-
ing complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, with
a capacity of 40,000 tpy of carbon black
and 30,000 bpd of crude oil.
Samsung Engineering will be provid-
ing project-management services for the
engineering, procurement, construction
(EPC) and commissioning processes on
a lump-sum turnkey basis and is sched-
uled for completion by December 2015.
ABB has won a contract worth over
$100 million to build a new gas-conden-
sate processing plant for Petroleum De-
velopment Oman (PDO) in the Sultan-
ate of Oman.
The new Saih Nihayda condensate
stabilization plant will be located near the
Saih Nihayda gas plant, and will have the
capacity to process 4,500 standard m
3
/
day of condensate. The new plant, which
will be used as a backup for the existing
central-processing plant, is scheduled to
be complete by the end of 2014.
ABB will be responsible for the engi-
(EPC) of the condensate stabilization
facilities, including project management,
training, testing and onsite support for
operation and maintenance after start-
up. In addition, ABB will supply power
equipment such as low- and medium-
voltage switchgear, power transformers,
the electrical control system, as well as
continuous emission-monitoring systems
and other analytical instrumentation.
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. has contracts
in the amount of approximately 290 mil-
lion for engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) and other services.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, its sub-
sidiaries, Tecnimont S.p.A. and Tecni-
mont Arabia Ltd., have been awarded
EPC contracts on a lump-sum turnkey
basis to implement a manufacturing plant
in Jubail for Sadara Chemical Co., a joint
venture between Saudi Aramco and The
Dow Chemical Co. Completion is ex-
pected by the end of 2014.
In Bulgaria, Maire Tecnimont has
signed, through its subsidiary Tecnimont
KT S.p.A., an EPC contract on a lump-
sum turnkey basis with Lukoil Nefto-
chim Burgas AD for a new sulfur-recov-
ery unit, SRU-4, to be installed in the
Burgas refinery. Project completion is ex-
pected by the end of October 2014. The
scope of the contract is part of the Burgas
refinery development expansion project.
Moreover, Maire Tecnimont has re-
ceived a series of awards, located in Eu-
rope, the Middle East, South Asia and
the Far East, for licensing, design and
maintenance services, as well as technol-
ogy packages.
Asia Pacific
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) has
awarded Technip a contract to supply a
license, basic-engineering package, and
engineering and procurement services
for the refinery offgas cracker (ROGC)
plant. This contract is part of the ex-
pansion project being executed at RILs
world-scale Jamnagar refining and petro-
chemical complex in Gujarat, India.
The ROGC plant will reportedly be
among the largest ethylene crackers in
the world, and will be integrated to RILs
Jamnagar refinery complex, using refin-
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Construction
24
ery offgas as feedstock. The plants prod-
ucts will be used as feedstock for the new
downstream petrochemical plants.
The ROGC plant will use Technips
ethylene technology, including its pro-
prietary SMK furnace technology.
ConocoPhillips has approved the
development of a second 4.5 million-
tpy production train for its Australia
Pacific LNG coal-seam gas (CSG) to
liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in
Queensland, Australia.
LNG exports from the second train are
scheduled to commence in early 2016 un-
der binding sales agreements to Sinopec
Corp. and Kansai Electric Power Co.
Sanction of the second LNG train in-
cludes the further development of related
upstream gas-gathering and processing in-
frastructure, as well as the construction of
the second production train by Bechtel.
The estimated gross capital cost asso-
ciated with the second train is $6 billion,
with a total two-train project cost of $20
billion. The majority of the scope will be
executed under pre-agreed options to ex-
tend existing contracts related to the first
LNG train, including the Bechtel Inter-
national, Inc., and Bechtel Australia
Proprietary Ltd. contract for facilities
on Curtis Island.
Following the startup of the second
train, the project has an anticipated peak
production net to ConocoPhillips of
100,000 bpdoe to105,000 bpdoe.
Methanex Corp. has restarted its
second methanol plant at its Motunui
site in New Zealand, and production has
commenced. The addition of the second
plant adds 650,000 tpy of capacity and
increases the Motunui site capacity to 1.5
million tpy.
Chiyoda Corp. has an engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC)
contract from Tokyo Gas Engineering
Co., Ltd. for the Hitachi liquefied natu-
ral gas (LNG) Terminal in Ibaraki port,
Hitachi district, Japan.
Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd., the terminal
owner, plans to construct this fourth
LNG terminal in Ibaraki port, with
one 230,000-kiloliter LNG tank, one
50,000-kiloliter liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) tank, three LNG vaporizers, as
well as a large off-loading facility and a
receiving jetty.
The EPC work is scheduled to start in
2012, with operation planned for 2015.
BP and JBF Petrochemicals (a wholly
owned subsidiary of JBF Industries Ltd.)
have signed an agreement for licensing
BPs latest generation purified terephthal-
ic acid (PTA) technology. JBF intends to
build a 1.25 million-tpy unit at the Special
Economic Zone in Mangalore, India, to
produce PTA, the primary feedstock for
polyesters used in textiles and packaging.
JBF expects the Mangalore plant to come
onstream at the end of 2014.
PETRONAS has awarded CB&I a
contract for the license and engineering
design work for five petrochemicals units.
The project is part of the new Refinery
and Petrochemicals Integrated Develop-
ment (RAPID) project to be located in
Johor, Malaysia.
Lummus Technology will be provid-
ing technology for a world-scale steam
cracker complex comprising ethylene, bu-
tadiene, benzene, isobutylene and methyl
tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) units.
Evonik plans to build a new polyam-
ide-12 (PA12) line in Singapore by 2014
to increase the availability of this special-
ty plastic.
Following the initial announcement
in 2011, the basic planning for the con-
struction of a 20,000-metric-ton plant is
now entering the final phase. Subject to
the approval of the relevant bodies, the
new plant is scheduled to be completed
by 2014.
Adding to the capacity of the exist-
ing facility in Europe, this second pro-
duction plant for PA12 in Singapore is
designed to substantially increase the
availability of the product and its guar-
anteed delivery. It will also bring Evonik
even closer to its customers in Asias fast-
growing markets.
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., and For-
mosa Petrochemical Corp. (FPCC)
have agreed to establish a joint-venture
(JV) company to manufacture and
sell hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin
(I-MARV)a colorless, transparent,
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Construction
26
odorless resin with outstanding thermo-
stability and thermal resistance.
Since 1994, Idemitsu Kosan has pro-
duced I-MARV, using its own unique
technologies at the Tokuyama plant
(manufacturing scale: 10,000 metric tpy).
Plans call for finalizing detailed terms
in the future, aiming to establish the JV
in the second half of 2012 and com-
pleting the installation of equipment
in 2014.
The planned plant will have a capac-
ity of 40,000 metric tpy and will be built
on the site of FPCCs Mailiao plant in
Yunlin County, Taiwan.
A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AGs
Global Engineering and Construction
Group has a contract from Samsung
Engineering Co. Ltd. for a waste-heat
recovery unit for PTT Public Co., Ltd.s
(PTTs) power generation and heat re-
covery project at the Map Ta Phut In-
dustrial Complex in Thailand. Samsung
is PTTs engineering, procurement, con-
struction and pre-commissioning con-
tractor for this project.
Foster Wheeler will design, engineer
and supply the waste-heat recovery unit,
including a selective catalytic-reduction
system and other associated equipment.
Delivery of the unit is expected during
the third quarter of 2013.
BASF and SINOPEC have signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU)
to further strengthen their cooperation
by jointly exploring the possibility of
building a world-scale isononanol (INA)
plant in the Maoming Hi-Tech Industrial
Development Zone in Maoming, China.
The final scope of the investment will
be determined following the outcome
of the joint feasibility study, which is ex-
pected by the end of 2012.
Under MoU terms, the two parties
will evaluate the technical, commercial
and economic viability of jointly own-
ing and operating a world-scale facility
for the production of INA under a 50-50
joint-venture agreement.
CB&I has a $225 million+ contract
from AGL Energy Ltd. for the engineer-
ing, procurement, construction and com-
missioning work on the Newcastle Gas
Storage Facility Project (NGSF) at To-
mago, New South Wales, Australia. CB&I
was contracted in 2010 by AGL to begin
front-end engineering and design (FEED)
execution planning on the project.
CB&Is scope of work will include all
the civil, structural, mechanical, piping,
electrical, instrumentation and commis-
sioning support for construction of a liq-
uefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank,
as well as the gas pretreatment, liquefac-
tion, vaporization and associated utilities.
Project completion is scheduled for 2015.
Aker Solutions has been awarded a
contract by Technip to supply a mono-
ethylene glycol (MEG) reclamation
plant for the Ichthys LNG project in
Australia. The contract value is approxi-
mately NOK 485 million.
The scope of work includes system
engineering and supply of key equipment
for the MEG plant, and may include
some further options. The equipment
deliveries will be in 2013 and 2014.
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Construction
The MEG reclamation plant will be
located on the floating production, stor-
age and offloading (FPSO) unit built by
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engi-
neering. Technip has responsibility for
topside engineering.
Toyo Engineering India Ltd. (Toyo-
India) has an engineering, procurement
and construction (EPC) contract to build
a new multi-business chemical-produc-
tion site for BASF India at the Dahej Pe-
troleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals
Investment Region (PCPIR) in Gujarat,
India. The new site will be an integrated
hub for polyurethane manufacturing and
will also house production facilities for
care chemicals and polymers.
Toyo-India will execute the proj-
ect under an EPC turnkey contract at a
lump-sum price. The plant is expected to
become operational in 2014.
The Dahej production site will con-
tribute to BASFs business expansion in
the northern and western regions of India
by ensuring local supply of products and
solutions for Indias growing markets.
Air Products liquefied natural gas
(LNG) technology and equipment will
be floating on an LNG production plat-
form 180 km off the coast of Malaysia and
producing 1.2 million tpy of LNG when
the PETRONAS Floating LNG Project
1 (PFLNG 1) comes onstream in late
2015. Air Products has signed an equip-
ment and process license agreement with
PETRONAS Floating LNG 1 Ltd., a
wholly owned subsidiary of Petroliam
Nasional Berhad.
PFLNG 1, to be located off the coast
of Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, will use
Air Products AP-NTM LNG process and
equipment. This proprietary equipment
includes coil-wound heat exchangers to
be built in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,
US; compressor-expanders to be assem-
bled in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, US; and
economizer cold boxes to be built in Tan-
jung Langsat, Malaysia. The proprietary
equipment will be shipped from these
three Air Products manufacturing facili-
ties for assembly into modules and then
installed on the PFLNG 1 vessel.
The AP-NTM LNG process is said to
be the most efficient of all nitrogen-recy-
cle LNG processes in the industry, and is
ideally suited for small-scale FLNG ap-
plications. This will be the second FLNG
project using Air Products LNG technol-
ogy and equipment that has been con-
tractually awarded, and it joins a separate
project slated for the Browse Basin off the
northwest coast of Western Australia.
Inner Mongolia ChinaCoal Mengda
New Energy & Chemical Industry Co.,
Ltd., a subsidiary of China National Coal
Group Corp., has signed a license agree-
ment with Union Carbide Chemicals &
Plastics Technology LLC, a subsidiary
of The Dow Chemical Co., for its 300-ki-
loton/yr polypropylene (PP) plant.
ChinaCoal Mengda will license UNI-
POL PP process technology from Dow
Licensing & Catalysts for the PP plant,
part of a 500-kiloton/yr engineering
plastics project.
The plant is targeted to start up in
2014 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, Chi-
na, and produce homopolymers, random
copolymers and impact copolymers.
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THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE FOR TRACKING
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COMPANY CITY PROJECT EX CAPACITY UNIT COST STATUS YR CMPL LICENSOR ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTOR
AFRICA
Nigeria Nigerian Natl Petr Corp Undisclosed Refinery (6) 180 bpd 4500 P 2015
ASIA/PACIFIC
Australia Inpex / Total E&P JV Darwin LNG 8 MMtpy 3400 U 2015 Aker Solutions / Chiyoda
JGC Corp / KBR
Australia Conoco Phillips Co Queensland LNG Gasification (2) 4.5 MMtpy 2000 2016 Bechtel
China BASF Zhenjiang Polymerizer EX None P 2014
China BP Zhuhai Chemical Co Zhuhai PTA (3) EX 1.25 tpy E 2014 Technip
India Indian Oil Corp Ltd Gujarat Refinery EX 274 Mbpd 1.029 P 2014 EIL
India Amerind Petroleum Pvt Ltd. Visakhapatnam Refinery 7.5 Mtpy 505 H 2014
Indonesia Pertamina Balikpapan Refinery RE 260 Mbpd P
Japan Inpex Joetsu LNG Receiving Termin 160 Mm3 E 2013 Chiyoda Chiyoda
CANADA
British Columbia Spectra Energy Dawson Creek Gas Processing 200 MMcfd 1500 C 2012
EUROPE
Belarus Beltransoil Brest Diesel, ULSD 70 Mtpy C 2012 UOP / Albemarle Prokop
Belgium Kuwait Petro Corp Antwerp Lube Oil Plant 250 MMl/y U 2014 FW
Germany BASF Ludwigshafen Polymerizer EX None P 2014
Germany PCK Raffinerie GmbH Schwedt Cracker, HSC (2) 24600 Mbpd U 2013 Toyo Japan Toyo Japan Toyo Japan
Russian Federation Shtokman Development Co Murmansk LNG 7.5 MMtpy E 2016 Technip
Russian Federation Nizhnekamskneftekhim Nizhnekamsk Olefins, LinearAlpha RE 37.5 kty E 2014 Linde Linde
Russian Federation TNK-BP Ryazan Hydrotreater, Vacuum Gas
(VGHT) (1) RE 125 t/a C 2012
LATIN AMERICA
Colombia Ecopetrol Barrancabermeja Hydrocracker 50 Mbpd E 2016 FW Axens
Puerto Rico CH-IV Penuelas LNG Terminal EX None C 2012 EcoElectronica L.P.
Venezuela PDVSA El Palito Refinery RE 140 Mbpsd F 2017 FW / Toyo Engineering Corporation
Y&V Ingernieria y Construccion C.A
MIDDLE EAST
Iraq KAT Asphalt & Lub Oil Dukan Distillation, Crude 20 bpsd U 2013 Prokop Prokop
Oman Oman Oil Co Sohar Refinery 187 bpd 40 E 2015 FW / Honeywell CLG / JGC / UOP / CB&I UOP / CLG / JGC
Turkey TUPRAS Izmit Coker 8200 tpd E 2014 Tecnicas Reunidas Tecnicas Reunidas
UNITED STATES
California San Joaquin Rfg Co Bakersfield Cogeneration 20 MW 35 A 2012 TJCROSS Engineers Shaw
Iowa DuPont Co Nevada Ethanol 1300 tpd E 2014 KBR
Louisiana EMRE Alexandria Methanol-To-Gasoline 3500 bpd E Sundrop Fuels Inc.
Pennsylvania Philadelphia Energy Solutions Philadelphia Cracker, Catalytic RE None P
Texas Enterprise Products Mont Belvieu Propylene EX 80.5 bpd U 2013
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ASME B31.1, Code for Pressure Piping
ASME B31.3, Code for Process Piping
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SEPTEMBER 25 - 27 2012
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TURBOMACHINERY EXHIBITION
Reliability
HEINZ P. BLOCH, RELIABILITY/EQUIPMENT EDITOR
Heinz.Bloch@HydrocarbonProcessing.com
When not to use oil rings
For process pumps in particular size
and duty categories, oil rings are rarely, if
ever, the most reliable means for lubricant
application. Oil rings tend to skip and
even abrade, as shown in FIG. 1, unless:
The shaft system is truly horizon-
tal.
1
Horizontality is very rarely obtained
when shims are used to manage shaft cen-
terline alignment.
Ring immersion in the lubricant is
perfect. Consistent depth of immersion
can be difficult to maintain over time.
Ring eccentricity is closely con-
trolled. This is rarely possible unless
stress-relief annealing is included as part
of the manufacturing steps
Ring bore RMS finish and oil vis-
cosity are maintained within close limits.
Viscosities can change depending on oil
temperature and contamination-related
oil quality.
Shaft-surface velocities are within
an acceptable range.
Manufacturers limits. These various
parameters are probably within limits on
the pump manufacturers test stand, and
the manufacturer feels exonerated. How-
ever, when considered collectively, these
parameters are rarely within the suitably
close limits needed in actual operating
plants.
1
Other vulnerabilities exist and can
cause repeat pump failures.
2
To avoid premature equipment failure
or, alternatively, the need for frequent pre-
cautionary replacement of rings and lube oil
changes, serious reliability-focused owner-
purchasers often specify and select pumps
with flinger discs. Reliability-focused buy-
ers often follow the advice of prominent
pump manufacturers whose 1970s-era bro-
chures asked buyers to opt for a superior
anti-friction oil thrower (a disc) to ensure
positive lubrication and thus eliminate the
problems associated with oil rings.
1
Often, and to accommodate the correct
flinger-disc diameter, the pump manufac-
turer will have to mount the thrust bearing
set in a cartridge.
Keen on better pumps. The term bet-
ter pumps describes fluid movers that
are designed beyond just soundly engi-
neered hydraulic efficiency and modern
metallurgy. Better pumps are units that
avoid risk-inducing components or ge-
ometries in the mechanical portion com-
monly called the drive end.
An over-emphasis on (initial) cost-
cutting by some pump manufacturers
and many pump purchasers has nega-
tively affected the drive ends of thou-
sands of process pumps. Flawed drive
end components contribute to elusive
repeat failures that often plague these
simple machines. Pump drive end fail-
ures represent an issue that has not been
addressed with the urgency it deserves.
Remember: Repeat failures can only
happen if the true root cause of failure
remains hidden, or if the true root cause
is known, but no corrective action is tak-
en. Either of these two possibilities will
defeat asset preservation and operational
excellence goals.
Final word. Reliability specialists should
actively track metal wear by oil analysis
or by observing the shaft (FIG. 2), or via
micrometer measurement of the oil ring
width. Active monitoring can move a
plant into the best-of-class category.
2, 3
LITERATURE CITED

1
Bloch, H. P. and A. Budris, Pump Users Handbook
Life Extension, 3rd ed., Fairmont Press, Inc., Lilburn,
Georgia, 2010.

2
Bloch, H. P., Pump Wisdom: Problem Solving for
Operators and Specialists, John Wiley & Sons, New
York, New York, 2011.

3
Bradshaw, S., Investigations into the contamina-
tion of lubricating oils in rolling element pump
bearing assemblies, 17th International Pump Users
Symposium, Houston, 2000.
FIG. 1. Oil rings in as-new (wide and
chamfered) condition on the left, and abraded
(worn narrow and without chamfer) condition
on the right side.
1,2
FIG. 2. Wear tracking on both equipment shaft
and oil ring is of high interest. Note: This oil
ring makes contact with housing-internal
surfaces. Best practices companies measure
and record the rings original width
as-installed and also its after-removal width.
HEINZ P. BLOCH resides in
Westminster, Colorado. His
professional career began
in 1962 and included long-
term assignments as Exxon
Chemicals Regional
machinery specialist for the
US. He has authored over
520 publications, among
them 18 comprehensive
books on practical
machinery management,
failure analysis, failure avoidance, compressors, steam
turbines, pumps, oil mist lubrication and practical
lubrication for industry. Mr. Bloch holds BS and MS
degrees in mechanical engineering.
He is an ASME Life Fellow and maintains registration
as a Professional Engineer in New Jersey and Texas.
Engineering
Case Histories
A. SOFRONAS, CONSULTING ENGINEER
http://mechanicalengineeringhelp.com
Case 70: Twenty rules for troubleshooting
In previous Engineering Case History columns, I have
discussed checklists and their value in avoiding errors during
startups. While the rules cannot replace common sense or a
logical and methodical approach, they can help avoid embar-
rassing situations. Here are 20 rules that are most helpful in
troubleshooting:
Rule 1. Never assume anything. The new bearings are in
stores, and they will be there if there is a failure is an assump-
tion. The bearings may not be in inventory; likewise, they can
be corroded, damaged or, worse, the wrong size.
Rule 2. Follow the data. The shaft failed due to a bend-
ing failure, because the bearing failed, because the oil system
failed, because the maintenance schedule was extended. This
is following the data.
Rule 3. Dont jump to a cause. Most of us want to come
up with the most likely cause for a failure or other situation
immediately. Such causes are usually based on our past experi-
ence, which may not be valid for this particular failure.
Rule 4. Calculation is better than speculation. A simple
analysis is worth more than someone who tries to base the
cause on past experiences.
Rule 5. Get input from others but realize they could be
wrong. Most individuals want to be helpful and provide input
as to the cause. However, such input may not be credible.
Rule 6. When you have conclusive data adhere to your
principles. Safety issues are a good example. Your position
may not be readily accepted by others because of budget, con-
tract or time constraints. Before taking a stand, have other se-
nior technical people agree with you because it could affect
your career.
Rule 7. Management doesnt want to hear bad news. Do
not just discuss the failure and the problems it can cause to
management. Present good options that can also be used at
other plant locations to avoid similar failures.
Rule 8. Management doesnt like wish lists. Only present
what is needed, not what you would like to have. Adhering to
company standards or national codes is usually a good approach.
Rule 9. Management doesnt like confusing data. Keep
technical jargon to a minimum and present the information
as clear as possible with illustrations, photos, models and
examples.
Rule 10. Management doesnt like expensive solutions.
Only present one or two cost-effective solutions with options,
costs and timing.
Rule 11. Admit when you are wrong and obtain addition-
al data. Admitting to being wrong is one of the most difficult
acts. When other data contradicts yours, accepting the truth
must be done; otherwise, you will look foolish.
Rule 12. Understand what results you are seeking. The
analysis should be done to determine why the rotor cracked
not to redesign the machine. Too often, we get so involved in
the analysis that we forget to just solve the problem.
Rule 13. Look for the simplest explanation first. For ex-
ample, a new drive belt was installed too tight and then broke
the shaft.
Rule 14. Look for the least cost and easiest solution. You
need to understand what caused the failure first. For example,
if a drive belt was too tight, then train the machinists on the
correct tightening procedure. Put a placard on the equipment
explaining the procedure clearly and include caution areas.
Rule 15. Analytical results, tests or metallurgical results
should agree. When the metallurgical analysis says it was a fa-
tigue failure and your analysis says it was a sudden impact, some-
one is in error. They should both indicate the same failure mode.
Rule 16. Trust your intuition. When you feel something
is wrong but cant prove it, its time to do an analysis and get
additional data.
Rule 17. Utilize your trusted colleagues to confirm your
approach. Talking with my engineering and field colleagues
has been the most useful method in finding the true cause of
a problem.
Rule 18. Similar failures usually have happened before.
It is your job, as the reliability or maintenance engineer to
survey your company and the literature for the cause of simi-
lar failures and to determine if it is useful data for trouble-
shooting this failure.
Rule 19. Always have others involved when analyzing
high-profile failures. When safety, legal or major production
issues are involved, it is unwise to make critical decisions on
your own. This is the time for a team approach so that nothing
is missed. Also involve others to develop and implement the
final solution.
Rule 20. Someone usually knows the failure cause. It has
been my experience from interviewing engineers, operators,
machinists and technicians that some of the plant staff usually
knew the true cause of a failure. A good interviewing proce-
dure is an important part of the troubleshooting process.
DR. TONY SOFRONAS, P.E., was worldwide lead
mechanical engineer for ExxonMobil Chemicals before
retiring. He now owns Engineered Products, which
provides consulting and engineering seminars on
machinery and pressure vessels. Dr. Sofronas has
authored two engineering books and numerous
technical articles on analytical methods. Early in his
career, he worked for General Electric and Bendix, and
has extensive knowledge of design and failure analysis
for various types of equipment.
WorId-cIass
products and servIce,
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Viewpoint
DR. JENNI FER HOLMGREN i s the chi ef
executi ve offi cer of LanzaTech. She has
over 20 years of experience in the energy
sector, including a proven track record in the
development and commercialization of fuel
and chemical technologies. Prior to joining
LanzaTech, Dr. Holmgren was vice president
and general manager of the Renewable Energy
and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a
Honeywell Company. In that role, she led UOPs
renewable business from its inception through
to the achievement of significant revenues
from the commercialization of multiple novel
biofuel technologies.
From mill to wing: How waste materials
could become the next green aviation fuel
J. HOLMGREN
Chief Executive Officer, LanzaTech, Chicago, Illinois
We are in the midst of an energy revo-
lution, with new types of liquid fuels from
new sources and an increased supply of
traditional fuels unleashed from existing
sources thanks to new technologies.
While this is good news, it is tem-
pered by the reality that global demand
is forecast to far outpace supply. Ac-
cording to data from industry analysts
at Cambridge Energy Research Associ-
ates (CERA), we will face a supply gap
of 35 million bpd by 2030. Thats even
taking into consideration the new supply
brought on by the success of hydraulic
fracturing in the US, new and forecasted
discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico and
other areas around the world, and the in-
creased use of electric vehicles and other
high fuel efficiency cars and trucks.
The world needs more supply. Period.
And nowhere is this more important
than in the aviation fuels market, where
alternatives to liquid fuels, such as elec-
tricity or fuel cells, are not yet a viable op-
tion. While I am sure many in the indus-
try would love to see jets plug in rather
than fill up, its going to take some time.
Understanding this, the aviation in-
dustry has placed a premium on develop-
ing sustainable, low-carbon alternative
fuel sources that not only address the
carbon footprint issue but also review
the agro-economic, socio-economic and
environmental assessments of next gen-
eration fuels. Of course, given the huge
volume of consumption, the industry has
a strong focus on sustainability, as well as
price. The cost for alternatives must be
on par with, or better than, petroleum.
My company believes theres a way to
address many of these issues simultane-
ously by creating new, low-carbon fuels
economically, sustainably and without
diverting precious land or water resourc-
es. LanzaTech uses a proprietary fermen-
tation process to convert gases (includ-
ing industrial waste gases and gas derived
from any biomass source) into fuels and
chemicals. We are one of several compa-
nies looking to turn waste into fuel.
This approach is cost effective, as it
uses material that has no value; environ-
mentally effective, as it recycles gases
that would otherwise be sent freely to
the atmosphere; and socially effective,
as it can create domestic jobs and foster
energy security.
With industry partners such as Swed-
ish Biofuels and Imperium Renewables,
along with support from Pacific North-
west National Labs, National Renewable
Energy Labs and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and
funding from the Federal Aviation Admin-
istration and the US Department of Ener-
gy, LanzaTech is is working on an alcohol
to jet (ATJ) pathway. These biofuels will
exhibit similar or identical chemical and
physical properties to their petroleum
counterparts, enabling them to be utilized
at blends up to 50% without any modifi-
cations to the storage and transportation
infrastructure or aircraft engines.
At the successful completion of these
projects, LanzaTech will have produced
ATJ fuel that can be used for testing pur-
poses by ASTM International as it creates
a fuel specification for ATJ.
There are a number of co-benefits
from all of this, including the relative
abundance of industrial gases as a feed-
stock, the reduction in overall CO
2
emis-
sions, and the avoidance of land-use
conflicts in feedstock production. Using
waste materials as feedstock is helping to
reshape the perception of energy sources.
We hope that success in our efforts
will breed more interest and partner-
ships from industries that generate large
sources of CO and CO
2
(or other waste
gases) so they will see the synergies in
recycling waste materials and putting
them back to work once again powering
planes, trains and automobiles.

|
Special Report
REFINING DEVELOPMENTS
Over the next 10 years, global demand for refined
oil products is forecast to increase at an average
rate of 1.2% per year. Developed nations are
experiencing flattening or declining demand as
biofuels and other renewable energies increasingly
displace oil-based products.
In contrast, developing nations will experience
continued demand increases for energy in all
forms. Changing demand and markets are forcing
the refining industry to rethink its long-term goals.
Accordingly, refiners must identify opportunities to
maximize their assets against future fuel demand
as discussed in this months Special Report.
Gulf Oils Port Authur, Texas, Refinery Still in 1929. Courtesy
of Valero Energy Corp.
Special Report
Refining Developments
P. K. NICCUM, KBR Inc., Houston, Texas
Maximize diesel production
in an FCC-centered refinery, Part 1
Global product trends favor increasing production of die-
sel over gasoline (FIG. 1).
1
Consequently, many new refineries
have utilized hydrocracking, rather than fluid catalytic cracking
(FCC), as the main conversion unit due to the hydrocrackers
higher diesel yield and superior diesel quality.
For refineries that have already invested in an FCC unit as
the main conversion vehicle, the question becomes, How can
existing refinery assets be used to economically increase diesel
production? The question is challenging because light cycle
oil (LCO) from FCC operations has limited value as a compo-
nent in modern diesel transportation fuel due to its aromatic,
sulfurous character. Furthermore, quality virgin distillate in-
cluded in the FCC feedstock is essentially destroyed during
FCC processing.
This article presents methodologies for maximizing the
production of high-quality diesel in a refinery that relies on
FCC as its principal means of heavy oil conversion. Such meth-
odologies include:
Preserving straight-run distillates for use in diesel blend-
ing by preventing its loss to FCC feed
Increasing yield, quality and recovery of LCO
Upgrading LCO quality through hydrotreating or hydro-
cracking
Preserving FCC naphtha octane and liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG) during maximum LCO FCC operations
Producing synthetic diesel through the oligomerization
of lighter olefinic FCC products.
Improving LCO yield and quality. FCC units produce a
significant quantity of high-sulfur, low-cetane-number aro-
matic distillatei.e., LCO. Modern diesel quality specifica-
tions dictate that LCO must be upgraded in hydrotreating or
hydrocracking units to make it an attractive diesel blending
component. The disconnect between LCO quality and the
specifications demanded for modern automotive diesel can be
seen in TABLE 1, which compares the quality of a typical LCO
with increasingly stringent diesel specifications.
2
Directionally, the yield and quality of the LCO can be im-
proved by lowering FCC conversion and adjusting the FCC
catalyst formulation, but the improvement in LCO quality is
not sufficient for the LCO to be considered a desirable diesel
blending component.
FIG. 2 illustrates US refinery LCO samples from the years
1967 and 1982. The decline in LCO quality over the period
would, in part, be the natural result of increasing FCC operat-
ing severity and the completion of the industrys changeover
from amorphous catalyst to highly rare-earth-exchanged zeo-
lite catalyst targeting increased gasoline production.
3
These
data are included to provide perspective on the range of LCO
qualities that have been produced from FCC operations. The
reader can see that, while some of the samples have much bet-
ter diesel qualities than others, they all fall well short of mod-
ern specifications.
Strategies for maximizing diesel production. What can
be done to maximize FCC-based refinery diesel production
while taking advantage of an existing FCC asset? The simple
answer, depicted in FIG. 3, is to avoid the loss of virgin distillate
to the FCC feedstock and to maximize the production of hy-
droprocessed LCO and diesel synthesized from the oligomer-
ization of lower-boiling FCC olefins. The following sections of
this article explore how this is accomplished.
TABLE 1. LCO quality vs. diesel specications
Property Typical LCO
North American
diesel
EU (Euro 5)
diesel
Sulfur, wppm 10,000 15 10
Density, kg/m
3
900960 NA 820845
Cetane number 2030 40 51
Polynuclear aromatics
(PNA), wt%
3060 NA 11
Total aromatics, vol% 6085 35 NA
D86 distillation, C T
90
345 T
90
338 T
95
360
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Year
2015 2020 2025
World gasoline
World diesel
US gasoline
US diesel
D
e
m
a
n
d
,

m
i
l
l
i
o
n

b
p
d
FIG. 1. Projected gasoline and diesel demand to 2025.
As suggested in FIG. 3, after a refiner has taken the steps nec-
essary to minimize the loss of straight-run diesel to the FCC
feedstock, some FCC operating adjustments are commonly
applied in the interest of increasing refinery diesel production.
These include the following:
Lowering FCC naphtha endpoint
Increasing FCC catalyst matrix activity and lowering rare
earth/hydrogen (H
2
) transfer activity
Maximizing LCO endpoint
Hydroprocessing the LCO as required.
Beyond these commonly applied strategies, two divergent
options remain for dealing with the diesel situation:
1. Reduce FCC cracking severity to maximize LCO pro-
duction, and take action, if needed, to mitigate the associated
loss of FCC naphtha octane and LPG production
2. Increase FCC cracking severity to maximize the pro-
duction of lower-molecular-weight olefinic products from the
FCC unit, and oligomerize these olefins to produce high-qual-
ity synthetic diesel.
Can the FCC-based refinery increase diesel production? The
answer to this question is yes. The more germane question to
consider is whether or not the increased diesel production justi-
fies the associated investment costs and operating tradeoffs.
Data generated on an FCC pilot plant are presented in TABLE 2
to show how changing the FCC reaction severity can impact
FCC yields and product qualities. Three cases are included, all
based on the same feedstock and catalyst system. With this as
background, the low-severity and high-severity routes to in-
creasing refinery diesel production are contrasted.
Reducing FCC cracking severity. Low-severity FCC op-
eration can be considered the traditional avenue for maximiz-
ing diesel production from an FCC-centered refinery. As men-
tioned in the introduction, the quality and the yield of LCO
improves as cracking severity is lowered. At the same time, re-
ducing cracking severity will generally cause a loss of both LPG
production and FCC naphtha octane. It will also increase the
production of low-value slurry oil. There are practical limits to
the amount of LCO that can be produced by lowering reaction
temperature and catalyst activity because the coke make will
become insufficient to heat-balance the FCC unit at a sustain-
able regenerator temperature.
On the positive side, reducing FCC severity will not be con-
strained by regenerator coke burning or by vapor recovery unit
(VRU) capacity. On the other hand, increasing LCO produc-
tion increases the burden on other refining units to meet mod-
ern diesel fuel specifications by upgrading the LCO.
Recycling slurry oil and using a fired feed furnace.
These operating strategies are commonly employed to increase
LCO yield while directionally helping to maintain regenerator
temperature. However, with severely hydroprocessed vacuum
gas oil (VGO) feedstocks, recycling slurry oil and increasing
feed temperature can still be insufficient to maintain adequate
regenerator temperature.
Nontraditional tactics can be employed to address the yield,
product quality and heat balance issues associated with low-se-
verity FCC operations. Two of these tactics are described below:
Use of a dedicated slurry oil stripping tower to recover in-
cremental LCO from the slurry oil produced by the FCC main
fractionator and, optionally, to recycle some of the stripped
slurry oil to the FCC reactor
Direct firing of the regenerator with fuel, such as fuel gas
or slurry oil, to maintain regenerator temperature.
Slurry oil stripping tower. The fractionation between
LCO and slurry oil in the bottom of an FCC main fractionator
is very coarse because the reactor products feed the fractionator
through the bottom of the tower, where the slurry oil product is
withdrawn, and also because there are few fractionation trays be-
tween the slurry product and the LCO product draws. There is, at
most, a one-stage flash available to separate the slurry oil from its
equilibrium with the rest of the FCC reactor product stream. For
example, FIG. 4 presents simulated true boiling point distillations
from an FCC main fractionator producing LCO, heavy cycle oil
(HCO) and slurry oil. In this example, 36% of the FCC slurry
Low-severity FCC strategies
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FIG. 3. Strategies for FCC diesel maximization.
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
10 15 20 25 30 35
API gravity, degree
1967
1982
C
e
t
a
n
e

n
u
m
b
e
r
FIG. 2. Results from typical LCO inspections at US refineries.
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1,000
1,100
65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Cumulative FCC product distillation, vol%
T
r
u
e

b
o
i
l
i
n
g

p
o
i
n
t
,
F
Gasoline
Slurry
LCO
HCO
FIG. 4. FCC product distillation example.
oil and 50% of the HCO boils below the LCO product endpoint.
It is ironic that, in maximum LCO operations, the amount
of LCO lost in the slurry oil increases significantly because of
the higher volume of slurry oil produced. Another fundamental
violation of the maximizing LCO objective is that the recycle of
a typical slurry oil also carries LCO-boiling-range material back
into the reactor, where the quality will be further degraded and
some will be cracked into a non-LCO-boiling-range material.
Based on the above considerations, it is apparent that, to
truly maximize the production of LCO from the FCC unit, a
sharp fractionation between LCO and heavier liquid products
must be achieved. A feature used to enhance this separation is
the use of a dedicated LCO/slurry fractionation tower to re-
cover LCO that would otherwise be lost in the slurry oil. In
a traditional maximum-gasoline FCC operation, downstream
recovery of LCO from slurry is not normally economic because
of the relatively low slurry oil yield. However, in a maximum-
LCO operation where the slurry production is higher and the
LCO is more valuable, the additional fractionation tower may
be economically viable.
The LCO/slurry fractionation tower can be a steam strip-
per or a tower operated under vacuum to achieve maximum
LCO recovery. In addition to the prevention of the direct loss
of LCO with the slurry product and the loss of LCO through
its recycle to the reactor, the slurry oil fractionation tower pro-
vides a slurry oil that is a more effective recycle stream for sup-
porting the FCC heat balance, due to its higher boiling range
and higher Conradson Carbon Residue (CCR) content.
HCO recycle. In low-severity FCC operations where
maintaining adequate regenerator temperature is not an is-
sue (such as may be the case when processing residue), HCO
may be preferred over slurry oil as a recycle stream, due to its
TABLE 2. FCC pilot plant data showing the impact of changing operating severity
Low conversion Medium conversion High conversion
FCC feed properties
Gravity, API 22.5 22.5 22.5
50 vol% boiling point, F 851 851 851
Aniline point, F 176 176 176
Sulfur, wt% 0.55 0.55 0.55
CCR, wt% 0.89 0.89 0.89
FCC pilot plant operating conditions
Riser temperature, F 940 979 1,020
Feed temperature, F 416 485 337
Catalyst-to-oil ratio, wt/wt 6.6 6.7 11.4
Micro Activity Test (MAT) 67 67 67
Rare-earth oxides, wt% (FCC E-Cat property) 0.6 0.6 0.6
FCC pilot plant yields
Dry gas, wt% 1.23 2.08 3.5
C
3
LPG, wt% 2.97 4.26 7.27
C
4
LPG, wt% 5.98 7.88 11.57
Gasoline (C
5
at 430F), wt% 43.21 46.98 46
LCO (430F680F), wt% 27.42 24.47 16.01
Slurry oil (680F+), wt% 13.6 9.06 7.66
Coke, wt% 5.59 5.27 7.99
Conversion, wt% 58.98 66.47 76.33
FCC pilot plant product qualities
C
3
LPG olenicity, wt% 83.8 83.8 85.7
C
4
LPG olenicity, wt% 66.7 68.5 67
Naphtha gravity, API 56.6 57.2 55.9
Naphtha octane, RON/MON 91.7/81.1 92.9/81.6 95.6/84.4
Naphtha P/O/N/A, wt% 27.2/49.5/11.8/11.5 25.7/49.1/10.9/14.3 31.3/36.8/10.5/21.4
LCO gravity, API 22.2 17 11.3
LCO H
2
content, wt% 10.7 9.9 8.8
Slurry oil gravity, API 6 0.8 7.4
Slurry oil H
2
content, wt% 9 7.8 6.7
very low carbon residue content and higher H
2
content.
4
Ide-
ally, the HCO would also have its LCO-boiling-range material
distilled before recycling it, but the economic practicality of
redistilling the HCO can be questioned if this requires yet an-
other cycle oil fractionator.
Direct firing of regenerator with fuel. The continuous
direct firing of the regenerator with fuel can be essential to the
operation of a maximum LCO FCC operation when process-
ing non-residue-containing FCC feedstocks.
Continuous firing of the regenerator air heater has been
utilized for heat balance support, but this practice can have an
adverse impact on the velocities through the regenerator air
distributors and on the practical issues associated with moni-
toring the heater firing.
Continuous firing of torch oil, which is normally only used
during startup, has been practiced. However, this has reportedly
been the cause of accelerated catalyst attrition and deactivation.
One company has developed a system for distributing liquid fuel
in the regenerator.
5,6
The system is designed to mitigate the cata-
lyst damage associated with conventional torch-oil firing. This
technology has been adapted for use in conventional FCC units.
A patent-pending version is also available for use in conventional
FCC operations. In addition to this system for liquid fuels, a
system for firing the regenerator with fuel gas, which is often a
lower-cost fuel, has been commercialized.
Increasing FCC cracking severity. Increasing cracking sever-
ity reduces LCO yield and provides the immediate impact of hav-
ing less LCO to blend into the diesel pool. This can be a net bene-
fit to the diesel blending operation, even though the quality of the
LCO is diminished. At the same time, the increased LPG olefins
can be oligomerized to produce high-quality synthetic diesel.
Increasing cracking severity can be achieved by raising reactor
temperature and/or boosting catalyst activity. However, unless
FCC capacity is reduced, increasing FCC severity may be con-
strained by regenerator coke burning or by VRU capacity. Even
with adequate coke- and gas-handling capacity, increasing regen-
erator temperature can pose a limitation to the severity increase.
The use of slurry recycle in high-conversion FCC opera-
tions is usually counter-productive because it only exacerbates
the coke-burning and regenerator-temperature limitations.
Furthermore, referring back to TABLE 2, the slurry oil from
high-conversion FCC operations is H
2
-deficient and has little
to offer in terms of potential cracking yield. Beyond simply in-
creasing reaction temperature and catalyst activity, these three
hardware-related upgrades warrant mention for their assis-
tance in high-conversion FCC operations:
Applying an advanced riser termination system to mini-
mize dry gas and coke production at the increased severity
Applying regenerator catalyst cooling to control the heat
balance at the increased severity
Recycling FCC C
4
s and FCC light naphtha to an ultra-
high-severity FCC riser for the purpose of producing incre-
mental C
3
/C
4
olefins and aromatic, high-octane naphtha.
These options are further discussed below.
Riser termination system. An advanced riser termination
system can minimize product vapor residence time between
the riser outlet and the main fractionator, thereby reducing the
formation of incremental dry gas from post-riser thermal crack-
ing. In addition to the reduction in dry gas, the riser termination
system reduces delta coke on units that previously employed
low-catalyst-separation-efficiency riser termination devices.
Therefore, the system is especially appropriate for use when
increasing FCC operating severity because it simultaneously
relieves VRU capacity and regenerator operating temperature
constraints. The advanced riser termination system also in-
creases LCO production by minimizing the thermal condensa-
tion reactions that create slurry oil from LCO-range material.
7
Catalyst cooling. In an unconstrained environment, increas-
ing FCC reactor temperature is easy. However, in most cases,
FCC units are already operating against several physical and eco-
nomical constraints. High regenerator temperature can emerge
as a major constraint to increasing reactor temperature because
of the impact of the higher temperature on the unit heat balance.
FCC operators can implement a reduction in equilibrium cata-
lyst activity to mitigate the increasing regenerator temperature,
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1,000
1,100
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Cumulative FCC product distillation, vol%
T
r
u
e

b
o
i
l
i
n
g

p
o
i
n
t
,

F
LCO Gasoline or LCO
Gasoline
FIG. 5. FCC liquid product distribution example.
77
79
81
83
85
89
91
93
95
97
20 0 60 100 140 180 220 240
Gasoline nal boiling point, C
MON
RON
O
c
t
a
n
e

n
u
m
b
e
r
FIG. 6. FCC gasoline octane examples.
but reducing catalyst activity runs counter to the more basic
objective of increasing reaction severity. In high-severity FCC
operations, the catalyst cooler can maintain the regenerator tem-
perature at the optimum value, which increases olefins produc-
tion. In a recent study, the addition of a catalyst cooler to a re-
generator-temperature-constrained, high-olefins FCC operation
enabled a 25+% increase in the units propylene production.
8
C
4
and light FCC naphtha recycle. The recycle of C
4
LPG
and light FCC naphtha for the purpose of producing propylene
and higher-octane FCC gasoline fits in well here because it can
achieve the goals of increasing propylene yield and naphtha
octane without destroying LCO. Ultimately, the application
of such catalyst and hardware technology can push propylene
yields into a range of 10 wt% to 20 wt% or more.
6
The recycle of light naphtha to a high-severity second riser
can be practiced in both high-severity and low-severity primary
riser operations to improve octane and produce additional LPG
olefins without sacrificing LCO yield or quality. There is a syner-
gy between the low-severity primary riser operation and a high-
severity light feed recycle riser because the naphtha from the
low-severity primary riser is more olefinic, making this primary
riser product better feedstock for the high-severity second riser.
Commonalities in basic process strategy. Even as the
chosen strategy drives the refinery down a selected avenue of
either a high- or low-conversion FCC operation, there will be
some commonalities among the two strategies.
FCC fractionator cutpoint adjustment. Adjusting the
FCC naphtha endpoint would be considered standard practice
in most refineries for making seasonal adjustments for swings
in gasoline vs. distillate demand. Reducing the endpoint of
the FCC naphtha product shifts heavy naphtha into the LCO
product. The limitation to the adjustment can be gasoline oc-
tane, the flashpoint specification of the LCO product, or pool-
cetane considerations. Another possible limitation is the mini-
mum FCC main fractionator overhead temperature, which can
be practiced without condensing water and fouling or corrod-
ing the top of the main fractionator or its overhead system.
9

Typically, the FCC naphtha ASTM D86 endpoint would not
be reduced to less than 300F to stay above a minimum accept-
able main fractionator overhead temperature.
FIG. 5 provides a typical example of how changes in the gaso-
line endpoint impact the naphtha yield and the LCO yield by
implication. In addition to changes in the FCC naphtha and
LCO yields due to the cutpoint adjustments, there will be
changes in the product distillations, gravities, octanes, sulfur
contents and cetane values.
Due to the wide variation in heavy FCC naphtha molecu-
lar composition from one FCC operation to the next, a rule of
thumb is not provided for the impact of the cutpoint adjust-
ments on octane, sulfur content or cetane. These effects are
best taken from empirical observations on the operating unit.
As an example of the variability of product property trends
with cutpoint, FIG. 6 shows the impact of the FCC gasoline
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endpoint on octane, calculated from narrow-boiling-range oc-
tane data for three different FCC situations operating with a
variety of feedstocks, catalysts and operating conditions.
10
In many cases, seasonal demand swings are accommodated
with changes in the FCC gasoline cutpoint, with no change to
the true (430F) FCC conversion level, as this strategy works
to preserve the LPG production, octane and total liquid vol-
ume associated with the higher-conversion operations.
Crude distillation. Another common practice is maximiz-
ing diesel production from the crude distillation processes so
that losses of potential diesel to the FCC feed are minimized.
There are intermediate swing cuts from some crude distillation
operations that can be routed to the FCC unit when gasoline
is demanded, and routed to diesel production when the objec-
tive is maximizing diesel. As a side benefit, keeping the diesel
out of the FCC feed also improves FCC gasoline octane.
11
Pilot plant data have shown that, in moderate or high-se-
verity FCC operations, most of the straight-run diesel will be
converted to gasoline and lighter products with only 20%30%
leaving the FCC in the LCO product. The data have also shown
that the LCO made from the distillate will have cetane values 10
to 15 numbers below that of the distillate feed, but still higher
than that of typical FCC LCO.
Beyond standard operating adjustments, there may be in-
vestment opportunities in crude distillation hardware that can
achieve a sharper separation between the diesel product and FCC
feed streams, reducing the loss of potential diesel to the FCC feed.
A survey of over 100 refineries indicated that FCC feed typi-
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TABLE 3. Examples of calculated incremental diesel production
Base case Additional diesel recovery options
Atmospheric
tower revamp
Add standard
diesel draw to VDU
Add high-recovery
diesel draw to VDU
Install gas oil tower
in front of VDU
Install vacuum
preash tower
in front of VDU
Install LVGO
splitter tower
Incremental diesel,
vol% of crude
1.3 3.0* 3.2* 2.2* 2.3* 3.4*
Number of additional
fractionation stages
between diesel and gasoil
5 2 6 4 4 12
*Incremental yield of selected option relative to base case
cally contains between 10 vol% and 15 vol% of material, mostly
diesel, boiling below 650F.
12
In environments where gasoline
production is maximized, the loss of diesel to the FCC unit has
little negative impact. However, if the objective is diesel maxi-
mization, better crude fractionation efficiency between diesel
and FCC feed can be economically justified.
There are a number of ways to reduce the loss of virgin die-
sel to the FCC feed.
13
Some of these options are listed below:
Revamp the atmospheric distillation column to increase
the degree of fractionation between the diesel and atmospheric
gasoil products
Revamp the vacuum column to produce a diesel product
Add a gasoil tower or a vacuum preflash tower between
the atmospheric and vacuum distillation columns, and recover
diesel from the vacuum tower feedstock
Add a splitter column to process the light vacuum gasoil
(LGVO) and produce a diesel stream.
TABLE 3 shows examples of calculated incremental diesel
production that were reported for some of these options.
13

The best options for a given refinery are a function of the site
specifics of the application, but the data in TABLE 3 indicate
the magnitude of diesel production increases that are possible.
Part 2 of this article, to be published in October, will ex-
plore the selection of FCC catalysts, methods for hydropro-
cessing LCO, and the production of diesel fuel from FCC by-
products, among other topics.
LITERATURE CITED
1
Eskew, B., The Diesel Challenge and Other Issues Facing US Refiners, NPRA
Q&A and Technology Forum, Champions Gate, Florida, October 2008.
2
Flinn, N. and S. P. Torrisi Jr., LCO Upgrading Options: From Simple to
Progressive Solutions, Russia and CIS Refining Technology Conference and
Exhibition, Moscow, Russia, September 2008.
3
Unzelman, G. H., Potential Impact of Cracking on Diesel Fuel Quality,
Katalistiks Fourth Annual Fluid Cat Cracking Symposium, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, May 1983.
4
Hunt, D., R. Hu, H. Ma, L. Langan and W.-C. Cheng, Recycle Strategies and
MIDAS-300 for Maximizing FCC Light Cycle Oil, Catalagram 105, W. R. Grace
& Co., Spring 2009.
5
Peterson, R. B., C. Santner and M. Tallman, US Patent No. 7,153,479.
6
Gilbert, M. F., M. J. Tallman, W. C. Petterson and P. K. Niccum, Light Olefin
Production from SUPERFLEX
SM
and MAXOFIN
TM
FCC Technologies, ARTC
Petrochemical Conference, Malaysia, February 2001.
7
Miller, R., T. Johnson, C. Santner, A. Avidan and D. Johnson, FCC Reactor
Product-Catalyst SeparationTen Years of Commercial Experience with Closed
Cyclones, NPRA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, March 1995.
8
Pillai, R. and P. K. Niccum, FCC Catalyst Coolers Open Window to Increased
Propylene, Grace Davison FCC Conference, Munich, Germany, September 2011.
9
Melin, M., C. Baillie and G. McElhiney, Salt Deposition in FCC Gas
Concentration Units, Catalagram 107, W. R. Grace & Co., 2010.
10
Akbar, M., B. Claverin, M. Borley and H. Otto, Some Experiences with FCC
Octane Enhancement, Ketjen Catalysts Symposium, Scheveningen, The
Netherlands, May 1986.
11
Fletcher, R., Meeting Transcript, 1997 NPRA Q&A Session: Refining and
Petrochemical Technology, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 1997.
12
Sloley, A. W., FCC Network News, Refinery Process Services Inc., Vol. 35, January 2010.
13
Sloley, A. W., Increase diesel recovery, Hydrocarbon Processing, June 2008.
PHILLIP NICCUM joined KBR Inc.s fluid catalytic cracking (FCC)
team in 1989 following nine years of FCC-related work for a
major oil company. Since that time, he has held various
FCC-related positions at KBR Inc., including process engineering
manager, technology manager, chief technology engineer of
FCC, and now director of FCC technology. Mr. Niccums
professional activities have included engineering management,
process engineering, project engineering, marketing, and licensing. Areas of
technical strength include FCC unit design, precommissioning and startup,
troubleshooting and economic optimization of FCC unit operations.
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Special Report
P.-Y. LE-GOFF, Axens, Rueil-Malmaison, France;
J. LOPEZ, Axens, Salindres, France; and J. ROSS,
Axens, Princeton, New Jersey
Redefining reforming catalyst performance:
High selectivity and stability
Over the next 10 years, global demand for oil products is
forecast to increase at an average rate of 1.2%/yr through 2020.
Demand will be just below 100 million barrels per day of oil
equivalent (MMbdoe). However, this growth will not be dis-
tributed evenly around the world.
Developed markets. In the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) countries, reductions in
automobile fuel consumption will decrease oil demand at about
0.5%/yr, thus creating refining overcapacity. The situation is
completely different in nations with growing economies where
the gross domestic product (GDP) is increasing rapidly and the
population aspires to greater mobility. In these (non-OECD)
countries, demand for oil products will rise at 2%/yr and will
comprise 53% of world demand by 2020.
Developing markets. Concerning gasoline demand over the
next 10 years, strong growth is mainly expected in Asia (+2.1
MMbdoe), the Middle East (+0.3 MMbdoe), the Former So-
viet Union States (+0.37 MMbdoe) and Latin America (+0.6
MMbdoe), as shown in FIG. 1. In these regions of developing
and growing economies, continued strong growth is projected
for both gasoline and petrochemical polymers.
Petrochemicals. Worldwide demand
for polymers is growing at a significantly
higher pace than oil and gas production
(FIG. 2) and thus initiating large expan-
sions in olefins and aromatics complex-
es. Global paraxylene (PX) consump-
tion is forecast to exceed 40 million
tons (MMton) by 2015 compared to 32
MMton in 2011. The additional capacity
will be located in the Asia-Pacific region,
where PX demand is the highest, fol-
lowed by the Middle East. New aromatic
complexes, which include continuous
catalyst regeneration (CCR) reforming
units, will be required to meet the grow-
ing demand in polyester used for bottles
and textiles. To meet both aromatics and
gasoline demand, capacity additions for
light-oil processing are expected in these
regions at about 1.5 MMbpd in combined reforming, isomeri-
zation and alkylation capacity by 2020.
Catalytic reforming of naphtha is central in the production
of both high-octane fuel and aromatics to support both rap-
idly growing markets. Accordingly, there is a continued strong
demand for catalytic reforming units and improved catalysts
for new and existing units with a global installed capacity
over 13 MMbpd. The present annual worldwide market for
reforming catalyst represents several thousand metric tons for
fixed bed, cyclic and CCR markets.
CATALYTIC REFORMING FUNDAMENTALS
The role of catalytic reforming is fundamental in transform-
ing low-octane naphtha from crude oil and hydroprocessing
units into high-octane transportation fuels and aromatics. The
process involves transforming or reforming the paraffinic and
naphthenic molecules in the feed into high-octane aromatics
and branched components, and coproducing hydrogen need-
ed by other refinery units such as hydrotreaters and hydro-
crackers. This is accomplished over a heterogeneous catalyst
at elevated temperature and preferably low pressure according
to Le Chateliers principle.
North America
Global demand MMbdoe
2010 88.2
2020 99.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Other Asia Pacic
0.0
Unit: MMbdoe
Source: Axens estimates
Fuel oil
Distillate =
Diesel +
Kerosine/jet
Gasoline
Naphtha
0.4
0.8
Africa
-0.6
0.0
0.4
0.8
Middle East
-0.2
0.2
0.6
India
-0.2
0.2
0.6
Japan
-0.4
0.0
0.4
Europe
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0.0
0.2
0.4
China
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
FSU
0.0
0.2
0.4
Latin America
0.0
0.3
-0.6
FIG. 1. Worldwide incremental refinery product demand, 20102020.
Structure. Reforming catalysts are complex composites of a
highly active precious metal, platinum (Pt), to efficiently per-
form dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions, and an
active support or carrier to do complementary reactions. The
carrier is a high-purity alumina, with a specific pore structure,
designed to have an acid functionality, which can be moderated
by controlling the amount of chloride added to the support
and/or by the addition of promoters. Together, these metal
and acid components, as shown schematically in FIG. 3, form
a dual-function catalytic system capable of transforming low-
octane paraffins and naphthenes into high-octane gasoline, aro-
matics and byproduct hydrogen.
Functions. A simplistic representation of the main reactions
is shown in FIG. 4 and is linked to the metallic and acid func-
tions. The important dehydrogenation reaction to convert a
cyclohexane component into an aromatic is very rapid and
easily accomplished by the metal function of the catalyst.
For many feeds, in particular hydrocracker and coker derived
naphthas, a significant portion of the naphthenic compounds
contain cyclopentane elements that require the acid-catalyzed
reaction of ring extension or conversion into a cyclohexane-
bearing component for subsequent dehydrogenation on the
metallic sites. Ring extension and dehydrocyclization of paraf-
fins are all difficult, but they are critical functions that require
highly selective catalyst. If the acid and metal functions are not
tuned or properly balanced, undesirable side reactions do oc-
cur, leading mainly to acid cracking and hydrogenolysis, and,
to a lesser extent, dealkylation. In the reforming unit, these
side reactions result in the formation of light petroleum gas
(LPG), light gas and coke; all contribute to nonselective con-
version, catalyst deactivation by coke deposition, and light-
ends handling limitations.
Catalyst performance. The carrier and highly dispersed Pt
metal interact in a complex way to accomplish the desired re-
forming reactions. Performance of the catalyst is described in
terms of activity, selectivity and stability.
Activity is commonly defined in terms of temperature re-
quired to achieve a given objective; it is very similar to the def-
inition used to describe hydrotreating catalysts. A more active
catalyst is able to achieve the same product yield or severity
(gasoline octane or aromatics yield) at a lower reactor tem-
perature. For fixed-bed units, this means longer cycle lengths,
and, for CCR units, it means greater operating flexibility with-
in unit constraints.
Selectivity. The selectivity of the catalyst refers to the rela-
tive yield of desired product, such as C
5
+
reformate gasoline or
aromatics, compared to another catalyst operating with the same
severity target (RONc) under similar process parameters (pres-
sure, WHSV, H
2
/HC). As with most reaction systems, high se-
lectivity is desired, as long as the performance can be maintained.
Stability is a measure of how long a desired performance can
be maintained, and it usually reflects the coking tendency of the
catalyst as it affects both activity and selectivity. Higher stability
in a fixed-bed catalyst translates into a longer cycle length while
meeting process severity targetsi.e., more profitable onstream
time. For reforming units equipped with CCR, higher stability
means lower coking tendencies and slower regeneration cycles,
thereby adding operational flexibility. Such operating flexibility
provides opportunities to process more demanding feed, such
as higher endpoint feed or increased amounts of coker naphtha,
or an increased catalyst life resulting from a reduced regenera-
tion frequency. Higher catalyst stability can also allow reducing
the recycle gas requirement, thus lowering operating costs.
Carrier. The carrier formulation and method of metal im-
pregnation have a significant impact on the activity, selectivity
and stability of reforming catalysts. But this is only the begin-
ning of catalyst design and production technique.
PROMOTERS AND ENHANCED PERFORMANCE
In addition to the essential alumina carrier and Pt metal,
other elements known as promoters are introduced to influ-
ence, moderate or otherwise change the catalyst activity, se-
lectivity and stability. When combined effectively, the catalyst
system allows the refinery to optimize gasoline yield and cycle-
length or regeneration frequency to improve profitability and
operability within unit constraints.
G
r
o
w
t
h

I
n
d
e
x
0
1980
Polymer demand
Average
growth
rate
1990-05
Gas production
Oil production
GDP 5.6%
3.2%
1.5%
2.1%
1990 2000 2010 2020 2030
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
100
FIG. 2. Worldwide growth index in oil, gas and polymer sectors.
Cl
M
Al
HC
Al-Cl Acid site (Cl-Alumina)
M Metal site (ex. Pt)
HC Hydrocarbon interactions
Carrier
FIG. 3. Schematic of acid and metal sites on reforming catalyst.
Parafn and naphthene isomerization Dehydrocyclization
Hydrocracking/dealkylation
Metallic Acid (Cl-Al Carrier)
Hydrogenolysis/ring opening
Coke formationcomplex mechanisms
+
Pt
Pt
Pt
Pt
++
+
H
+
H
+
H
+
H
2
+ + H
2
CH
4
+ 3H
2
H
+
+
FIG. 4. Bi-functional reforming catalyst reactions. The desired reactions
are labeled in blue, with undesirable side-reactions labeled in red.
In fixed-bed reformers, promoters have been used for a
long time to increase the stability (onstream time) of the cata-
lyst by moderating the coke formation rate. Platinum-Rheni-
um (Pt-Re) catalysts allow for longer cycles or more severe
operation at thermodynamically favored lower pressure where
the coking tendency is greater. Additional promoters are of-
ten added to fine-tune the selectivity and stability of the cata-
lyst. There are trade-offs in performance and response to feed
contaminants, such as sulfur, with these promoted catalyst
systems. The challenge in catalyst development is to prepare
the right catalyst formulation to achieve the best performance
with the least degree of compromise. Traditionally, this results
in trading selectivity and introduces a selectivity-stability bar-
rier, as shown in FIG. 5.
Metallic and acid functions. The interaction between the
metallic and acid functions is complex, and optimizing the
relative importance of each function is fundamental to obtain
the desired balance of selectivity, activity and stability. With
the addition of other promoters, the permutations of interac-
tions increases, and the relative affinity of molecules to either
the metal or acid sites can be tuned for the desired effect, as in
the case of Pt-Re. FIG. 6 is a catalyst system with multiple met-
als and varying chloride content.
Identification of promising promoter combinations re-
quires extensive laboratory work and pilot testing. The ex-
act formulation, impregnation method and manufacture are
highly proprietary. Ultimately, the active site density and loca-
tion are critical to achieving both the desired metal and acid
functions. Moderating the acid site strength on the carrier is
one important way to limit cracking reactions, but this is only
possible if uniform deposition of the promoter(s) is achieved.
Equally important is the production trials where proprietary
techniques are applied to produce commercial product meet-
ing both the target process chemistry and particle mechanical
properties. Detailed particle analysis is performed to ensure
that the manufacturing method is effective, as shown in FIG. 7.
Uniform distribution of the carrier and metallic components
is important to ensure accessibility to these precious constitu-
ents and proper function. When the promoter is mainly on the
shell of the particle, the metal-to-acid function ratio is not con-
stant along the diameter. Thus, hydrocarbons diffusing into
the particle encounter a higher acid-to-metal ratio leading to
undesired cracking reactions. This reduces the intrinsic catalyst
selectivity and increases coke make. Moreover, when the pro-
moter is preferentially on the surface, it is more sensitive to con-
tamination, and its elution increases over time.
When the promoters are properly introduced, they remain
effective for the service life of the catalyst, even under harsh op-
erating conditions found in cyclic and CCR units. Earlier work
on promoted systems demonstrates that the promoters are ro-
bust and do not elute from the catalyst over many regeneration
cycles. FIG. 8 demonstrates excellent promoter retention, with-
in the analytical accuracy of the test, for various CCR catalysts.
BREAKING THE SELECTIVITY-STABILITY
BARRIER
When targeting specific catalyst performance, there are
many choices of promoters, method of impregnation and de-
sign of the carrier. Two fundamentally different catalyst lines
using unique design approaches were recently compared lead-
ing to a new family of catalysts that break the selectivity-stabili-
ty barrier commonly encountered in catalyst design.
Carrier
Cl
Al
Pt
Cl
Al
Z X
Y
Al Alumina carrier
Cl Chlorine
Pt Platinum metal
X,Y,Z Promoters
FIG. 6. Schematic of complex multi-promoted catalyst system.
S
e
l
e
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
Activity; stability
Low High
Low
High
Desired region
FIG. 5. Selectivity stability trade-off or barrier.
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Position, R/D
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

c
o
n
c
.
Cl
Pt
X
Y
Z
D
Cl
Pt
X
Y
Z
FIG. 7. CCR catalyst particle composition profile.
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
P
r
o
m
o
t
e
r

r
e
t
e
n
t
i
o
n
,

%
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Days onstream
FIG. 8. Commercial demonstration of promoter retention on CCR
reformer catalysts.
At the macroscopic level, the two lines of catalyst produced
similar results, but at the micro level, one exhibited better car-
rier production technique and the other better promoter char-
acteristics. There were clearly opportunities to optimize the
systems at the micro level to provide better performance. The
first products to be explored were the CCR catalysts as used in
severe, high-profit-margin aromatics units.
CCR catalyst formulations are built around a platinum-tin
(Pt-Sn) base system. This provides significantly greater selec-
tivity over Pt-only catalyst, but requires low pressure for best
results and continuous regeneration to overcome the greater
coke formation tendency. Additional metals, other than Pt
and Sn, can be added as promoters to further optimize the
catalyst systems. The importance of promoter selection can
be demonstrated in FIG. 9.
Pilot-plant testing results are shown in FIG. 9A of the C
5
+
reformate yield selectivity over time for four catalyst systems:
Pt+Sn (bimetallic), tri-metallic 1, tri-metallic 2 and optimized
Quad-metallic. In this batch pilot testing strategy, the unit is
operated at a constant RON target to reflect either a constant
conversion toward aromatics for aromatics application or a con-
stant octane in the case of gasoline application. As the test pro-
gresses, catalyst selectivity is measured by the reformate yield
and stability by the rate of reformate-yield decay over time as
the fixed batch of catalyst age.
During the test, coke is progressively deposited on the cata-
lyst and the required temperature to maintain the target RON
increases (FIG. 9B). Low coke formation and catalyst deactiva-
tion is indicated by a slow increase in reactor temperature to
maintain the target RON. A small slope of the temperature
curve indicates high catalyst stability, while the duration of
the C
5
+
plateau and the slow rate of yield decay is the comple-
mentary indicator of the C
5
+
stability of the catalyst. From a
commercial unit perspective, the latter part of the test, where
temperature increases sharply to maintain severity, defines the
ultimate catalyst stability (cycle life) within unit constraints.
Looking more closely at FIG. 9, the two tri-metallic systems
show initial selectivity performance higher than the base Pt-
Sn, but the performance falls over time as a result of the lower
stability (higher coke yield), shown in FIG. 9B, for these sys-
tems. When a fourth metal is properly introduced, the quad
metallic or simply Quad system, a superior yield selectivity
and equal stability is attained relative to the Pt-Sn system. In
this case, the selectivity-stability barrier is broken, and stabil-
ity does not suffer to attain superior selectivity. Significantly,
this improvement was obtained while reducing the Pt loading
on the catalyst by 20%, thereby offering a substantial cost re-
duction for our customers.
When the optimized carrier and promoter system were ap-
plied to the low-density CCR catalyst platform, a new Quad
catalyst was developed. FIG. 10 shows the performance of this
new system. The reformate yield is increased by 0.8 wt%; hy-
drogen increased by 0.1 wt% (50 scf/bbl), while the activity
and stability are slightly improved.
50 75 100 125 150
50 75 100 125 150
Time
Tri-metallic Quad-metallic
480
490
500
510
520
W
A
B
T
,

C
50 75 100 125 150
2.90
2.95
3.00
3.05
3.10
3.15
3.20
H
2
88.0
88.4
88.8
89.2
89.6

C
5
+
A
B
C
FIG. 10. Optimized quad-metallic catalysts comparison: A) reformate
yield, B) hydrogen yield, and C) activity/stability.
87
88
89
90
C
5
+
,

w
t

%
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time
A
Pt+Sn
Tri-metallic 1
Quad-metallic
Tri-metallic 2
FIG. 9A. Reformate yield vs. promoter system, and 9B. Stability and coke yield vs. promoter system.
Coke 7 wt %
Coke 6.5 wt %
Coke 6 wt %
485
490
495
500
505
510
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Time
Time
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

C
Pt+Sn
B
Tri-metallic 1
Quad-metallic
Tri-metallic 2
Bringing energy and the environment into harmony.
RELIABILITY ISSUES NEVER SLEEP.

WE MAKE SURE YOU CAN.
At Dresser-Rand, we know any unscheduled interruption of a clients downstream operation is
simply unacceptable. Thats why we make engineering reliability a primary focus. From one of
the worlds largest hydrogen compressors (pictured at right) to our single-stage steam turbines,
Dresser-Rand downstream solutions are easy to maintain. But for us, its not just about selling
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assured were there for you.
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52
ENHANCED PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
CCR moving bed catalysts also require careful attention
to the physical properties to ensure mechanical strength and
surface-area stability over many regeneration cycles, which is
indicative of catalyst life and chlorine retention.
Accelerated aging tests have been performed on the new
Quad-metallic catalyst to compare surface area retention to con-
ventional Pt-Sn bimetallic catalyst. FIG. 11 shows the surface area
decline over time following such test protocols. A conventional
Pt/Sn catalyst reaches its end-of-life surface area (approximate-
ly 140 m
2
/g) relatively quickly, whereas the new Quad catalyst
retains a higher surface area in the range of 160 m
2
/g. Higher
surface area is associated with improved regeneration (Pt redis-
persion) and better chloride (C1) retention. As a consequence,
the new Quad catalysts will exhibit longer life, reduced salt de-
posit in downstream units, and lower chloride content in the
hydrogen-rich gas, resulting in longer chloride trap life.
Put in quantitative terms, the better surface area retention and
intrinsically higher chloride retention resulting from a new quad
catalyst with a proprietary promoter system results in 30% lower
chloride injection over the life of the catalyst vs. standard Pt/Sn.
The mechanical properties of the catalyst are also impor-
tant in CCR applications. Unlike fixed-bed catalysts, which are
mainly concerned about crush strength to endure the static
load forces within a fixed bed, CCR catalysts are spherical and
designed to resist the dynamic forces from slow movement in
the catalyst beds to pneumatic lifting between reactor and re-
generator. These forces lead to particle attrition and fines pro-
duction. Although the fines or broken pieces of the catalyst are
captured within the system, they can lead to fouling of screens
and increase pressure drop.
Highly developed CCR catalysts are more robust to ensure
extended service over 79 years. New formulations are subject-
ed to large-scale circulating test units to accurately represent
commercial conditions and the forces leading to attrition. The
new carrier and multi-promoted catalyst systems have proven
to be as robust as previous-generation catalysts with an excel-
lent track record of low particle attrition.
NOTES
As a licensor of catalytic reforming and aromatics chain technologies, and
supplier of catalysts for these units, Axens is focused on continuous improvement
in both process technology and catalyst development. The recent acquisition of
the Criterion catalytic reforming catalyst business in 2011, including production
facilities and know-how, provided a unique opportunity to compare, contrast and
build upon two different approaches to reforming catalyst development and pro-
duction. New proprietary formulations and production techniques have emerged
from this union resulting in breakthrough catalysts for both fixed-bed and moving-
bed CCR units that provide superior selectivity without compromising activ-
ity and stability. Re-engineered fixed-bed catalysts are under development and
on-track for release in 2013. These new products promise the benefits of higher
selectivity and reduced cost through promoter selection and loading optimization.
PIERRE-YVES LE GOFF is Axens senior technical manager for
reforming catalysts and project leader for catalyst development.
Dr. Le Goff started his career as a research engineer at Rhodia,
where he specialized in catalyst support design and process
development. Dr. Le Goff holds an engineering degree from the
cole de Chimie de Mulhouse, an MBA from Universit de la
Sorbonne in Paris, and a PhD from Universit de Haute-Alsace.
JAY ROSS is a senior technology and marketing manager for
Axens covering the field of transportation fuels including FCC,
catalytic reforming, isomerization and biodiesel production. He
has over 30 years of experience in the refining and petrochemical
industry including process engineering design, R&D, licensing
and technical assistance. Mr. Ross is a graduate from Princeton
University with a degree in chemical engineering.
JOSEPH LOPEZ is a development and industrialization
engineer in Axens production plant of adsorbents and
catalysts in Salindres, France. He is responsible for the
development and scale-up of reforming supports and
catalysts. He started his professional career as a research
engineer at Rhodia working mainly in the field of
heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. Dr. Lopez holds an
engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Suprieure de Chimie de
Montpellier and a PhD in catalysis from the Universit Claude Bernard of Lyon.
Quad
20 m
2
/g
Bi-metallic
120
140
160
180
200
220
0 100 200 300 400
Time
S
p
e
c
i
c

s
u
r
f
a
c
e

a
r
e
a
,

m
2
/
g
Bi-metallic
Quad-metallic
FIG. 11. Catalyst surface area aging test, quad metallic vs. bimetallic Pt-Sn.
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MERICAT J
Special Report
C. A. CABRERA and M. A. SILVERMAN,
Ivanhoe Energy, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Upgrade heavy oil more cost-efficiently
Heavy petroleum resources are becoming significantly more
important as the availability of light, sweet crude oil continues
to decline (FIG. 1). Heavy-oil resources are difficult to extract,
transport and refine. Producers are focused on heavy-oil regions
around the world, such as Venezuela, the Amazon basin and
Canadas oil sands. A new technology can be used in the field to
economically upgrade and significantly improve the properties
of heavy oil by reducing viscosity, increasing gravity and remov-
ing contaminants (FIG. 2). The authors discuss the economic
drivers and benefits now available with this new method.
BACKGROUND
Demand for refined crude oil products continues to be
strained by the large and continually growing demand from
developing economies, particularly from economic growth in
Asia Pacific nations. Although forecasts vary widely, there is
a new optimism over recent hydrocarbon resource discover-
ies in North America (mainly in the US) and South America
(Brazil). However, the price of crude oil will continue to be
most influenced by the worlds largest producers that have
spare capacity. To alleviate high prices due to ever increasing
demand, new sources of petroleum supplies will be required.
A largely untapped source of heavy crudes can be used to sig-
nificantly augment supply. As shown in FIG. 1, there are substan-
tial reserves of heavy oil, up to 2 trillion barrels, which consti-
tutes nearly half of the remaining recoverable crude oil supply.
1
Advanced technologies deployed across all phases of the
supply chain will be needed to improve the economics and
feasibility of producing and refining heavier crude oils. A
novel technology has been proven to economically uplift the
value of heavier crudes in the field. The uplift, or incremental
margin captured per barrel of crude processed, is dependent
on the quality of the heavy crude upgraded and ranges from
$19/bbl to $32/bbl.
UPGRADING HEAVIER CRUDE OILS
BREAKING THE PARADIGM
Historically, the petroleum industry supply chain has been
divided into three discrete sectors: production, transportation
and refining. Typically, crude is produced and made ready for
transportation by production operations, and it is transported
via pipeline or ship, train or truck to more sophisticated and
complex refineries. Once at the refiner, the crude oil is refined
into transportation fuels and other high-value finished prod-
ucts. The downstream sector of the hydrocarbon industry con-
tinues to optimize processing schemes to take advantage of the
lowest-cost crude oil, of which a significant portion of the op-
portunity crudes are heavy oils.
Production of heavier crudes strains the present supply chain.
These crudes include those found in the Canadian oil sands, the
Orinoco Belt in Venezuela, Mexico, the Middle East, Africa, and
other locations. The API of such crudes ranges from 6 API to
16 API, and the resources can be located onshore or offshore.
Production. Supply-chain constraints include the need to heat
the heavy oils in situ (underground) to reduce the viscosity so
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
O
i
l

s
u
p
p
l
y
,

t
r
i
l
l
i
o
n

b
b
l

Conventional
Heavy
Global recoverable oil Oil produced to date
FIG. 1. Global Oil recoverable resources.
FIG. 2. Commercial demonstration facility in Bakersfield, California.
that the oil will flow to the surface. After produced crude oil
is dewatered, it must be diluted with a lighter hydrocarbon so
that the crude oil can flow in a pipeline and be transported to
the refinery gate. These diluents are typically naphtha or light
oils, and diluents can make up 40% of the blended heavy-oil
stream, thus adding significant cost to production operations.
Transport. Transporting diluent to the production facilities
requires dedicated pipelines. Operators incur the costs to build
and operate the diluent delivery facilities, as well as suffer the
decrement in lost pipeline capacity that could be otherwise
used to transport additional valuable crude.
Processing. Once at the refining center, the heavy oil is typi-
cally processed through a delayed coking unit where approxi-
mately 30% to 35% of the residual oil is converted to coke.
In summary, several factors are important in considering
heavy oils as a feedstock for producing transportation fuels:
1. Heavy oils require significant energy for extraction from
the reservoir
2. A diluent source is required to allow their transportation
3. Large refinery investments are necessary for processing
heavy oils and a significant fraction of the feed is converted to
a low-value byproductcoke.
Novel process. A new process has been proven to overcome
many of the production, transportation and refining challenges
of heavy oils. It is energy efficient. This process produces the
energy in situ that is required to heat the heavy crudes to bring
the oil to the surface. This process selectively removes the least
valuable of the components (resid) of the heavy oil. This pro-
cess significantly reduces the heavy crudes viscosity and elimi-
nates the cost and use of diluent. By eliminating most of the
residual oil, the synthetic crude oil (SCO) is much easier to
transport and more amenable for processing in refineries.
Excess energy can be generated and made available for export
or for extracting the heavy oils from the reservoir. The process
consumes only 8 vol% of the heavy oil in the process, thus leav-
ing up to 92 vol% of the heavy crude oil produced for sale and/or
refining. The resultant SCO can be effectively processed in most
modern refineries. The heavy-oil upgrading (HOU) units can be
designed at scales, as low as 10,000 bpd to 30,000 bpd. The pro-
cess is ideal for modularization and access to remote locations.
Economics. By installing an HOU unit at the production site
or midstream in the supply chain, significant economic returns
can be realized. FIG. 3 illustrates the relative values of SCO at the
refinery gate for the Canadian Athabasca Bitumen case as com-
pared to other crude oils.
2
In this example, the value of SCO
crude, as determined by its convertibility into refined products,
is $108/bbl vs. $82/bbl for the native unprocessed Canadian
bitumen. This represents a $26/bbl uplift in value through the
use of the HOU process.
In addition to uplifting the value of crude oil, the HOU pro-
cess also produces energy for field operations and eliminates the
reliance on diluent for transportation. This significantly lowers
operators production costs thus improving the economics of
heavy-oil projects.
Shift in operations. The new paradigm is that the energy indus-
try has the flexibility to add a new technology that can optimize
the supply chain. By selectively rejecting carbon economically
and efficiently at the production site, vs. at the refinery, substantial
economic returns are possible, thus breaking the old paradigm.
The existing constraints that impose a significant economic
penalty to the commercialization of heavy oils can be removed.
The new process is highly scalable and cost-effective. For the
first time, a new field-integrated approach allows carbon to be se-
lectively and economically rejected closer to the production site.
Models. A variety of business models have been used to deter-
mine the best applications of this novel and unique technology.
Attractive returns on investment (> 20%) and a net present
value (NPV) of $200 to $500 million are achievable depending
on the installation, geography and type of heavy crude oil to be
upgraded and converted into SCO.
TECHNOLOGY PRINCIPLES
The HOU process uses a circulating transport bed of hot
sand to quickly heat the heavy feedstock and convert it to
a lighter, more valuable product. FIG. 4 shows an overview of
the HOU process flow.
3
The underlying breakthrough of this
FIG. 3. Example of crude oil price seriatimCanadian crude oils.
method is that the asphaltenes present in heavy oil residue are
dispersed and deposited on the sand in a thin film. This is fa-
cilitated by the high sand-to-oil ratio and efficient feed injection
zone mixing. The process requires less than 2 seconds total time
from feed in to product out. The very short residence time is
at the heart of the process. It allows conversion of the heaviest
residue into high yields of lighter, more valuable products with
a minimum production of unwanted byproduct coke and gas.
The heaviest fractions of the liquid feed are converted to
coke, which is directly deposited on the circulating sand par-
ticles. In addition, a small portion of the residue feed converts
to noncondensable product gas. The coke-covered sand is re-
generated in the reheater where the thin coke layer is burned
off, thus providing the energy necessary to support the up-
grading reactions and to also supply substantial excess energy
that can be captured via high-pressure (HP) steam generation.
Product gas is collected and consumed as fuel gas in fired
heaters and steam boilers that support the HOU units inter-
nal energy demand while coproducing HP steam. This pro-
cess generates enough excess energy to supply virtually the
entire steam requirement for a typical steam-assisted gravity
drainage (SAGD) project in Canada. Alternatively, in regions
where steam is not needed for oil recovery, the excess energy
can be converted into electricity. A typical 20,000-bpd HOU
plant generates an energy equivalent of a 40-MW power plant.
Proven processing principles. The HOU process is me-
chanically very similar to a fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC)
unit, a common conversion process found at the center of
every modern refinery.
4
At present, there are over 400 FCC
units in operation today, and FCC has been commercialized
globally since the 1940s. Although configured similarly to an
FCC unit, the HOU process requires fewer pieces of equip-
ment and is noncatalytic. Result: It is less complicated and
easier to operate than an FCC unit.
Products and yields. The properties of the HOU product
SCO, such as API, viscosity, metals, sulfur and nitrogen, are
significantly better than the original heavy oil feedstock. This
processing method nearly eliminates the residual oil (material
boiling above 1,000F) originally present in the feed and yields
a SCO product that can be processed in refineries without pro-
ducing large quantities of undesirable heavy fuel oil and requir-
ing additional residue conversion capacity.
Unlike coking, this process does not accumulate large vol-
umes of coke byproduct, which must be stored or transported
offsite. The produced coke is consumed by the process itself
and converted into onsite energy. Also, unlike other upgrading
technologies, which require hydrocracking and/or hydrotreat-
ing, the HOU process does not require hydrogen addition to
achieve the desired improvements in product quality. This rep-
resents a significant capital cost advantage in comparison with
traditional technologies due to the reduced scale of the pro-
cessing site and the fewer pieces of equipment required.
TABLE 1 summarizes the product yields using Athabasca bi-
tumen as a feedstock in the HOU process. Note: Low residual
oil in the SCO (5.8 vol
l
%) as well as the very high yield of vac-
uum gasoil (VGO) plus distillates (78.9 vol
l
%) TABLE 2 is an
example of product properties that list the significant improve-
ment in API, metals, viscosity, etc.
MIDSTREAM APPLICATION
In many locations, producers are faced with declining rates
of local light crude oil supplies that have traditionally been used
as blendstock to facilitate delivery of heavy oil to markets. At the
same time, these producers are also relying on increased volumes
of heavier oil production to satisfy future export demand. These
TABLE 1. HOU product yield
Athabasca bitumen SCO
Naphtha, vol% 0.1 3.1
Kerosine, vol% 0.7 4.2
Distillate, vol% 12.1 21.7
VGO, vol% 34.8 57.2
Residuum, vol% 52.3 5.8
Coke, wt% 10.1
Gas, wt% 4.9
TABLE 2. HOU feed and product properties
Feed Product
Gravity, API 8.5 18.8
Viscosity, cst@40C 23,000
+
23
Sulfur, wt% 5.02 2.91
Nitrogen, wt% 0.66 0.4
Ni+ V, ppm 280 42
Resid, 1,000F
+
52 6
FIG. 4. Process flow diagram of the HOU process.
FIG. 5. Midstream configuration to upgrade heavy oil into lighter,
transportable SCO and to produce electrical power.
diverging production trends lead to crude oil quality that cannot
meet pipeline and customer-contract specifications, or result in
the market value of the heavy blends being so severely depressed
due to residual oil conversion limits at the refineries that the
heavy oil can no longer be economically produced. Countries
and companies are facing declining rates of benchmark crudes,
and are seeking ways to replenish supplies of export volumes
with crude oil that can meet historical quality specifications. As
illustrated in FIG. 5, HOU processing methods can offer unique
opportunities to these producers via midstream solutions.
This process can be strategically located at a site where heavy-
oil production streams are gathered, such that the producer can
eliminate or reduce the need for blending with large volumes of
higher-value crude oil. The heavy oil is received from the pro-
ducer, and upgraded in a location convenient to both the pro-
ducer and the transportation terminal operator. Excess energy
from byproduct gas and coke is converted onsite into electrical
power that can be used to supply local electricity demands. Up-
graded SCO is forwarded downstream to the transportation ter-
minal, where it can be directly transferred to sales or utilized as
a lighter diluent for blending with heavy production. The small
footprint of the processing unit, coupled with the lower installa-
tion cost, is an attractive midstream solution.
COMMERCIAL ENGINEERING
Following development, scale-up and testing operations, the
designing and engineering of full-scale HOU facilities for com-
mercial heavy oil projects is underway. The basic engineering
and design (BED) package has been completed for Ivanhoe En-
ergys Tamarack Athabasca Oil Sands Project. This phase estab-
lished a complete deployment strategy, including the technical
design basis, capital cost estimate and project execution strategy
for the first commercial unit. Key technical design deliverables
were finalized, such as process and instrumentation diagrams
(P&IDs); equipment, instrument, and materials purchase and
installation specifications; and three-dimensional (3D)CAD
modeling of plant equipment locations, piping networks, civil
and structural supports (FIG. 6).
Modularization. A key component of the project execution
strategy is modularization, and it has been fully incorporated
into the cost estimate and the design plan based on extensive
project experience in Canada. The capital cost estimate for
Tamarack has been developed to Class 3 (AACE) accuracy. This
estimate was completed at the end of the front-end engineering
and design (FEED) phase with competitively priced equipment
and installation costs based on physical material-takeoffs gener-
ated by the 3D CAD model.
The BED, FEED and value-engineering efforts undertaken
for the Tamarack project will serve as a basis for future con-
ceptual and feasibility studies. A conceptual engineering study
and accompanying cost estimate were recently completed for a
Latin American midstream project. This commercial engineer-
FIG. 6. Footprint of a commercial HOU facility.
FIG. 7. Feedstock test facility at the Southwest Research Institute
in San Antonio, Texas.
In 2005, Ivanhoe Energy acquired the petroleum
rights of a patented pyrolysis process that is based on a
hot transported bed (typically, sand) to produce re-
newable liquid fuels and chemicals from wood residues
and other solid biomass. Being forward-thinking, Ensyn
investigated the applicability of applying a hot transport-
ed bed as a possible way to upgrade heavy oil in situ. The
process, HOU, was studied extensively during early pilot-
plant work, and then validated by successful operation of
a 1,000-bpd commercial demonstration facility (CDF)
in Bakersfield, California (FIG. 2). Testing of heavy crude
oils in the CDF proved the scalability of the HOU pro-
cess, and it also provided key design information for the
first commercial BED package and FEED of Ivanhoe En-
ergys Tamarack project in Alberta, Canada.
In 2008, Ivanhoe Energy commissioned the feedstock
test facility (FTF) at the Southwest Research Institute
in San Antonio, Texas (FIG. 7) to further improve the
process for a wide range of heavy oil feedstocks. The
FTF was designed to model the commercial HOU pro-
cess, but at a reduced capacity, making it feasible to test
smaller batches of heavy crude oils rapidly. Equipped
with a state-of-the-art process control and measurement
system, the FTF maximizes the quality of data collected,
validating technology advancements being made to this
novel process and supplying critical data for commercial
design. Ivanhoe Energy has completed technology devel-
opment and commercial engineering. The process will
not be available for licensing.
Technology Development
History
ing work has demonstrated that the HOU process is economic
at feed capacities as low as 10,000 bpd to 30,000 bpd, and the
typical Class 4 cost estimate for a plant ranges from $12,000/
bbl to $20,000/bbl of capacity, depending on scale, feedstock
properties and configuration.
CASE HISTORY
This novel process is a powerful way to monetize heavy oil
resources either at the source deployed to a production field,
or in the midstream application. The key value to this novel
process is that the SCO produced is of great value to refiners.
Such value is principally the result of:
Low residual oil content (6 wt%10 wt%)
Higher API (1620).
A recent study by a world-class independent consulting
firm determined the market value of HOU SCO in several dif-
ferent refining centers. This study was done using proprietary
refinery modeling and optimization tools (linear programs or
LPs) that are representative of regional refining centers and
can be used to determine the value of a new crude oil when
brought into the overall feedslate of that refining center.
The premise of the evaluation was to simulate penetration
of HOU-produced SCO into the refining centers overall crude
diet, and allow the regional LP modeling tool to optimize the
refinery operations with the new crude slate. Product volumes
and prices were held constant, such that the optimization pro-
gram could adjust unit operations and the suggested market
price for the new crude. The program iterates through the mod-
el calculations until the refining center model is able to achieve
the same gross product volumes and net margins (profits) with
the new crude slate, as was realized from the original crude slate.
The result of this analysis is the determination of the SCO val-
ue, benchmarked against a crude oil with a known market price.
Modeling of HOU SCO was evaluated at market penetra-
tion levels of 1% to 5% to ensure that the refining models were
adequately reflective of the expected market price of the HOU
SCO. This procedure provided certainty that, on aggregate,
the refineries in a regional center will be able to realistically
introduce the SCO in significant volumes and that the market
value determined by the study is realistic and achievable. Two
strategic HOU SCO products for modeling were selected:
Expected commercial SCO product from the future
Tamarack Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada.
Penetration of the Tamarack SCO was modeled into two key
refining centers. The first center evaluated was the Midwest
refining region of PADD 2 due to the geographical proximity
to Canada. The second center was Singapore, which serves as
a proxy for the Asia Pacific region.
The other SCO modeled was the product of HOU pro-
cessing of Boscan crude oil from Venezuela. The Boscan SCO
was modeled into the PADD 3 center, as well as into the Singa-
pore refining center.
The results of this study determined that the HOU SCO
will be valued on a par with Brent price, with the differences
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dependent on a combination of the refining center selected
and the feed quality. HOU SCO has a very low content of re-
sidual oil and a very high VGO content, such that it makes an
excellent feedstock for refineries with sufficient hydrotreating
capability to manage the SCOs high sulfur and low hydrogen-
to-carbon ratio. The penetration studies show that refining
capacity available for processing SCO exists in significant
amounts for all regions, thus supporting these price levels
since the calculated SCO values were independent of market
penetration within this range.
The pricing forecasts for heavy oil and SCO generated in
this study, together with the CAPEX and OPEX estimates,
were used to generate the expected economic returns for
sample HOU projects. For example, projects with capacities
of 20,000 bpd to 30,000 bpd are expected to provide IRRs
between 15% and 30% depending on location specifics, feed-
stock quality and various design considerations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Michael Hillerman for his assistance in preparing this
manuscript and also Hilary McMeekin and Jerry Schiefelbein for reviewing the
manuscript.
LITERATURE CITED
1
International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2011, (excludes Kerogen oil).
2
Independent study with world class consulting firm.
3
Complete HTL process video available at www.ivanhoeenergy.net.
4
Cabrera, C. A. and M. Silverman, Bringing heavy crudes to market, International
Refining and Petrochemical Conference 2012, 12-14, June 2012, Milan, Italy.
EDITORS NOTE
The article is a revised and updated version from an earlier presentation at the
International Refining and Petrochemical Conference 2012, 1214 June 2012, at
Milan, Italy.
Ivanhoe Energy uses technologically innovative methods to significantly
improve the development of heavy oil and other oil and gas assets. Primary among
these is Ivanhoes proprietary, patented heavy-oil upgrading process called HTL, or
Heavy-to-Light.
CARLOS A. CABRERA is the executive chairman of Ivanhoe
Energy, a publicly traded oil and gas company. Prior to his
appointment, he served as the founding president and CEO of
the National Institute of Low Carbon and Clean Energy (NICE)
based in Beijing, China. Mr. Cabrera was also a 35-year
employee with UOP, holding posts as the president/CEO and
then chairman. He is a distinguished associate to the world
energy consulting firm FACTS and serves on the board of directors of GEVO, a
publicly traded biotechnology company, and the Gas Technology Institute, a
US-based leading research, development and training organization. Mr. Cabrera
has been given many awards, including being inducted into the University of
Kentucky Engineering Hall of Distinction and the Honeywell Corp. 2008 Senior
Leadership Award. He earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from the
University of Kentucky and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
DR. MICHAEL SILVERMAN is executive vice president and chief
technology officer of Ivanhoe Energy. Dr. Silverman joined
Ivanhoe in 2007 from Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) and is
responsible for all technical aspects of Ivanhoe Energys
proprietary heavy oil upgrading processHTL (heavy-to-light).
This includes interfacing with leading engineering firms in the
design of commercial HTL installations, technology
development and intellectual property management. Dr. Silverman has almost 30
years of experience in technology development and management, including the
commercialization and marketing of new technologies, and is a leading expert in
the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes. Prior to joining KBR, Dr. Silverman
was the manager of technology development for Stone & Webster, Inc. His earlier
experience included the management of fluid catalytic cracking for Tenneco Oil
Co., and an assistant professorship in chemistry at Rutgers University.
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Special Report
W. BAADE, S. FARNAND, R. HUTCHISON and K. WELCH,
Air Products and Chemicals, Allentown, Pennsylvania
CO
2
capture from SMRs: A demonstration project
In June 2010, the US Department of Energy (DOE) se-
lected a gas-specialty company to receive American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding to design, construct
and operate a system to capture CO
2
from two steam methane
reformers (SMRs) located within the Valero refinery in Port
Arthur, Texas. The CO
2
removal technology will be retrofitted
to the SMRs, which produce hydrogen to assist in the manu-
facture of petrochemicals and the making of cleaner burning
transportation fuels by refinery customers on the Gulf Coast
hydrogen pipeline network.
The necessary commercial agreements were signed to pro-
ceed with a planned carbon capture and sequestration (CSS)
project in Port Arthur, Texas. The refinery is providing the
additional land and rights-of-way required for the project, in
addition to supplying utilities to support the project. Mean-
while, purified and compressed CO
2
will be supplied for injec-
tion into enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects in Texas. CO
2

for EOR is beneficial because it:
Increases energy security by increasing recoverable oil
Creates economic opportunity for the government via
increased tax revenues and for individuals via jobs created in
domestic oil fields.
Provides environmental benefits from capturing, pro-
ductively using and storing CO
2
, rather than emitting it into
the atmosphere.
Beginning in late 2012, approximately 1 million tons of
CO
2
annually will be recovered and purified. The DOE is
providing a total of $284 million or approximately 66% of the
over $400 million project. This includes partial reimburse-
ment of operating costs through the end of the demonstration
period (September 30, 2015).
Objectives and scope. The main objective for this CO
2

capture project is to demonstrate an advanced technology
that captures and sequesters carbon dioxide emissions from
large-scale industrial sources into underground formations. In
order to be eligible for supplemental funding from the DOE, it
was necessary for applicants to meet certain DOE objectives,
which are itemized in TABLE 1.
In addition, the DOE evaluated projects on a cost-per-unit
basis of CO
2
captured and sequestered, as well as on the magni-
tude of future potential commercialization. This project will pro-
vide real-world data illustrating the true costs of CO
2
capture and
sequestration. It was one of only three projects to receive Phase
2 funding from the DOE, which covers construction and operat-
ing and maintenance costs during the demonstration period.
Current Port Arthur site. A new 180-mile-long pipeline is
being constructed to connect to existing Louisiana and Texas
hydrogen pipeline systems. This integrated pipeline system will
unite over 20 hydrogen plants and over 600 miles of pipelines
to supply the Louisiana and Texas refinery and petrochemical
industries with more than one billion cubic feet of hydrogen per
day. The Port Arthur SMRs and the CO
2
capture project will be
part of the combined pipeline system (FIG. 1).
The Port Arthur site was selected to host the CO
2
capture
facility based on economies of scale of capturing CO
2
from the
two SMRs on the premises. The proximity of the SMRs ac-
commodated a common drying and compression system that
significantly reduced capital when compared to the alternative
of isolated drying and compression arrangements.
Three
Rivers
Corpus Christi
Texas City
Lake Charles
Baton Rouge
Geismar
LOUISIANA
Sweeney
TEXAS
Houston
Ingleside
New Orleans
H
2
plants USGC
Capacity 1.2 + Bscfd
Pipeline length 600 miles
Port
Arthur
Hydrogen pipeline
Ofgas H
2
plant
SMR/POx hydrogen
Gulf of Mexico
FIG. 1. The CO
2
capture project will be part of a hydrogen pipeline
system on the US Gulf Coast.
CO
2
transport
via pipeline for
EOR and storage
CO
2
removal
purication,
compression H
2
power generation export steam
H
2
power generation export steam
FIG. 2. 1 million tons of CO
2
per year will be captured from the
two SMRs. The CO
2
will be used for enhanced oil recovery.
Process summary and equipment. FIG. 3 is a block flow
diagram for the project that illustrates how the CO
2
capture fa-
cility will be integrated within the existing SMRs. The facility
will utilize a proprietary-designed CO
2
vacuum swing adsorp-
tion (VSA) system that will be retrofitted to each of the two
existing SMR trains (PA-1 and PA-2). Each VSA unit is de-
signed to remove more than 90% of the CO
2
contained in the
reformer pressure swing adsorption (PSA) feed gas (FIG. 4).
Sweet syngas (CO
2
removed) will be returned from the CO
2

VSA system to feed the existing SMR hydrogen PSAs. CO
2

produced from the VSA units will be compressed and dried in
a single train located at PA-2.
VSA system (PA-1 and PA-2). CO
2
containing syngas
from the steam-methane reformer cold process condensate
separator is routed to the VSA system. The CO
2
contained in
the process gas of the PA-1 and PA-2 SMRs will be removed
with multiple VSA units. Each VSA unit includes a series of
vessels filled with adsorbent to selectively remove one or
more components from the feed gas. In this case, the feed gas
is the raw hydrogen stream from the SMR plants upstream of
the existing hydrogen PSA.
The VSA cycle is similar to the hydrogen PSA cycle. Ad-
sorber vessels are fed with gas at high pressure, causing se-
lective adsorption of feed components onto the adsorbent
bed. The gas that is not adsorbed by the bed is a hydrogen-
rich stream and is sent to the H
2
PSA for further purification.
Then, the vessel undergoes a series of pressure equalizations,
with vessels at lower pressures before a CO
2
product is drawn
off. There are two unique steps in the VSA cycle because the
product is now CO
2
at high purity. The first is that a vacuum
pump is needed to draw off the CO
2
product (FIG. 5) to sub-
atmospheric pressures in an evacuation step. The second is
a rinse step in which blowdown gas is taken from a lower
pressure bed, compressed, and fed to a higher pressure bed.
The rinse and evacuation steps are the keys to achieving a
high purity CO
2
product.
CO
2
compressor and dryer (PA-2). Raw CO
2
exits the two
trains of the VSA systems after cooling and is combined at the
suction of the first stage of an eight-stage, integrally-geared cen-
trifugal compressor. Each of the first five compressor stages is
followed by an intercooler, which also includes an integral sepa-
rating section to remove condensate, which is mainly water.
Condensate from the first five intercoolers is combined in
a common vessel and piped to the existing plant waste sump.
A portion of the PA-2 condensate can be sent to the tri-eth-
ylene glycol (TEG) dryer system, where it serves as water
makeup, thereby reducing the overall water requirements of
the plant by recycling.
Existing
SMR
New
VSA
New
compressor/dryer
Natural gas
Port Arthur 2
Utilities
HP steam export
Export hydrogen
Export CO
2
Water
Wet CO
2
Syngas
Syngas
LP steam
Syngas (CO
2
removed)
Purge gas
Power export
Existing
PSA
Existing
SMR
New
VSA
Natural gas
Port Arthur 1
Utilities
HP steam export
Export hydrogen
Wet CO
2
Syngas
Syngas
LP steam
Existing stream
New stream
Revised stream
Syngas (CO
2
removed)
Purge gas
Power export
Existing
PSA
FIG. 3. Block flow diagram of Port Arthur SMRs and integrated CO
2

capture facility.
FIG. 4. VSA trains are used to remove more than 90% of the CO
2

contained in the reformer PSA feed gas.
TABLE 1. Certain objectives had to be met to receive
DOE supplemental funding
DOE objectives Satisfying criteria
Compliance with American
Recovery Act objectives
(jobs and economic recovery)
The CO
2
capture facility will
require construction jobs to
complete the retrot and will
require additional operators
to manage the facility on an
ongoing basis
Capture at least 75% of the CO
2

from a treated industrial gas stream
comprising at least 10% CO
2
by
volume that would otherwise be
emitted to the atmosphere
Capturing greater than 90% of
the CO
2
from two SMR hydrogen
production process streams that
contain greater than 15% CO
2

Project size shall be a large-scale
industrial CCS project producing
1 million tons of CO
2
/yr
The CO
2
Capture Facility is
designed to capture 1 million tpy
of CO
2
CO
2
must be sequestered in
underground geologic formation
including oil-bearing formations
This project will sequester the
CO
2
in existing EOR elds.
EOR projects are conducted in
reservoirs that have trapped oil
and thus are excellent candidates
to trap CO
2
during EOR operations
Monitoring, verication and
accounting (MVA) of the
sequestered CO
2
The EOR administrator will
monitor, verify and account for the
CO
2
sequestered with this project
Proposed technologies for CO
2

capture and sequestration are
ready for demonstration
at commercially relevant scale
CO
2
capture technology using
a VSA system will be used in this
project.
CO
2
exiting the fifth stage intercooler is sent to a TEG dry-
ing system, where water is removed. After drying, the CO
2
is
sent to the sixth stage section, where the final compression oc-
curs in stages 6, 7 and 8. After final cooling following the eighth
stage, the CO
2
exits the battery limits and enters the CO
2
pipe-
line at the required pipeline pressure of over 2,000 psig.
TEG dehydration units have routinely been used for CO
2

dehydration for EOR applications, as well as being the standard
technology for natural gas drying. TEG has a very high affinity
for water, allowing very high removal, and a low volatility, mini-
mizing solvent losses into the CO
2
product.
The wet CO
2
exits the after cooler following the fifth stage of
compression and is contacted with lean dry TEG in the tray or
structured packing section of the contactor tower, where water
vapor is absorbed in the TEG, thus reducing its water content.
The dry CO
2
exiting the top of the absorber is heated vs. the
incoming lean TEG and sent to the final three stages of CO
2

compression, where the CO
2
is raised above the critical pres-
sure of 1,071 psia. The TEG content of the dry CO
2
is very low.
The wet rich TEG exiting the contactor is depressurized
and flows to the regeneration system. The wet rich TEG is
then preheated and flashed in a horizontal separator to remove
much of the dissolved CO
2
and other light gases. The flash gas
is sent back to the compressor so that the contained CO
2
is not
lost. The flashed water-rich TEG liquor is cleaned in charcoal
and sock filters and then heated with lean TEG from the regen-
erator column. The rich heated TEG is then fractionated in the
regenerator column and heated in the reboiler, boiling off the
absorbed water vapor. The lean TEG exiting the bottom of the
regenerator is cooled with rich TEG and then pumped back
to the absorber. The reboiler is directly fired with natural gas.
Carbon sequestration system description. The CO
2
for
EOR will be transported to the site via the pipeline, and will
be injected via a CO
2
injection pump station in the field con-
nected to 14 CO
2
Class II injection wells.
The commercial monitoring program will track the CO
2
in-
jected, the CO
2
recycled and the performance of the reservoir
and wells in retaining CO
2
. The research program will collect
time-lapse data testing alternative and possibly high-resolu-
tion techniques for documenting that the CO
2
is retained in
the injection zone and in the predicted flood area, and that
pressure is below that determined to be safe. A report will be
FIG. 5. VSA vacuum blowers are used to recover CO
2
from the VSA
beds and deliver it to the CO
2
product compressor before offsite
transport via pipeline for use in EOR.
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prepared evaluating the results of the MVA program, revised
model runs showing model match, comparing the effective-
ness of the commercial program to the research program in
documenting effectiveness and permanence of storage.
CO
2
export pipeline. A 13-mile pipeline will be constructed
in conjunction with this project to connect the CO
2
capture
facility with the Green pipeline. The pipeline is an existing 24-
in. pipeline that runs from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to the
Hastings Field, south of Houston, Texas (FIG. 6).
Current status. The CO
2
capture project is being executed
in three phases and is proceeding right on schedule. Phase 1
established the definitive project basis and has been complet-
ed. Phase 2 covers the design and construction of the proj-
ect and Phase 3 entails operation of the project through the
end of the demonstration period. The project is currently in
Phase 2. The project is further broken down into three sub-
projects: CO
2
capture facility, CO
2
export pipeline and MVA.
The CO
2
capture facility and CO
2
export pipeline are being
executed as a single project, with the MVA portion subcon-
tracted to Denbury.
For the CO
2
capture facility, all of the major equipment
purchases and detailed design have been completed. The de-
tailed design for work outside the battery limit (OSBL) has
been awarded and is complete. The OSBL construction work
was kicked off in the spring of 2011. For work inside the bat-
tery limit (ISBL), piling began in August 2011 and founda-
tions began October 2011; both have been completed. Me-
chanical construction began January 2012, and electrical and
instrumentation construction began June 2012.
The units are being brought online in sequence to facilitate
early CO
2
capture and to allow for commissioning learnings
from PA-2 to be incorporated into PA-1. Commissioning ac-
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9
9
9
9
R
e
n
t
a
l
S
o
lu
t
io
n
s
Phase 9 (Conroe)
130 MMbbls
Texas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Arkansas
Phase 5 (Delhi)
36 MMbbls
Phase 4
31 MMbbls
Phase 3 (Tinsley)
46 MMbbls
Phase 2
83 MMbbls
Phase 6 (Citronelle)
26 MMbbls
NEJD
pipeline
Green
pipeline
Sonat MS
pipeline
Delta
pipeline
Free State
pipeline
Phase 1
82 MMbbls
Phase 7
(Hastings area)
70-100 MMbbls
Phase 8
(Oyster Bayou)
20-30 MMbbls
Summary (MMbbls)
Proved 148
Probable
3
339
Produced-to-date 58
Total
3
545
FIG. 6. Map showing Denburys 300+ mile long Green pipeline, which
was designed to carry natural and anthropogenic CO
2
to oil fields in
Texas and Louisiana. Source: Denbury 2011 Annual Report.
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tivities are planned for September 2012, with CO
2
product be-
ing introduced in the pipeline December 2012.
Forward schedule and plan for the future. The PA-2
CO
2
capture unit (including CO
2
drying and export com-
pression) is scheduled to be onstream in late 2012 and the
PA-1 CO
2
capture unit is scheduled to be onstream in early
2013. The demonstration period will continue until Septem-
ber 30, 2015.
Over the past 25 years, the industry has transitioned from
amine and potassium carbonate liquid absorption processes
to PSAs for two reasons. The first is because of increased hy-
drogen purity requirements for refining processes. The second
involves the increased thermal efficiency afforded by steam
export to refineries. Capturing CO
2
from existing hydrogen
plants with PSAs is more challenging because the thermal ef-
ficiency is already highly optimized. VSAs are advantaged for
retrofits because they can be more easily incorporated with
minimal impacts to hydrogen supply to the existing refinery.
This commercial scale demonstration of VSA technology pro-
vides an additional option for recovering significant volumes
of CO
2
for EOR.
Despite a shortage of CO
2
for EOR, the existing CO
2
mar-
ket does not support current CO
2
capture economics without
external funding, which is why the DOEs support is essential.
Technical and economic results from this project will be key in
determining the most effective path to commercialization.
NOTE
Air Products and Chemicals received the ARRA funding to supply
CO
2
for EOR.
WILLIAM F. BAADE is the global marketing manager for oil, natural gas
and transport fuels in Air Products Tonnage Gases, Equipment and Energy
Division. He has over 35 years of industrial experience in various sales, business
development and marketing assignments. Mr. Baade holds a BS degree
in chemical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and graduated
in 1976. He obtained a MBA degree from Lehigh University in 1982.
SARAH G. FARNAND is a market manager with Air Products & Chemicals.
Her current responsibilities include analyzing the global oil and natural gas
markets with an eye to identifying opportunities for Air Products in the fields
of EOR, GTLs, LNG, refining and alternative fuels. She holds a BA degree in
economics from the College of William and Mary and a MBA in finance and
strategy from the University of Maryland.
ROBERT L. HUTCHISON joined Air Products & Chemicals in 1979 and is
currently the senior project manager for the Port Arthur CO
2
recovery project.
Mr. Hutchison has held various engineering, operations and commercial
positions during his 33 year career at Air Products and has distinguished
himself in the management of large, complex industrial gas projects. He holds
a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois and a MBA
degree from Lehigh University.
KEN WELCH joined Air Products & Chemicals in 1996 and is currently the HyCO
business development manager. Mr. Welch was the principal investigator for
the CO
2
capture project, working as the asset manager and primary contact
for the DOE. Mr. Welch has held various commercial positions during his Air
Products career and has distinguished himself in the business development of
large, complex HyCO projects. He holds a BS degree in chemical engineering
and marketing from Pennsylvania State University.
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Special Report
M. LIPPMANN and L. WOLSCHLAG,
UOP LLC, a Honeywell Co., Des Plaines, Illinois
Increase FCC processing flexibility
with improved catalyst recycling methods
The present refining market is highly dynamic, which em-
phasizes the need for greater operating flexibility in the fluid
catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. Continued development in
FCC technology is a high priority. For example, a new technol-
ogy allows refiners to optimize catalyst circulation rates in the
riser, independent of the unit heat balance. This capability en-
ables improved conversion, product selectivity and emissions
control while simultaneously reducing operating costs. This
article will discuss how an advanced FCC catalyst recycling
process technology increases the flexibility of the FCC unit to
shift between different processing objectives while lowering
costs and maximizing product values to meet the challenges
faced by the global refining industry.
ADVANCED FCC CATALYST
RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY
The basic concept of the advanced FCC catalyst recycling
process technology is to recycle catalyst from the FCC reactor
stripper back to the inlet of the riser. Modern catalyst systems
are inherently more coke tolerant than their older counter-
parts. Thus, they can accrue appreciable quantities of coke
and still retain a substantial fraction of base activity. Recycling
of catalyst from the reactor stripper in modern FCC units rep-
resents an additional activity component being added to the
riser. A new term, carbonized, has been adopted to describe
this catalyst. At present, six advanced FCC catalyst recycling
process units are in operation, with an additional four units
being engineered. FIG. 1 shows the layout of an FCC unit with
the a catalyst recycling technology.
Catalyst recycling and heat balance. In the traditional
FCC process, the catalyst circulation rate is fixed by the heat
balance. Under these conditions, the catalyst circulation only
increases in response to a greater heat demand by the reactor.
Therefore, in a conventional FCC system, the extent that re-
generator catalyst to oil ratio (cat/oil) increases is expressed as:
Cat/oil
Regen
=
Coke yield H
Regeneration
Cp
Catalyst
(T
Regen
T
Reactor
)
Process changes that increase the regenerator catalyst circu-
lation rate and raise the coke make required to satisfy the al-
tered heat balance include:
Increasing riser temperature
Decreasing feed preheat
Increasing regenerator catalyst cooler duty
Injecting a heat load into the riser (steam, water, light
cycle oil)
In contrast, carbonized catalyst recycle from the reactor strip-
per via the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process standpipe is
not constrained by the heat balance as it does not significantly al-
ter the total coke yield. Because catalyst is circulated from the riser
outlet, down to the riser inlet, and back up to the riser outlet start-
ing and ending at the same temperature, little enthalpy change oc-
curs in the loop. Result: There is practically no impact upon the
coke yield. Thus, the riser cat/oil can now be expressed as:
Cat/oil
Riser
=
Coke yield H
Regeneration
Cp
Catalyst
(T
Regen
T
Reactor
)
Cat/oil
Recycling
The advanced FCC catalyst recycling process impacts the
heat balance by increasing coke on the catalyst circulating
FIG. 1. Equipment diagram of the advanced FCC catalyst
recycling process.
to the regenerator. The coke is defined as the difference in
coke content between the regenerated catalyst and spent cata-
lyst. As the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process circula-
tion rate is increased, the coke increases due to the recycling
catalyst particles completing additional passes through the
riser prior to regeneration. Because regenerator temperature
is a strong function of coke, the increase in coke from the
advanced FCC catalyst recycling process increases the regen-
erator temperature and decreases the regenerator cat/oil ratio,
as shown in TABLE 1.
Despite the decrease in regenerated cat/oil, this FCC cata-
lyst recycling technology enables a refiner to increase the total
riser cat/oil ratio to levels considerably higher than a tradi-
tional FCC unit while simultaneously increasing the regenera-
tor temperature. Reducing feed contaminants through severe
hydrotreating reduces the coke in the unit, which cools the
regenerator. Such conditions present a significant challenge for
refiners on maintaining the regenerator hot enough to control
carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxide (NO
x
) emissions
below acceptable levels. The advanced FCC catalyst recy-
cling process can provide an alternative solution to traditional
methods of maintaining high regenerator temperatures, and it
simultaneously enhances unit performance through increased
total riser cat/oil ratio. TABLE 2 shows an economic compari-
son between using the direct-fired air heater (DFAH) and the
advanced FCC catalyst recycling technology to increase regen-
erator temperature by an equivalent amount.
While both approaches will achieve a higher regenerator
temperature, firing the DFAH will result in a lower riser cat/oil
ratio and, consequently, a loss of conversion and margin. Con-
versely, the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process increases
1,100
1,150
1,200
1,250
1,300
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
F
e
e
d
-
c
o
n
t
a
c
t
-
z
o
n
e

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

F
Recycle ratio
FIG.2. Advanced FCC catalyst recycling process cat/oil vs.
feed contact zone temperature.
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0 50 100 150

d
r
y

g
a
s

y
i
e
l
d
,

w
t

%
feed-contact-zone temperature, F
FIG. 3. Pilot-plant feed contact zone temperature vs. dry-gas yield,
1,000F riser outlet temperature.
TABLE 1. Reactor/regenerator response to change in the
advanced FCC catalyst recycling process cat/oil
Advanced FCC catalyst recycling
cat/oil
0.0 5.0 7.5
Regen cat/oil 8.2 7 6.5
Riser cat/oil 8.2 12 14
Advanced FCC catalyst recycling
ratio
0.0 0.7 1.2
Coke 0.6 0.7 0.8
Regen temperature 1,260 1,300 1,320
TABLE 2. Evaluation of DFAH vs. advanced FCC catalyst
recycling technology for regenerator temperature control
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
Base DFAH New catalyst
recycling
Feedrate, bpd 30,000 30,000 30,000
Advanced FCC
catalyst recycling
C/O
0.0 0.0 6.2
Riser C/O 8.2 6.2 12
Fuel gas to air heater,
wt% feed
0.0 1.1 0.0
Regenerator, F 1,260 1,340 1,350
Conversion, wt% Base (3.0) 2.1
Gross margin, $/bbl Base (1.35) 0.86
Gross margin, MM$/yr Base (14.4) 8.6
Product pricing source: Global Petroleum Market Outlook 2011, Purvin and Gertz
TABLE 3. ECAT physical properties
ECAT A ECAT B ECAT C
Ace micro activity test (MAT) 74 66 64
UCS, A 24.267 24.292 24.27
Total surface area, m
2
/g 150 115 149
Zeolite surface area, m
2
/g 61 40 93
Matrix surface area, m
2
/g 89 75 56
Micropore volume, cc/g 0.028 0.019 0.043
V, ppm 500 6,620 610
Ni, ppm 520 4,160 970
ZSM-5 No Yes Yes
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Johnson Screens

Centerpipes and
Outer Baskets
High resistance to buckling,
compression, collase and burst
efforts
Screen construction resistant to
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Controlled open area and
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Uniform annulus between baskets
Excellent media retention and
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High volume fow
Long service life
VESSEL INTERNALS
FOR RADIAL FLOW PROCESSES
the riser cat/oil ratio, resulting in a conversion increase and, ul-
timately, a gain in margin, all without consuming additional fuel
gas. In addition, the higher regenerator temperatures improve
burn kinetics and allow the FCC operator to lower the excess
oxygen in the regenerator while simultaneously reducing CO
and NO
x
emissions.
FCC catalyst recycling process and dry-gas yields. The
advanced FCC catalyst recycling process can also improve prod-
uct yields. The catalyst recirculating through the advanced FCC
catalyst recycling process standpipe enters a proprietary mixing
chamber at the base of the riser at temperatures several hundred
degrees Fahrenheit below the regenerated catalyst temperature.
When these two catalyst streams are properly blended, the re-
sultant catalyst stream contacting the feed in the injection zone
of the riser is at a significantly lower temperature, thus reducing
thermal reactions that produce unwanted dry gas and coke. FIG.
2 illustrates how the reactor-feed-injection zone temperature
decreases as a function of new FCC catalyst recycling process
cat/oil ratio, while FIG. 3 graphs how the dry-gas make decreases
in response to lowering the feed-injection-zone temperature, as
measured in the circulating riser pilot plant.
Catalyst activity retention as a function of coke. While
the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process technology in-
creases riser cat/oil ratio, the impact of coke deposition on
catalyst activity must be understood to predict the benefits
of the higher catalyst circulation rate. To determine the rela-
tionship between coke deposition and catalyst activity, testing
was conducted on several commercially available equilibrium
catalysts (ECATs). TABLE 3 summarizes the physical proper-
ties of three test catalysts.
ACE pilot-plant runs were then conducted for the three
catalysts to determine activity retention as a function of car-
bon content on the catalyst surface. Results are shown in FIG.
4. These data highlight a similar activity decline for catalysts A
and B and a more pronounced decline for catalyst C. Significant
differences in activity retention as a function of coke are not
always obvious from the catalyst physical properties. For in-
stance, while ECATs B and C have similar MAT activities, they
do not have similar activity retention properties. Therefore, it
is important to conduct activity retention tests when optimiz-
ing a catalyst for FCC catalyst recycling process. This testing
enables the determination of the effective cat/oil response in the
new FCC catalyst recycling system, which can be defined as:

Cat/oil
Effective
= Cat/oil
Regen
+Cat/oil
RecycleCat

[1(Coke AR
C
)
K
]
where AR
C
is the slope of the catalyst activity retention as a func-
tion of coke determined in the ACE unit and K is a constant.
To determine constant, K, the three example catalysts were
tested in the circulating riser pilot plant by increasing the ad-
vanced FCC catalyst recycling process cat/oil and maintain-
ing a stable regenerator cat/oil. FIG. 5 shows the testing re-
sults. These data illustrate that the conversion response to an
increase in the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process cat/
oil is best achieved by ECATs A and B, which have better AR
C

properties relative to ECAT C.
FCC CATALYST RECYCLING
PROCESS YIELDS BENEFITS
Once the activity retention properties of the catalyst and the
operating severity of the unit are understood for the advanced
FCC catalyst recycling process, the remainder of the product
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

A
C
E

c
r
a
c
k
i
n
g

a
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
Carbon on catalyst, wt%
y = -0.55x
y = -0.31x
ECAT A
ECAT B
ECAT C
y = -0.30x
FIG. 4. Relative activity vs. coke for three ECATS.
0
1
2
3
4
5
0.0 0.5 1.5 1.0

c
o
n
v
e
r
s
i
o
n
,

w
t
%
Recycle cat ratio
ECAT A
ECAT B
ECAT C
FIG. 5. CRU conversion response to new FCC catalyst recycling process
ratio for three ECATs.
TABLE 4. Impact of the advanced FCC catalyst recycling
process on product yields for ECAT A
Advanced FCC catalyst
recycling cat/oil
0.0 5 7.5
Regen cat/oil 8.2 7 6.5
Riser cat/oil 8.2 12 14.0
Efective C/O 8.2 9.5 10.2
Dry-gas yield, wt% Base (0.4) (0.5)
LPG yield, wt% Base 1.6 2.2
Gasoline yield, wt% Base 0.9 1.1
LCO yield, wt% Base (0.8) (1.3)
CSO yield, wt% Base (1.3) (1.8)
Coke yield, wt% Base 0.1 0.2
Conversion, wt% Base 2.1 3.1
A Tristar Global Energy Solutions Company
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yields can be estimated from the calculated increase in effective
cat/oil ratio. For ECAT A, the full product yield shift in re-
sponse to a change in advanced FCC catalyst recycling process
cat/oil is represented in TABLE 4. This table highlights that while
riser cat/oil increases purely as a function of the new FCC cata-
lyst recycling process valve output and the unit heat balance,
the effective cat/oil is the primary driver of yield shifts on the
FCC unit applying the advanced catalyst recycling method.
To confirm the theoretical pilot-plant data, it is important to
observe the conversion shifts in the commercial advanced FCC
catalyst recycling process units that have optimized the catalyst
formulation to take advantage of this new catalyst recycling tech-
nology. FIG. 6 shows the conversion response for an increase in
the advanced FCC catalyst recycling process for three separate
commercial units. These data were filtered for constant feed
quality and riser outlet temperature to isolate the impact of the
new catalyst recycling process ratio on conversion. The commer-
cial results are consistent with the pilot plant yields, thus demon-
strating an approximate 2 vol% to 3.5 vol% yield improvement
over the range of FCC catalyst recycling process ratio.
Improved riser design for revamps. In the traditional FCC
catalyst recycling process design, regenerated catalyst from
the regenerator is combined with the carbonized catalyst from
the reactor stripper at the base of the riser, using a proprietary
mixing chamber, as shown in FIG. 7. For new units, the mixing
chamber can be easily incorporated into the FCC design. How-
ever, incorporating the advanced mixing chamber in a revamp
can prove challenging with regard to physically fitting the new
chamber within the existing configuration without major struc-
tural modifications. To install the advanced FCC catalyst recy-
cling technology as part of a revamp scenarios, the redesign can
also include a proprietary mixing chamber and riser, as shown
in FIG. 8. While the new mixing chamber would extend below
grade, the redesigned mixing riser design fits within the existing
configuration without major structural changes or modifica-
tions to the feed injector elevations.
Need for flexibility in FCC operations. An advanced FCC
catalyst recycling technology has demonstrated, in both pilot-
plant and commercial testing, a unique ability to manipulate
overall riser cat/oil ratio to increase the effective riser catalyst
activity gain outside the traditional limitations of the unit heat
balance. This added flexibility enables FCC operators to gain a
competitive advantage by offering improved yield selectivities,
enhanced operational controls, and reduced operating costs.
In addition, a new mixing riser design allows many refiners to
revamp their existing units to gain the full benefits of improved
FCC catalyst recycling process technology.
NOTES
An upgraded and revised presentation from the AFPM Annual Meeting, March
45, 2012, San Diego California.
MATTHEW LIPPMANN is a group leader in Honeywells UOP FCC alkylation and
treating development group in Des Plaines, Illinois. His responsibilities include
advancing the FCC technology platform and managing the FCC pilot-plant
areas. Prior to working for UOP, he was a technical services group leader at the
HOVENSA LLC refinery in St. Croix and was the process engineering supervisor for
the FCC, alkylation and delayed coking areas. Mr. Lippmann earned a BE degree in
chemical engineering from Drexel University.
LISA WOLSCHLAG is the senior manager of Honeywells UOP FCC, alkylation and
treating development department located in Des Plaines, Illinois. In this role, she
is accountable for improving and advancing UOPs FCC, alkylation and treating
technology portfolios. Ms. Wolschlag has 20 years of experience with UOP that
has included research and development, field operating service, technical service
and process development. She holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from
University of Illinois and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago.
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
C
o
n
v
e
r
s
i
o
n
,

w
t
%
Recycle cat ratio
Unit X
Unit Y
Unit Z
FIG. 6. Commercial unit conversion response to advanced FCC
catalyst recycling process cat/oil.
Regen
catalyst
Spent
catalyst
FIG. 7. Side view of advanced mixing chamber on an FCC unit.
Recirculation
standpipe
Regenerated
standpipe
Mixing riser
Proprietary mixing
chamber El. 0
Reactor
riser
FIG. 8. Revamp comparison of an advanced mixing chamber vs. a
proprietary mixing riser design.
Linde Process Plants, Inc.
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Special Report
R. KOLODZIEJ, Wood Group Mustang, Houston, Texas;
and J. SCHEIB, Gevo Inc., Englewood, Colorado
Bio-isobutanol: The next-generation biofuel
The success of any new industry lies in its ability to inno-
vate and grow. Future growth in renewable fuels may require an
evolution from first-generation products, such as ethanol and
biodiesel, to next-generation products, such as isobutanol.
Isobutanol, a form of biobutanol, has many outstanding
characteristics that allow it to be used in a variety of ways:
As isi.e., as a solvent or as a gasoline blendstock
Converted, through known processes, to a variety of hydro-
carbons for use in the petrochemical and/or refining industries
In existing production, distribution, marketing and end-
user assets.
This article highlights the technology, feedstocks and mar-
ket growth opportunities for isobutanol, with a focus on poten-
tial new market offerings in 2012.
Technology pathway for bio-isobutanol. The specialized
production process for bio-isobutanol is fermentation paired
with an integrated separation technology. This approach, de-
veloped over the past seven years, has been successfully proven
at bench scale, at a pilot plant, and at a 1 million-gallon-per-year
(MMgpy) demonstration plant. In May 2012, the worlds first
commercial, bio-based isobutanol production plant was started
up in Luverne, Minnesota, with a capacity of 18 MMgpy.
Bio-isobutanol fermentation is very similar to the existing
ethanol process. Ethanol plants can be repurposed to make
isobutanol relatively easily and cost-effectively, with two key
modifications:
1. Modified biocatalyst. Isobutanol is a naturally occur-
ring product of the fermentation process, found in many items
such as bread and scotch whiskey; however, its commercial
use to date has been limited. However, through innovations in
microbiology and biochemistry, traditional yeasts have been
modified, making possible a much higher selectivity in pro-
ducing isobutanoli.e., turning up the yeasts ability to make
isobutanol while also limiting the ethanol production pathway.
2. Unique proprietary separation. As the isobutanol is
produced, a stream is taken from the fermentation broth where
the isobutanol is removed, and the remaining broth is returned
for further conversion. This has the effect of keeping the isobu-
tanol concentration below the biocatalyst toxicity level, but it
allows for improved conversion.
With these two additions to existing facilities, it is clear how
the project completion time and CAPEX to make bio-isobu-
tanol can be significantly lower than those for the construc-
tion of a greenfield plant. A plant conversion can nominally be
20%40% of the CAPEX of a greenfield bio-isobutanol plant.
As fermentation ethanol plants have been shut down or under-
utilized due to recent poor economics (e.g., the US ethanol
subsidy has been repealed, and the regulation blend wall has
effectively been reached), the ability to repurpose these plants
to isobutanol becomes an attractive opportunity.
Upon fermentation plant conversion, the plant capac-
ity will be approximately 80% on a volumetric product-yield
basis (compared to ethanol), but comparable on an energy-
FIG. 1. Conversion of a fermentation ethanol plant to an isobutanol plant in Luverne, Minnesota.
equivalent basis (isobutanol contains more energy than etha-
nol). Therefore, the utility requirements and OPEX are com-
parable to ethanol production (which, again, limits CAPEX
requirements).
There is over 20 billion gpy (Bgpy) of existing fermenta-
tion ethanol capacity in the world, located mostly in North and
South America. A leading company in bio-isobutanol is con-
verting some of these ethanol plants to isobutanol production.
That companys business model is based on the flexibility to
buy ethanol plant assets, form a joint venture with the current
plant owner for the conversion, or to license the isobutanol
production technology to ethanol plant owners.
FIG. 1 illustrates an isobutanol plant conversion. The before
photo shows a facility in Luverne, Minnesota as a 22-MMgpy
ethanol plant. The after photo depicts the plant as it was re-
purposed to produce up to 18 MMgpy of isobutanol.
Feedstock. One companys proprietary fermentation process
is designed to convert feedstocks of all types: grain, sugarcane,
cellulose and/or nonfood-based materials. Almost anything that
can be converted into a fermentable sugar can be used, whether
it is a traditional C
6
sugar, such as glucose, or a C
5
sugar, such as
pentose. The issue of feedstock selection is one of economics,
but technology can be put into yeasts to allow them to digest C
6

or C
5
sugars. In fact, at bench scale, these yeasts have produced
cellulosic isobutanol using a mixed stream of C
5
and C
6
sugars.
Bio-isobutanol has versatility. One of the main reasons that
converted plants have such good projected economics is that
bio-isobutanol is versatile as a platform molecule. In the chemi-
cals arena, it can be sold as a solvent product (e.g., paints) and/
or converted into materials such as butyl rubber, paraxylene
(PX) and other derivatives for use in market applications such
as tires, plastic bottles, carpets and clothing. (This conversion
is accomplished through dehydration to isobutylene.) For fuels
applications, isobutanol can be blended as a low-vapor-pressure
gasoline component and/or used as feedstock to make other
transportation fuels (e.g., iso-paraffinic kerosine for use as bio-
jet) or other renewable products (e.g., renewable heating oil).
Bio-isobutanol as a gasoline blendstock. Bio-isobutanols
properties as a gasoline blendstock can best be understood by
comparing some of the blending properties to ethanol and al-
kylate. TABLE 1 summarizes some key aspects in the comparison.
Compared to ethanol, isobutanol has a much lower Reid va-
por pressure (RVP) and about a 30% higher energy content. The
blend octane of isobutanol is high as well (although slightly low-
er than ethanol). Isobutanol also has a lower oxygen (O
2
) con-
tent than ethanol, so more isobutanol can be blended into gaso-
line for a given O
2
content. Greater blend volume, plus higher
energy content, means more renewable identification number
(RIN) generation. See TABLE 2 for a RIN comparison summary.
Unlike ethanol, which is fully miscible in water, isobuta-
nol has limited water solubility (about 8.5%). Isobutanol also
does not cause stress corrosion cracking in pipelines. These
factors result in major advantages in terms of blending logis-
tics. Isobutanol can be blended as a drop-in renewable fuel at
the refinery and shipped in pipelines to fuel terminals via ex-
isting infrastructure, which prospectively eliminates the need
for segregated tankage or pipelines. This also affords refiners
the opportunity to once again produce a finished-specification
gasoline vs. a sub-octane blendstock for oxygenate blending.
Isobutanol overcomes the regulation blend wall limitation
of ethanol blending. Isobutanol blended into gasoline up to
12.5 vol% produces a substantially similar gasoline at a 2.7% O
2

content. For refiners, this is a conservative first step for blend-
ing, and it generates 16.25 RINs per gallon of finished product.
E10 has 3.5 vol% O
2
, which is the currently accepted limit of O
2

content by automobile engine manufacturers. For this same 3.5
vol% O
2
, a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waiver
(211b) exists that would potentially allow isobutanol blending
of up to 16.1 vol%, yielding 20.93 RINs, or more than twice the
number of RINs as E10 for an equivalent O
2
content.
Bio-isobutanol can be an advanced biofuel. To account
for the relative amounts of renewable energy benefit, each bio-
fuel generates a RIN based on its energy content. There are basi-
cally four types of RINs: renewable (e.g., first-generation, corn-
based ethanol), biomass-based diesel, cellulosic and advanced.
2007
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Domestic ethanol
Brazilian ethanol
Biodiesel
Pyrolysis oil, FT liquids, green diesel
EISA renewable
EISA advanced
2013 2014
Year
M
i
l
l
i
o
n

b
a
r
r
e
l
s

p
e
r

d
a
y
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
FIG. 2. Projected RIN-gallons vs. EISA targets.
TABLE 1. Gasoline blendstock comparison: Ethanol vs. isobutanol
Ethanol Isobutanol Alkylate
Blend octane (R + M) 2 112 102 95
Blend RVP (psi) 1822 45 45
O
2
content 34.7 21.6 0
Net energy (% of gasoline) 65 82 95
Fungible in infrastructure No Yes Yes
TABLE 2. Gasoline blend RIN generation summary
Volume in
gasoline O
2
content
RIN-gal per
100 gal of
nished product
E10 10% 3.5% 10
E15 15% 5.2% 15
Isobutanol
(substantially similar
to gasoline)
12.5% 2.7% 16.25
Isobutanol
(EPA waivers allowing
O
2
content of 3.5 wt%)
16.1% 3.5% 20.93
Advanced RINs are generated with the production of ad-
vanced biofuels with an approved US EPA pathway (i.e., rated as
having at least a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas footprint vs.
baseline hydrocarbon fuel). Since bio-isobutanol has a higher
energy content than ethanol, bio-isobutanol generates 1.3 RINs
per gallon, vs. first-generation ethanols 1.0 RINs per gallon. In
addition, whereas todays corn ethanol is precluded from quali-
fying as an advanced biofuel, bio-isobutanolproduced with
a green energy source (e.g., biomass-fired combined heat and
power) has the potential to qualify for advanced RIN status.
FIG. 2 summarizes the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)
projected gallons for implemented renewable and advanced
biofuels, as compared to the requirements stated by the US
Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. As
can be seen, there is a projected shortfall of advanced biofuels.
Bio-isobutanol offers some flexibility for meeting the RFS2
targets with domestically produced renewable fuels, as op-
posed to relying on sugarcane ethanol imports from Brazil,
which is the main biofuel pathway currently approved by the
EPA for advanced status.
Bio-isobutanol as renewable feedstock for biojet. Tak-
ing the bio-isobutanol and processing it further to isoparaffinic
kerosine (IPK) biojet has been demonstrated at a hydrocarbon
plant in Silsbee, Texas. The process is outlined in FIG. 3.
Producing IPK biojet from bio-isobutanol involves three
sequential steps:
1. Dehydration of the renewable isobutanol to isobutylene
2. Oligomerization of the isobutylene to mostly trimers/
tetramers to produce C
12
and C
16
molecules
3. Hydrogenation of olefins to IPK biojet.
These processes present opportunities for retrofits of exist-
ing, underutilized refining/petrochemical assets, in some cas-
es. Commercialization and integration into an existing process
plant should be straightforward.
Depending upon economics, the overall process also has
the flexibility to make more or less isooctene and/or isooc-
tane product streams, which make good renewable gasoline
blending components. It should be noted that both renewable
gasoline blendstocks (isobutanol and isooctene) are not tied
to crude oil processing, so these are not likely to have crude oil
volatility effects. Again, isobutylene, isooctene and isooctane
can also be drawn off for the production of other renewable
petrochemical products (e.g., PX).
This biojet process has been demonstrated in a small
(10,000-gallon-per-month-capacity) unit for several months.
The alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) product has been sold to the US
Air Force as part of the Alternative Fuels Certification Office
(AFCO) process. FIG. 4 shows a picture of the demonstration
plant in Silsbee, Texas.
IPK process steps. There are three steps in the IPK produc-
tion process.
Dehydration. Step 1 is the dehydration of isobutanol to iso-
butylene and water. The reaction is endothermic, with a rela-
tively low operating pressure (< 200 psig) and temperatures of
around 550F650F. The operating requirements are similar to
semi-regenerative catalytic reformingolder technology that
has since been upgraded in refineries and petrochemical plants.
Therefore, idled semi-regenerative reformers are possibilities for
retrofits to develop the dehydration step. The catalyst for the de-
hydration has been fully commercialized in similar applications.
The dehydration reaction can be efficiently designed to al-
most complete conversion, minimizing the downstream com-
plexities of the separation of the butylene and water, and the
effluence of the water.
It should be noted that isobutylene can be a hydrocarbon
feedstock for other refining and petrochemical processes.
Since the isobutylene is renewable, any resulting RINs would
carry forward to any hydrocarbon product covered by RFS2.
Oligomerization. Step 2 is the oligomerization of the isobu-
tylene to dimers (isooctene), trimers (C
12
olefins) and tetramers.
There is some measure of flexibility in the amount of each olefin
produced. Since IPK jet fuel primarily requires C
12
C
16
olefins,
dimers are recycled to yield more trimer/tetramer product.
Oligomerization is an exothermic reaction, with operating
conditions, heats of reaction, and catalysts that closely resem-
ble MTBE production units and/or catalytic polymerization
units; these units are possible retrofit candidates for this oligo-
merization step. In fact, after MTBE was banned in the US,
many MTBE units were converted to make isooctene (dimer).
These units could be used with a minor retrofit. Depending
upon economics, the dimer could be used for gasoline blend-
ing and/or further processing options.
Hydrogenation. Step 3 is the saturation of the olefin prod-
uct from the oligomerization section. This is also a well-known
and practiced operation in refineries and petrochemical plants.
The main reaction is the conversion of the trimers/tetramers
to IPK. The operating conditions are mild, and they have rela-
Oligomerization Hydrogenation
Hydrogen
Isooctene
(if desired)
Isooctane
(if desired)
Dehydration
Isobutylene IPK Isobutanol
FIG. 3. Isobutanol-to-IPK jet fuel process flow diagram.
FIG. 4. IPK biojet demonstration plant.
tively low operating pressure and temperature, and modest
space velocity requirements. The hydrogenation reaction is
exothermic and occurs with hydrogen consumption in the pro-
cess, so some recycle and cooling design details are correlated
with the reactor bed design to ensure proper heat removal and
control of the reaction.
Olefin hydrogenation is well-known and practiced, so there
may be an opportunity to retrofit existing assets, since lower-
pressure hydrogenation units have been idled as hydrogena-
tion requirements have become more severe. The operations
learning curve is somewhat established already, as per catalyst
preparation, unit startup, normal plant operations, etc.
Biojet properties. IPK biojet has some properties that en-
hance its value. The freeze point is low (80C), while oxi-
dation stability is high. Starting from isobutanol, a renewable
IPK would also generate RINs at the rate of 1.6 per gallon,
based on the process. The current specification limit for a jet
fuel blend with synthetic blending components is a maximum
of 50%. For a 1:1 blend with petroleum jet fuel, 80 RINs are
generated for every 50 gallons of IPK that are used to produce
100 gallons of blended jet product.
Scoping economics of biojet. One important aspect of un-
derstanding how bio-isobutanol can be a versatile alternative
biofuel is the nominal economic incentive for its conversion
to jet fuel. Preliminary scoping economics were developed for
making biojet from renewable isobutanol feedstock. Although
a retrofit of existing units would help the economics, retrofits
are not possible in all cases. Therefore, a new unit was used as
the basis for this scoping evaluation.
In addition to CAPEX and efficiencies associated with the
possible retrofit of some existing assets, the other sensitivity
in scoping economics is the value and use of established RIN
and other tax credit incentives, as allowed.
The CAPEX throughput basis was a nominal 3,000-bar-
rels-per-stream-day (bpsd) grassroots plant. The unit was
assumed with all new equipment (no retrofit or surplus or
idled equipment). All inside-battery-limit (ISBL) equipment
was sized, specified and budget-estimated. The CAPEX was
$2.60 jet
$2.80 jet
$3.00 jet
$3.20 jet
$3.40 jet
1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50 1.60 1.70 1.80 1.90 2.10 2.00
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Isobutanol advanced RIN value, $
R
e
t
u
r
n

o
n

i
n
v
e
s
t
m
e
n
t
,

%

r
a
t
e

o
f

r
e
t
u
r
n
FIG. 5. Biojet plant financial summary analysis.
Source: Mustang Engineering
Dew Point Humidity Oxygen
Michell Instruments, Inc
319 Newburyport Turnpike, Suite 207, Rowley, MA 01969
T: 978 484 0005
us.info@michell.com

measure moisture content
on-line in hydrocarbon
gases and liquids for
improved process control
Michell Hygrometers
limiting factors love
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determined by applying factors to the equipment pricing to
account for commodity materials and labor. Allowances were
also made for engineering, escalation and contingency. A 30%
allowance for offsites was assumed and added.
For the jet fuel price basis, a relatively conservative
$2.60$3.40-per-gallon price range was assumed, although the
price could be higher. Sensitivities for this price range were in-
cluded in the scoping economic study.
With the advent of the jet fuel carbon tax on international
flights landing in the EU, the airline industry and fuel suppli-
ers have been looking for cost-effective, renewable alternatives
to petroleum jet fuel. A scoping sensitivity examining this tax
credit is shown in FIG. 5.
As can be seen, the EU tax credit has a significant effect
on the scoping economics. As one might expect, the RIN val-
ue also has a considerable impact. In summary, this nominal
3,000-bpsd biojet plant study illustrated some positive scop-
ing economics, even at conservative jet fuel prices.
Bio-isobutanol for renewable PX for PET. Once the re-
newable hydrocarbon is made, there is the chance to make re-
newable hydrocarbon products via traditional or even newer
processes. One new process uses isooctene to make PX, which
then can be made into purified terephthalic acid (PTA), and
then into renewable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) via tra-
ditional methods.
A pilot plant is being designed for this new process, which
yields PX at a very high selectivity vs. other xylenes. High se-
lectivity eliminates the need for xylene isomerization, separa-
tion and recycle steps. Additionally, the PX can be integrated
with the rest of the biofuel plant, as shown in FIG. 6. Depend-
ing on the relative amounts of each renewable product, even
the hydrogen made in the PX plant can be used in the biojet
hydrogenation unit.
Takeaway. Isobutanol has gasoline blending, chemical and
usage advantages vs. ethanol, which result in positive econom-
ics for the conversion of existing ethanol facilities to bio-iso-
butanol production. Compared to other transportation fuel
blendstocks, bio-isobutanol is a better environmental alterna-
Corn
Sugarcane
Isobutanol
retrotted ethanol plant
Isooctene
or C
12
Fuels markets
Low-carbon
gasoline, jet
or diesel
Paraxylene
Chemicals markets
Agricultural
residue
Wood
FIG. 6. Bio-isobutanol to paraxylene, gasoline blendstock and/or biojet.
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tive (e.g., low vapor pressure, meaning lower volatility in fin-
ished fuel). Also, being made by fermentation of sugars (via
normal or cellulosic biomass), these renewable fuels are not
tied to crude oil prices or to petroleum supply fluctuations.
The process configuration for bio-isobutanol to IPK biojet
fuel involves three sequential, straightforward steps. The pro-
cess operates at moderate operating conditions, and it is simi-
lar to some existing refinery and petrochemical units that have
been idled or underutilized. Revamps are possible, and they
would reduce the CAPEX and construction time. Projected
RIN values and EU carbon tax incentives would provide ad-
ditional upside on the project economics. This three-step pro-
cess has been demonstrated at a 10,000-gallon-per-month-ca-
pacity hydrocarbon plant in Silsbee, Texas. On-spec product
is being made and sold to the US Air Force for the military
certification process.
Bio-isobutanol has numerous process and product plat-
forms that can be employed as economics dictate. These in-
clude, but are not limited to, solvent sales, use as a gasoline
blendstock, conversion to biojet or use as a feedstock for
renewable PX. Bio-isobutanol has the versatility to allow
multiple options at the same time. For example, marine and
small-engine fuels are niche options that can be addressed.
Renewable diesel is another option.
The pathway for bio-isobutanol via fermentation has been
established, and the business model makes economic sense to
revamp idled or underutilized fermentation ethanol plants.
One companys production of bio-isobutanol at demonstra-
tion scale was proven in 2009. More recently, a commercial-
scale, 18-MMgpy plant was started up.
Furthermore, bio-isobutanol has versatility and environ-
mental and economic advantages when compared to ethanol.
Bio-isobutanol has the capability to provide significant impact
as an advanced gasoline blendstock, or as a feedstock to make
other advanced fuels or products; therefore, it should be con-
sidered a high-potential, next-generation biofuel.
RICK KOLODZIEJ is a process technology manager at Wood Group Mustang.
He has over 30 years of experience in process and project engineering and
development in the refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, polymers and gas
processing industries. Mr. Kolodziej has been involved with several new
technology development projects, including several bio-related projects.
Most recently, Mr. Kolodziej was involved with Gevos projects in renewable
isobutanol and various petrochemicals. He is also responsible for process plant
project development for Wood Group Mustang in the Far East. Mr. Kolodziej
has US and international patents in hydrotreatment technology. He holds a BS
degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois (Chicago) and an
MBA degree in finance from DePaul University, and is a registered professional
engineer in the state of Illinois.
JEFF SCHEIB is vice president for fuels at Gevo Inc., overseeing sales, marketing
and business development activities for isobutanol-into-fuels markets, including
refining, biojet, gasoline distributors and marketers, marine and small-engine
applications. He has over 20 years of fuels and biofuels leadership expertise, having
worked 17 years within the petroleum sector with ARCO and BP, followed by four
years in the renewable energy arena with Cilion and Chromatin, prior to joining
Gevo in 2011. Jeff holds an MBA degree from the University of California (Los
Angeles) and a BS degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University.
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Special Report
X. PRICE, C. TERAN, A. VANHOVE and J. CASANOVA,
GE Water & Process Technologies, The Woodlands, Texas
Successful fouling control
hinges on effective monitoring
Equipment reliability, processing flexibility and energy con-
servation are key objectives for modern refineries. Refiners today
are routinely using lower quality, more difficult to process feed-
stocks that offer favorable economic incentives. Unfortunately,
along with their lower cost, many of these challenging crudes
often come with a significant increase in fouling potential.
Fouling can result in severe economic penalties, from
throughput reductions to complete unit shutdown, as well as
increased energy consumption, lost opportunities, and signifi-
cant safety and environmental concerns. Some of the typical
problem areas include:
Crude unit preheat exchangers and furnaces
Hydrotreater exchangers, reboilers and reactor beds
Fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) slurry exchangers
Thermal cracking process exchangers, reboilers and furnaces.
For decades, chemical treatment programs have been used
effectively to help reduce fouling of heat exchange systems
throughout the refinery.
1
The benefits of such programs were
once difficult to demonstrate due to limitations in monitor-
ing and program justification. Now, with advanced monitoring
techniques, improved analytical tools and extensive experience
around the globe, chemical suppliers are better prepared to doc-
ument improvements in refinery profitability and operational
flexibility directly related to customized, cost effective, fouling
control programs.
Factors that impact fouling. Multiple factors can impact
fouling, including equipment design, heat flux, velocities, flow
rates, feed quality, temperatures and cracking severity. Other
common practices such as caustic addition can impact crude
preheat and coker furnace fouling. Because of the many inter-
related factors involved, each process unit and fouling control
program is unique. Fundamental analytical tools and vital mon-
itoring techniques have been developed to identify, predict and
track process fouling, as well as categorically quantify the im-
pact and economic benefits of a chemical treatment program.
The selection and design of a successful solution relies on
tools specifically developed to identify the root cause and
quantify the impact of the fouling problem.
Deposit analysis. Deposit samples are taken during equip-
ment openings, before high pressure jetting or any other reme-
diation steps are initiated. Care should be taken during sam-
pling to ensure that an average composition is obtained, unless
analysis of localized deposition is needed. The shutdown pro-
cedure, prior to equipment opening, should be clearly defined
(such as rinsing or steam-out) in order to provide the correct
interpretation of the analytical results.
A thermographic analysis of the deposit will determine the
percentage of organic and volatile inorganic components, as
well as the ash level remaining. A methylene chloride extraction
is also typically done to identify the entrained hydrocarbon
and degraded oil fraction in the sample. The non-extractable
components represent mainly the coke and inorganic fraction
of the sample. Metal analysis (Fe, Na, Ca, Mg, Cu, etc.) and
elemental analysis for C, H, N and S are also conducted. The
deposit analysis can indicate whether the major foulant is inor-
ganic, organic, or a combination. In addition, calculation of the
mass ratio of hydrogen to carbon in the sample will give a more
specific indication of the organic nature of the sample (coke vs.
polymer vs. paraffins).
Feedstock characterization. A feedstock can be analyzed
to identify fouling precursors that are associated with a specific
fouling mechanism.
2
The feed analysis is tailored to the type
of fluid. Various tests are performed to determine the specific
characteristics of each feedstock. These characteristics can in-
clude physical properties, salts, filterable solids, asphalthenes,
sulfur, mercaptans, basic nitrogen, total acid number, bromine
number, carbonyls, pyrrole nitrogen and metal levels.
Pressurized hot-wire test. A relatively rapid method to
evaluate the efficacy of different anti-foulant products is the
pressurized hot wire test (FIG. 1). The feedstock sample is
equally divided into several sample cells. An electrical resis-
tance wire is then submerged in the fluid. The sample cells are
Blank Treatment A Treatment B
Power supply
P
N
2
supply
Treatment C
FIG. 1. Pressurized hot-wire tester.
pressurized and the wire is then electrically charged. While the
testing time typically remains constant, the electrical charge is
adjusted according to the fouling tendency of the fluid.
Four tests can be conducted simultaneously under the same
conditions, including an untreated blank sample. Both the wire
deposit and the solids formed in the fluid are compared relative
to each other for quantity and nature. FIG. 2 shows a picture of
the wires after the test, and clearly illustrates the efficacy differ-
ences between the treated samples and the blank.
Hot liquid process simulator. A dynamic test device
known as the hot liquid process simulator (HLPS) (FIG. 3)
can be used in different operating modes, simulating a heat ex-
changer or furnace heat transfer problem. It can even be used
to simulate a hydrotreater reactor pressure drop problem.
A schematic is shown in FIG. 3. The fluid is circulated through
a test exchanger at a controlled flowrate. An electrically heated
core provides the required heat to simulate the process. The
inlet temperature is monitored, and, depending if the core or
outlet temperature is controlled, the outlet or core tempera-
ture, respectively, is also monitored to evaluate the fouling rate.
Different treatment programs can be evaluated as shown in FIG.
4. FIG. 5 illustrates two cores with different deposits.
Asphaltene stability. An optical scanning device is avail-
able to help determine the asphaltene precipitation tenden-
cies of any crude or crude blend. The device incorporates the
industry standard test method, ASTM D7061-06.
3
ASTM
D7061-06, designed to measure asphaltene stability, is, in fact,
similar to the titration based methods, as all these methods
provide a measure of the reserve capability of a crude blend, in
terms of resistance to asphaltene precipitation.
It makes 16 separate scans across the sample and the soft-
ware records transmittance (FIG. 6) and backscatter every
40 m (micrometer) while moving across the scan window.
The standard deviation of the average transmittance value of
each scan between the scanning heights of 10 mm to 55 mm
is calculated for the dataset of each sample. This value is the
separability number (FIG. 7). The testing device provides ro-
bust information over a wide variety of hydrocarbon fluids.
It offers a very rapid means of identifying and monitoring
fluid stability and other indicators of fouling propensity. By
looking at the stability index for various crude blends, highly
nonlinear blending behavior can be rapidly determined with
small sample volumes. Crude stability, or the lack thereof, is
known to cause fouling in crude preheat systems, furnaces
and tower bottoms.
Monitoring techniques. The development and selection of
appropriate monitoring techniques, specific to each heat ex-
change system, is a crucial component of any successful anti-
foulant program. It is imperative that a current performance
base case is established, and that metrics are identified to
evaluate the ongoing performance of the treatment program
and to quantify its benefits. The accuracy and availability of
FIG. 2. Wires after pressurized hot-wire test.
P
Temperature
logging
control
Electrical
power supply
Sample
reservoir
Circulation lines (heated)
N
2
pressure Purge
Controlled circulation pump
FIG. 3. HLPS simulator schematic.
0
200
220
240
260
280
300
320
340
20 40 60 80
Time, minutes
Blank
Treatment A
Treatment B
Treatment C
Treatment D
O
u
t
l
e
t

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

C
100 120 140 160 180
FIG. 4. Crude preheat fouling simulation test . FIG. 5. HLPS fouled rods.
C O M P R E S S O R S Q T U R B I N E S Q G L O B A L S E R V I C E
EBARA CORPORATION
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Q Challenge:
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to keep the compressor load and quench ow in phase.
They turned to Elliott
for better control of their process.
The customer turned to Elliott for controls that prevent process instabilities.
Elliotts machinery expertise allied with Tri-Sens controls leadership allows operators
to focus on managing the process, not the machine. Who will you turn to?
The world turns to Elliott.
process data can significantly impact the selection of monitor-
ing techniques. Ideally, the appropriate techniques should be
identified and then the needed data made available. However,
in real world situations, this is not always the case. Not having a
suitable monitoring program should not be an option.
To illustrate the complexity of heat transfer monitoring and
evaluation, the following section focuses on the challenges spe-
cific to crude preheat exchangers. The basics outlined can typi-
cally be applied to all refinery heat transfer equipment.
Three direct indicators of heat exchanger train performance
are the furnace inlet temperature (FIT), throughput and pres-
sure drop. The process conditions change so often that com-
paring the actual measured furnace inlet temperatures is not
representative, and a normalization technique is required to
evaluate the performance of a treatment program.
A unit survey is required to collect the necessary information
to define the appropriate monitoring and calculation methods.
This survey should provide the thorough system configuration
and exchanger mechanical data with indications of the available
flow and temperature measurements and their locations.
Techniques such as multiple regression analysis (MRA) and
statistical process control (SPC) are used to evaluate the over-
all heat train performance without detailing each individual
exchanger. The same techniques can be used to evaluate the
pressure drop over an exchanger train, reboiler or reactor bed,
in addition to other equipment.
The MRA/SPC technique is used to generate a mathematical
model using a baseline period and the key operational param-
eters that impact a key performance indicator (KPI). The gener-
ated model provides the means for normalization of the data to
a standard set of operating conditions, thus providing the ability
to isolate the impact of various parameters on the KPI (FIG. 8).
Statistical process control limits are then established (at
+/ 3 standard deviations) to account for the standard error of
the model and to categorically validate the certainty of model
predictions and actual observations at a confidence level of
99.73%. The resultant MRA/SPC control chart is also used as a
KPI monitoring tool, providing for early detection of deviations
from expected or predicted behavior requiring specific actions.
It can then also be used to confirm and quantify the effects re-
FIG. 6. Percent transmittance as a function of sample tube length.
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91
sulting from those actions (e.g., extending run length). The im-
plementation of this monitoring tool will clearly demonstrate
whether or not the proposed solution was successful (FIG. 9).
Rigorous network modeling is another way to effectively
calculate the actual status of each individual exchanger and re-
calculate the (normalized) furnace inlet temperature (NFIT)
under standardized conditions (FIG. 10). The model also per-
forms simulation calculations to define the optimum cleaning
program and to calculate the impact on the whole train if selec-
tive exchanger cleaning was applied. The model uses the actual
plant data to check the heat balance per exchanger and over the
whole train. Data corrections can be applied to ensure that the
adiabatic nature of heat transfer in heat exchangers is respected,
and that consistent, accurate data is used for the calculations.
The fouling factors and heat transfer coefficients are also calcu-
lated per exchanger. Comparing the NFIT for a treated and un-
treated run period will quantify the performance of the chemi-
cal treatment, where the fouling rate or slope of the NFIT curve
is compared during both runs (FIG. 11).
Key to long-term success. Fouling of refinery process
equipment results from a number of different interrelated
variables, including unique fluid characteristics, operating
practices and unit configurations, as well as ever changing op-
erational parameters, primarily temperatures and flowrates.
Regardless of the cause, process fouling exacts significant
economic and operational penalties. Without the implemen-
tation of the appropriate tools needed to understand, quantify
and monitor the fouling phenomena, even the best designed
solution is bound to fail.
Prior to the start of a chemical treatment program, a repre-
sentative base case must be established, and clear objectives
and well defined criteria for success must be agreed upon.
4
1,350
1,400
1,450
1,500
1,550
1,600
1,650
1,700
0 2 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46
Q
,

M
M
B
t
u
/
d
a
y
Time
Actual
Model
Normalized
Corrected
FIG. 8. MRA model for a crude preheat train.
1,500
1,520
1,540
1,560
1,580
1,600
1,620
1,640
1,660
Q

c
o
r
r
e
c
t
e
d
,

M
M
B
t
u
/
d
a
y
Time
UCL
LCL
Untreated model
projected performance
Treated performance
Untreated performance
Treatment
starts
FIG. 9. MRA/SPC control chart (treated vs. untreated).
FIG. 10. Rigorous modelingNFIT vs. throughput variation.
1.13
5.51
0.31
7.34
8.08
0.55
0.59
0.66
0.72
05
stable
510
medium
instability
> 10
high
unstability
Raw crude blend
Tank 1
Tank 2
Blend 1
Blend 2
Blend 3
Blend 4
Blend 5
Blend 6
FIG. 7. Separability number (an indicator of asphaltene instability).
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Appropriate monitoring tools must also be put in place to
track actual performance against the base case and to respond
to potential deviations of key performance indicators.
LITERATURE CITED

1
ASTM D7061-06, Standard test method for measuring n-heptane induced phase
separation of asphaltene containing heavy fuel oils as separability number by an
optical scanning device, www.astm.org/Standards/D7061.htm.

2
Wilson, R. M. and J. J. Perugini, Antifoulants: A proven energy-savings invest-
ment, NPRA AM-85-52, The Woodlands, Texas.

3
Fields, D. E., R. F. Freeman and B. E. Wright, Predicting crude oil fouling ten-
dency, Texas Energy Progress (Vol 8, No. 4).

4
Groce, B. C., Chemical, mechanical treatment options reduce hydroprocessor
fouling Oil & Gas Journal, January 29, 1996.
XIOMARA PRICE is a senior application specialist at GE Water &
Process Technologies focused on fouling control. She has over 14
years of process and water chemical treatment application
experience in the hydrocarbon processing industry. Her areas of
expertise include heat transfer and fouling control, process
chemical applications, phase separation and corrosion control.
Mrs. Price holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from
Louisiana Tech University.
CONRAD TERAN is a refining technology senior technical
manager for GE Water & Process Technologies. He is
responsible for the troubleshooting, analysis and resolution of
challenging technical issues in the hydrocarbon processing
industry. His specialty areas include heat transfer, fouling,
phase separations and the implementation of neural networks,
multiple regression analysis and statistical process control for
process modeling, optimization and control. He has over 33 years of oil refining
and upgrading experience. Mr. Teran has a BS degree in chemical engineering
from Brigham Young University in Provo Utah, and a master of engineering
degree in chemical engineering from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He is
a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.
ANDRE VANHOVE is the hydrocarbon process product
application manager at GE Water & Process Technologies,
where he leads the Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-
Pacific product application teams. Mr. Vanhove has over 30
years of experience in the refining and petrochemical industries.
He is leading global business development opportunities in the
refinery industry and has developed specific expertise in
visbreaking process enhancement applications. He is also co-author of several
technical papers and patents. Mr. Vanhove has an industrial engineering degree in
chemical processes from the Institute De Nayer in Mechelen, Belgium.
JUVENCIO CASANOVA has over 15 years of commercial
experience in the water and process treatment business.
Mr. Casanova has an MBA degree from Texas A&M and a BS
degree in chemical engineering from Simon Bolivar University.
Treated
Untreated
Savings
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
230
235
240
245
250
255
Months
N
F
I
T
,

C
FIG. 11. Treatment savings (no cleaning).
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Bonus Report
HEAT TRANSFER DEVELOPMENTS
The hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) is an energy-intensive business.
Following feedstock costs, energy (heating and refrigeration) is the second-
largest operating cost center for HPI facilities. Heat exchangers are common
heat-transfer equipment used throughout refineries, petrochemical facilities
and liquefied natural gas (LNG) complexes. The design and maintenance of
exchangers and other heat-transfer equipment dramatically impacts facility
operating costs and product quality as discussed in this months Bonus Report.
A new exchanger is being readied for transport. Photo courtesy of Walter Toasto, a world leader
in the production of heavy-wall static and heat-transfer equipment for the oil, gas, power
and petrochemical markets. The main fabrication facilities are located in Chieti Scalo, Italy.
Bonus Report
Heat Transfer Developments
J. CAZENAVE, Aspen Technology Inc., Reading, UK
What are the benefits of rigorous modeling
in heat exchanger design?
Today, process engineers are responsible for many project
activities, including conceptual design, revamp studies and op-
erational troubleshooting. Increasingly, the process simulator
is an essential tool central to these activities. Process simulators
are very powerful tools for modeling all or parts of a process.
While they are excellent for general-purpose process model-
ing, it is the process engineers responsibility to understand
to what extent these tools can be applied, and how combin-
ing their application with more specialized tools might be ap-
propriate. This choice is ultimately based on the business and
technical objectives to be achieved.
This article examines three different applications where rig-
orous heat exchanger models can enhance value derived from
process simulation and provide more accurate results. These
applications include conceptual designs of new plants, revamps
of existing facilities, and operations support.
Conceptual design. One of the key responsibilities of the
process engineer is related to the conceptual design of pro-
cesses. With conceptual design, the use of process simulation
is central to project activities. The initial stages of conceptual
design consider the main process synthesis and separation
operations required to convert feedstocks to products. At this
early stage, the process flowsheet typically involves simpli-
fied models of reactors, distillation columns, and the heating
and cooling services required to facilitate the essential parts of
the process. At this stage, the type and design of equipment
required, for example, to preheat reactants before they enter
a reactor, are less important. The traditional functionality of
process simulation in providing heat and mass balance over the
conceptual process is paramount.
As the conceptual design evolves, it becomes important to
take account of the actual equipment involved. The reactors,
separators and heat exchangers need to be evaluated to further
develop their designs to ensure desired performance; to size
them adequately; and to obtain estimates of the capital cost of
the process, the heating and cooling utility requirements and
the energy cost to operate the process. Heat transfer equip-
ment can typically be up to 30% of the capital cost of process
equipment. Therefore, as the process design progresses, it is
important to take account of the real design requirements for
the major heat transfer equipment items. For any heat exchang-
er, two main aspects must be considered:
How much duty does the heat exchanger need to provide?
How much pressure drop can be consumed?
The first aspect can be modeled by a simple equation:
Q = m (h
o
h
i
) (1)
where Q is the rate of heat transfer, m is the mass flow, h is spe-
cific enthalpy, and the subscripts o and i refer, respectively, to
outlet and inlet. Where there is no phase change, this can be
expressed as:
Q = m Cp (T
o
T
i
) (2)
where Cp is the specific heat of the fluid, and T is the temperature.
Consider the following simple example, where a water/wa-
ter exchanger has been modeled with one side heating up from
20C to 90C, while the other side is cooling down from 90C
to 20C (FIG. 1).
However, if the exchanger must be designed to determine
how much surface it will require, the basic heat transfer equa-
tion (for pure counter-current flow) must be considered:
Q = UA LMTD (3)
where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is the effec-
tive area in the heat exchanger, and LMTD is the logarithmic
mean temperature difference.
If a generic heat exchanger is assumed to have two ends
(here referred to as A and B) at which the hot and cold
streams enter or exit on either side, then LMTD is defined by
the logarithmic mean, as follows:
LMTD = (T
A
T
B
) [ln (T
A
T
B
)] (4)
FIG. 1. Water/water exchanger model showing one side heating up
and one side cooling down.
where T
A
is the temperature difference between the two
streams at end A, and T
B
is the temperature difference be-
tween the two streams at end B. In this case, the LMTD will
have a limit of 0, so it will need a UA with an infinite limit.
The second aspect to consider for any real equipment is the
pressure drop that will be consumed on the hot and cold sides
as the respective streams flow through the heat exchanger.
It is normal for the process engineer to designate how much
pressure drop will be allocated to a particular exchanger. For
example, in turbulent ow inside tubes, the local heat transfer
coefficient varies approximately with the mass velocity raised
to the power 0.8. The pressure drop varies approximately with
the mass velocity squared. This means that, if pressure drop
is kept low, the heat transfer coefficient will be very low, and
a large surface area will be needed for the heat exchanger. A
realistic pressure drop must be estimated at this stage to en-
able the design of the heat exchanger later without having to
rework the process design.
A more realistic way to model the exchanger is to assume
that one side of the exchanger is between 90C and 25C, with
the other side heating up from 20C to 85C. Both sides have a
pressure drop of 0.5 bar (FIG. 2).
This type of idealized approach is often used to model an
exchanger where a process stream is heated by utility steam
in a heat exchanger. Pure fluids, like steam, condense isother-
mally at constant pressure. If isothermal condensation is pres-
ent, then EQ. 3 can be applied to good effect; however, in real-
ity, any pressure drop on the steam side will result in a lower
saturation temperature, and then the exit temperature will be
lower than the inlet temperature.
The main issue with this approach is that it is easy for the
process engineer to specify conditions that later make it diffi-
cult to achieve a practical exchanger design. This hampers ef-
fective collaboration between process engineers and thermal
design specialists, resulting in additional cycles of engineering
to refine the overall process and equipment designs.
One way to promote better collaboration between disci-
plines and achieve better designs quickly is to use a rigorous
exchanger modeling tool within the process simulation to
achieve a preliminary design. This approach enables the pro-
cess engineer to get a better first approximation for evaluating
the feasibility of the process, and to give the thermal specialist
a useful starting point for full design optimization. Where this
technique is employed, it has been shown to reduce project
schedules and eliminate costly rework.
Revamp studies. The second type of project where rigorous
heat exchanger modeling can improve the engineering work-
flow is a revamp. Typically, revamp projects have two main
aspects. First, there is a check that the actual proposed equip-
ment in the process is accurately simulating the plant perfor-
mance data. Secondly, what if options can be explored for
process and capital improvements, with different equipment
geometries and stream sequencings validated against the re-
vamps performance objective.
Modeling an existing exchanger can be easy if plant data
is available. The process simulator allows the specification
of process conditions for the exchanger. This, in turn, allows
simple modeling of an exchanger based on EQ. 3, and it en-
ables the simulator to estimate the exchanger duty. The inher-
ent assumption is that UA will remain constant. The pressure
drop will not be recalculated by the simulator, so any variation
will need to be estimated with a manual calculation. As men-
tioned earlier, for single-phase turbulent flow inside tubes, the
local heat transfer coefficient will vary according to:
= f (m
0.8
) (5)
where is the local tube-side heat transfer coefficient, and m
is the mass velocity in the tubes. This indicates that, as the flow
of either stream in an exchanger is varied, the simple modeling
of the simulator will result in an error in the estimated duty of
an exchanger. Change in steam properties will also be unac-
counted for in this simple modeling approach.
In the following example, the first exchanger downstream
of the desalter in a crude preheat train is subject to examina-
tion in a revamp study where the overall aim is to recover
more pumparound energy and increase the throughput of
the refinery (FIG. 3). The first step is to model the existing
exchanger. The crude on the tube side of this exchanger is fo-
cused on in TABLE 1.
FIG. 2. Heat exchanger model showing one side heating up and
one side cooling down.
FIG. 3. Revamp study of an exchanger in a crude preheat train.
The first two columns are the values of the pressure drop
and the temperature changes on the tube side of the exchang-
er. The last two columns represent the difference between the
simple UA modeling and the rigorous modeling approaches.
In the first set of process conditions, the rigorous model and
UA model values are close. This is expected, since the UA mod-
el is based on the result of the rigorous calculation performed
during the design stage. However, when the process conditions
change, the UA model and rigorous model diverge, with the
relative difference increasing from less than 1% to more than
3% for the temperature drop, and from less than 2% to more
than 20% for the pressure drop. The rigorous modeling shows
that the pressure drop increased to a value higher than the limit
of 0.6 bar defined in the process. After the revamp and a rede-
sign of the heat exchanger, it is possible to calculate the pres-
sure drop for the rigorous model below the limit of 0.6 bar.
The rigorous modeling of the heat exchanger is needed to
check the performance with new process conditions and to
properly design a revamped heat exchanger. The integration
of rigorous modeling inside the simulator allows the engineer
to check the anticipated heat exchanger performance and
take any corrective design actions without leaving the simula-
tor environment.
Operation support. In this case study, an existing exchanger
on a gas compression system is water-cooled. The process is
modeled with a control operation that simulates the adjust-
ment of the water flow to achieve a specified outlet tempera-
ture for the gas being cooled on the tube side of the heat ex-
changer (FIG. 4).
The operator is seeking to reduce the outlet temperature of
the heat exchanger to reduce the power consumed by a large
compressor. In the process simulator, it is simple to set a lower
gas outlet temperature target in the control block, and the
coolant flow rate will be increased until the new, higher duty
is achieved.
In the rigorous exchanger simulation shown in FIG. 5, it
is clear that the pressure drop on the water side is below the
maximum allowable for the existing operating conditions.
If a lower gas outlet temperature is prescribed to affect the
desired reduced compressor power, the rigorous model in the
simulation responds to the increased coolant flow that the
adjust mechanism imposes. The exchanger can now achieve
the new duty. However, because a rigorous tool is being used,
other beneficial calculations can be performed. The results
highlighted in FIG. 6 show three issues to consider:
Pressure drop. The increase in water flow has resulted in
a pressure drop on the shell side, which exceeds the design al-
lowable. This may mean that sufficient pumping capacity will
not be available to achieve the required flow.
Dynamic pressure. The Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers
Association (TEMA) defines maximum dynamic pressure as:
q = rho v
2
(6)
where rho is the fluid density, and v is the fluid velocity.
1
TABLE 1. Modeling data for a heat exchanger in a crude preheat chain
Error
Pressure drop, bar Temperature drop, C Pressure drop, bar Temperature drop, C
Design conditions UA 0.6 39.4
Rigorous model 0.59 39.7 1.7% 0.8%
New conditions UA 0.6 33.8
Rigorous model 0.79 35.1 24.1% 3.7%
Revamp 0.59 33.7 1.7% 0.3%
FIG. 4. Water-cooled exchanger on a gas compression system.
FIG. 5. Rigorous simulation for a water-cooled exchanger.
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The maximum dynamic pressure will be different based
on the exchanger geometry. Exceeding these values brings the
risk of excessive erosion and the potential for premature fail-
ure of tubes or other pressure parts of the exchanger.
Vibration. The rigorous exchanger model performs a
vibration analysis for the exchanger bundle. It can be seen
that the increase in the cooling-water flowrate has resulted in
a possible risk of flow-induced vibration for this exchanger
bundle. This can lead to tube failure, which, in some cases,
can be rapid.
The process simulation, coupled with the rigorous heat
exchanger analysis, can reveal potential operational problems
that go far beyond the simple considerations of heat and mass
balance. In this case, the operator can choose to work within
limits that avoid the risks of erosion, flow-induced vibration
and other operational problems. The simulator and the rig-
orous exchanger tools can be used to evaluate an alternative
control scheme, such as controlling the cooling-water temper-
ature instead of the flowrate.
Best practice in exchanger/process modeling. Today,
leading engineering and operating companies in the chemical
and energy sectors are exploiting the integration of rigorous
exchanger models within process simulation to reduce project
schedules, minimize rework, and provide better overall optimi-
zation of their processes.
However, traditional organizations often separate process
engineering, thermal design and mechanical design functions,
which can be a barrier to the adoption of integrated technolo-
gies. As companies recognize the benefits provided by closer
cooperation between the disciplines involved, many are see-
ing that they can make much more effective use of specialist
skills when process engineers undertake preliminary designs
using rigorous models in their simulations. Such simulations
can then be fully optimized by the thermal specialist as pro-
cess activities proceed.
In many smaller engineering organizations, a broader skill
base for process engineers allows them to directly exploit the
benefits of the integration discussed here. In a case study
2
presented at the OPTIMIZE 2011 conference, one chemical
company discussed a feasibility study wherein a reduction in
capital equipment costs of 15% and an annual energy savings
of $200,000 were discovered through the integration of rigor-
ous equipment modeling with process simulation.
Another company obtained an estimated $5.5 million in
additional revenue from increased liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) production, while reducing equipment costs by $0.5
million.
3
This was achieved through the integration of a plate-
fin rigorous modeling tool inside a process simulator. The in-
tegration allowed the evaluation of various alternative process
solutions and their direct impact on temperature approach in
the heat exchanger type selected.
The integration of rigorous modeling tools for heat ex-
changer modeling inside process simulators allows a faster de-
livery of projects by shortening the discussion time between
different disciplines. Process engineers can be confident with
the results of the process modeling by using the real geom-
etry and the most rigorous tool for the heat exchanger calcula-
tion. Finally, plant operations are made safer by modeling all
aspects of the heat exchanger operation, such as vibration.
LITERATURE CITED
1
Standards of the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association, 9th Ed., New York,
New York, 2007.
2
Roy, E., presentation at the AspenTech OPTIMIZE 2011 Conference,
Washington, DC, May 2011.
3
Venkatesh, L., Petrofac Engineering India Ltd., presentation at Aspentech
OPTIMIZE 2011 Conference, Washington, DC, May 2011.
JULIEN CAZENAVE is an Aspen exchanger design and rating (EDR) business
consultant for AspenTech, based at the companys European headquarters in
Reading, UK. He has more than 10 years of experience in working with customers
of AspenTechs EDR and simulation products across Europe, the Middle East and
Africa. Mr. Cazenave ensures that customers derive maximum value from their
investment and are regularly updated on new developments in the software and
the underlying technology.
FIG. 6. Results of rigorous simulation for a water-cooled exchanger.
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Bonus Report
K. BIRAMOV, M. MAITY, and E. AL-ZAHRANI,
Sabic Technology Centre, Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
and M. A. KAREEM, Eastern Petrochemical Co.,
Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Prevent external corrosion
of boiler tubes under refractory lining
A leak developed on the water wall for several boiler tubes
within five months of the commissioning of a plant boiler. In this
case, the boiler tubes were partially covered with a castable refrac-
tory layer near the water drum at the bottom and at the top of the
steam drum. Severe corrosion was noticed on the external surface
of the boiler tubes, particularly at the lower section near the water
drum. A detailed analysis and microstructural characterization
of the corroded tubes and refractory samples were conducted
to understand the root cause for the corrosion. Caustic gouging
was determined as the predominate cause for the corrosion of the
boiler tubes external surface. A review of the plants history not-
ed that the boiler had been idled for a long time before commis-
sioning. Wet refractory had promoted migration of alkalis to the
tube surfaces, thus subsequently initiating the corrosion process.
BACKGROUND
A package boiler for the utility plant in this petrochemical
facility experienced leakage in the water wall tubes of the com-
bustion section. The boiler leak required an emergency shut-
down. The operating temperature of the furnace ranged be-
tween 1,200C and 1,250C. The tube-metal temperature at the
furnace section is around 340C. The tube material is carbon
steel with a diameter of 64 mm and a thickness of 5 mm. Natural
gas was used as the combustion fuel.
The boiler tubes are partly covered with refractory castable
at the junction at the top of the steam drum and at the bottom
of the water drum, as shown in FIG. 1. The castable refractory
was an alumina-silicate base with a hydraulic setting. Severe
corrosion was noticed on the external surface of the tubes un-
der the refractory in the lower division wall tubes (adjacent to
the water drum area). Interestingly, the corrosion was first no-
ticed in lowest areas where the boiler tubes are covered with
the refractory. However, no visible corrosion was noticed in the
same tubes at the upper section near the steam drum that was
also covered with the same refractory lining. Also, no corrosion
was reported in the superheater, boiler bank and economizer
area. A failure analysis was conducted on the leaking and cor-
roded tubes to identify the failure mode.
VISUAL INSPECTION ANALYSIS
FIGS. 2 and 3 depict the typical refractory covering over the
tubes along, with examples of the corroded tubes. The visual
inspection provided evidence of localized mild to severe corro-
sion on the external surface of the tubes. As shown in FIG. 3, a
complete perforation in one of the tubes developed. The corro-
sion was mainly localized in areas covered with the refractory,
particularly at floor level adjacent to the water drum. No cor-
rosion was detected in the exposed part of the tubes. It is also
important to note that no corrosion was noticed at the upper
part of tubes covered with refractory (the steam drum area).
The corrosion products examined in this investigation
were removed from the external surface of the tubes. The cor-
rosion products were brittle and porous. The products colors
FIG. 1. Tubes with refractory cover at bottom and top, respectively.
FIG. 2. Evidences of corrosion process with leaking boiler tubes.
FIG. 3. Corroded and leaking tubes.
varied from brown to black. Also, the corrosion products had
a layered appearance.
Sample testing. An X-ray fluorescent (XRF) spectropho-
tometer was used to do an elemental analysis of the corrosion
products. TABLE 1 summarizes the results of the XRF analysis.
XRF samples indicated the presence of mainly oxygen (O) and
iron (Fe) corrosion products. The applied refractory was ce-
ment-based castable with high a calcium oxide (CaO) content.
SEM micrograph/EDX examination. Corroded tubes were
sectioned and prepared for micro-structural evaluation from
the pit, as well as from the intact areas. Microanalyses of tube
surface were undertaken via energy dispersive X-ray (EDX)
spectrometry. The images were recorded by scanning elec-
tron microscopy (SEM). A cross-section of the pit showed the
hemispherical bottom with some corrosion products. The top
surface of the pit showed the presence of deposits with varying
thicknesses (FIG. 4). The EDX detected the presence of silica
(Si), sodium (Na) and sulfur (S) peaks beside the usual O, Fe
and carbon (C) peaks. All of the concentrations of the elements
are summarized in FIG. 5. Metallographic examination revealed
normal ferrite-perlite microstructures typical for carbon steel.
Leaching test and pH of refractory samples. Soluble cat-
ion and anion levels were checked semi-quantitatively in the
refractory samples. Approximately 10 gm of refractory powder
was soaked and placed in 50 ml of demineralized water with
continuous stirring for about six hours. Subsequently, the
pH and the dissolved cations and anions of the solution were
checked. The testing results are summarized in TABLE 2. The
solution was highly alkaline with a pH of 10.4. The significant
presence of soluble calcium (Ca), Na and potassium (K) were
detected. Likewise, different anions were also detected.
ROOT CAUSE OF THE CORROSION
The corrosion occurring in boiler tubes or in other metallic
sections covered with refractory is a complex phenomenon. It
depends on many different processes and environmental con-
ditions. Of all the variables of interest, the chemical composi-
tion of the combustion fuelspecifically the heavy metal
chloride, sulfate and alkali content of the natural gasand the
refractory used on the boiler were probably the two most im-
portant contributing factors supporting corrosion of the tubes
external surface.
1,2
The sulfur-bearing elements were negligible
in the natural gas fuel.
In this case, corrosion of the boiler tubes was noticed main-
ly at the lower part of the boiler and around the burners. The
tubes were covered with refractory in these areas. However, no
corrosion was noticed at the upper part of the tubes although
they were also covered with refractory. Therefore, corrosion of
tubes exclusively due to fuel was ruled out. Otherwise, corro-
sion would have been found on other boiler tubes covered with
refractory. The XRF analysis revealed the presence of mainly Fe
and O along with minor constituents.
The presence of alkaline-producing species such as Na, Ca
and K was detected in leaching tests of refractories with a very
high pH. The EDX spectrums also showed elements such as Na
and Ca in the surface layers of the corroded areas. High alkaline
concentration may have occurred due to the ingress of water into
the refractory during the long storage before commissioning.
The corrosion mainly at the lower part of the boiler confirmed
the same; moisture (water) would accumulate in the same re-
gion as a thin layer due to gravity. The alkaline environment at
high temperatures can cause localized corrosion, known as caus-
tic gouging, or ductile gouging in the form of deep depressions
and grooves with hemispherical bottoms.
37
For example, the
formed sodium hydroxide (NaOH) will easily dissolve the pro-
tective magnetite layer on the tube surface at high temperatures.
When this film is removed, the concentrated alkali reacts direct-
ly with the bare Fe surface forming sodium ferroate (Na
2
FeO
2
):
Fe+NaOH Na
2
FeO
2
+ H
2
Considering all of the listed observations and analyses ob-
tained from the lab examinations, it may be concluded that the
corrosion occurred due to a caustic-gouging mechanism. Al-
kaline corrosion was most likely the root cause. Generally, this
TABLE 1. XRF analysis, wt%
Elements Corrosion product Refractory
O 27.71 40.35
Fe 69.98 2.764
Na 0.067 0.11
Al 0.2 24.4
Si 0.095 7.15
P 0.1 0.188
S 0.144 0.069
K 0.067 0.511
Ca 0.062 17.43
Zr 6.736
Cr 0.026 0.093
Mn 0.423 0.022
Ni 0.945 0.016
Mo 0.041
Mg 0.169
Cl 0.0072
V 0.043
Other Traces Traces
TABLE 2. Leaching test of refractories
pH 10.4
Anions Unit Value Cations Unit Value
Fluoride (F
) mg/l 7.2 Lithium (Li

+
) mg/l ND
Chloride (Cl
) mg/l 69 Sodium (Na

+
) mg/l 2,923
Nitrite (NO
2
) mg/l ND Ammonium (NH

4
+
) mg/l ND
Bromide (Br
) mg/l ND Potassium (K
+
) mg/l 222
Nitrate (NO
3
) mg/l 287 Magnesium (Mg

+2
) mg/l 0.6
Phosphate (PO
4
3
) mg/l 154 Calcium (Ca
+2
) mg/l 1,638
Sulfate (SO
4
2
) mg/l 204
Source: NDNot detected
type of damage is highly localized, as was
found in this investigation. In this case,
the boiler was idle for a long time, and the
refractory was not dried out properly after
installation. External moisture and water
could have ingressed during the long stor-
age or shifting when the boiler was moved
from the shop to the site.
Moisture/water appeared to be in
contact with the tubes under the refrac-
tory for a long time before commission-
ing. The presence of water could have
enhanced the migration of alkalies to
the tube surfaces. The concentration of
alkali species on tube surfaces increased
at higher operating temperatures, which
resulted in a concentration mechanism.
Final remarks. Based on the investigation
findings, several conclusions were made:
Corrosion due to fuel quality was
ruled out as no corrosion was noticed at the
upper part of tubes covered with refractory.
Furthermore, the content of the corrosive
elements in the fuel, mainly S, is very low
and within the specification for the boiler.
The boiler tube corrosion is most
likely attributed to the caustic gouging
mechanism.
The observed highly localized corro-
sion is not associated with creep rupture.
The lesson learned from this event is
that it is very important to heat dry castable
refractory after installation. In the event
that the commissioning is delayed, then
the refractory lining should be protected
from moisture and the ingress of any water with proper covering.
Natural air circulation should be maintained to avoid any stag-
nant humid condition within the boiler.
LITERATURE CITED
1
Hancock, J. D., Practical Refractories, Cannon & Hancock CC, 2002.
2
Potgieter, J. H., R. H. M. Godoi and R. V. Grieken, A Case Study of High
Temperature Corrosion in Rotary Cement Kilns, The Journal of The South African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, November 2004, pp. 603606.
3
Metals Handbook, 8th Ed., Vol. 7, Atlas of Microstructure of Industrial Alloys,
ASM, 1972.
4
Port, R. D., H. M. Hero, The NALCO guide to boiler failure analysis, McGraw-Hill
Inc., New York, New York, 1991.
5
Metals Handbook, 9th Ed., Failure Analysis and Prevention, ASM, 1995.
6
STEAM, its Generation and Use, 40th Ed., Babcock & Wicox, McDermot Co.,
Barberton, Ohio, 1992.
7
Lay, G. Y., High Temperature Corrosion of Engineering Alloys, Hayness International,
Kokomo, Indiana, 1990.
NOMENCLATURE
Al Aluminum Ni Nickel
Ca Calcium O Oxygen
C Carbon P Phosphorus
Cl Chlorine K Potassium
Cr Chromium Si Silicon
Fe Iron Na Sodium
Mg Magnesium S Sulfur
Mn Manganese V Vanadium
Mo Molybdenum Zr Zirconium
1
0.0
0.5
1.1
1.6
2.1
2.6
2 3 4 5
Energy, keV
K
C
n
t
Si
gs\supervisor\Desktop\SharedData\Analysis Data\2010\MCS\MCS-10-08-02\20719-A2-04.spc
< Pt. 3 Spot> LSecs: 84
Fe
Fe
Na
Fe 0
C
6 7 8 9 10
Spectrum O Si Na Fe C
Wt% 29.58 0.45 0.83 56.33 12.81
FIG. 4. The SEM micrograph of the corroded surface with pitting showing the corrosion products,
and an EDX spectrum, showing the peaks of O, Fe and C, as well as, Si and Na
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0.0
0.7
1.4
2.1
2.7
3.4
Energy, keV
Spectrum O Si S Na Fe C
Wt% 30.1 0.58 0.65 1.56 62.28 4.78
K
C
n
t
gs\supervisor\Desktop\SharedData\Analysis Data\2010\MCS\MCS-10-08-02\20719-A1-04.spc
< Pt. 3 Spot> LSecs: 81
Si
Fe
Fe
Na
Fe
0
C
FIG. 5. Cross-section (as polished) of corroded tube showing pitting with hemispherical bottom,
and an EDX spectrum showing the peaks of O, Fe and C, as well as, Si, S and Na.
DR. AVTANDIL KHALIL BAIRAMOV is working as a consultant in SABIC
Technology Center-Jubail, Materials and Corrosion Section. He graduated from
Moscow Institute of Petrochemical and Gas Industry with distinction award. He
earned his PhD in chemical resistance of materials and protection from corrosion
from Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Baku, where he was Manager of Corrosion
and Electrochemistry Department. Dr. Bairamov published over 130 technical
papers including 15 national patents. Dr. Bairamov completed numerous failure
investigation studies and materials selection projects. He received 2010 NACE
International Technical Achievement Award. Dr. Bairamov is a Professional
Member of Institute of Corrosion (MICorr., UK) and NACE.
MANABENDRA MAITY is working as a refractory specialist at the Materials &
Corrosion Section of Sabic Technology Centre, Jubail, KSA. He holds B.Tech
degree in ceramic engineering from Calcutta University and a M.Tech degree in
ceramic engineering from IT-BHU, India. He has more than 16 years of extensive
experience in refractory lining design, engineering, installation and quality control,
failure analysis and troubleshooting. He started his career in 1994 as a refractories
and non-metallics engineer in Engineers India Ltd. Mr. Maity is life member of the
India Ceramic Society & Indian Institute of Ceramics and is qualified for API-936
Refractory Personnel Certification Program.
E. ALZAHRANI works as a failure analysis engineer in SABIC Technology Center,
Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, since 2008. He has a BS degree in mechanical
engineering from King Khalid University, KSA.
MOHAMED ABDULKAREEM is a mechanical engineer by discipline and has more
than 10 years of working experience in the field of inspection. At present, he is
working as an inspection specialist in the inspection and reliability department
of Eastern Petrochemical Co. (SHARQ), SABIC in Saudi Arabia. He engages in the
corrosion mitigation, failure analysis and inspection of static equipment.
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What you dont know can hurt you [E109]
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ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION
An engineer at a large chemical plant in the Eastern US inspected
plant substations that were grounded via a high resistance grounded
system. He discovered that two of 10 substations had been operating
with failed systems and nobody knew it. When the connection to ground
is interrupted, usually because of a mechanical failure in the resistor,
there is usually no sign that the ground has been lost. Without resistance
grounding, transient overvoltages can occur on the system, which can
endanger personnel and cause insulation failures on motors throughout
the system. Whats more, without grounding, current-sensing ground-fault
protection will not indicate the presence of a ground fault that could
damage equipment and injure workers.
Resistance grounding (FIG. 1) has been used in hydrocarbon pro-
cessing plants for many years. When properly designed, it eliminates
many of the problems associated with solidly grounded and ungrounded
systems while retaining their benefits. It can:
Limit point-of-fault damage
Prevent transient overvoltages
Reduce the risk of an arc-flash
Provide continuity of service during a ground fault
Allow adequate current for ground-fault detection and selective
coordination.
Resistance grounding possesses a critical element that is often
ignored: the neutral grounding resistor (NGR). Even though the petroleum
and chemical industries have used resistance grounding since the 1960s,
there are some petrochemical facilities that do not monitor their NGRs.
NGRs can and will fail. A typical NGR element consists of resistance wire
or metal strips wrapped around porcelain insulators. When it fails (due to
corrosion, mechanical damage, vibration, severe electrical disturbances
or simply age), it fails open-circuit (FIG. 2). NGRs can also be shorted out
(usually accidentally during construction or maintenance), but this is much
less common and does not defeat ground fault or overcurrent protection.
Whats the danger of open NGRs? The first thing that generally happens
when an NGR fails open-circuit is nothing. While the system is now
ungrounded, it continues to operate until the open resistor is discovered.
Yet without continuous NGR monitoring, there is no indication that the
system has become ungrounded, and operators will not be aware that
there is no longer any current-sensing ground-fault protection and that
there is a risk of transient overvoltages.
A short-circuited NGR is not as serious a problem as an open-cir-
cuited one. It results in a grounded electrical system; if there is a ground
fault, this results in a ground-fault current with the fault being cleared
by ground-fault or overcurrent protection. This is somewhat reassuring,
but not ideal, as a shorted-out NGR means some of the advantages of
resistance grounding are lost.
Detecting a failed NGR is difficult. A visual examination for an open-
circuited NGR may not reveal any problems. Voltage monitoring at the
neutral will not detect an open until there is a ground-fault somewhere
else on the system. Voltage monitoring does not allow selective coor-
dination or control of touch potential on portable loads, which can be
fatal. Occasionally, open resistors are discovered during preventive
maintenance (if measurement of the NGR resistance is part of standard
practice), yet even then there are no guarantees. Periodic measurement
WHAT YOU DONT KNOW CAN HURT YOU
Be certain systems are safely grounded
J. GLENNEY, Littelfuse, Saskatoon, Canada
Grounding
resistor
Power transformer
secondary
FIG. 1. In a resistance grounded system, the center point of the
input transformer is connected to the ground via a resistor.
FIG. 2. An NGR is a mechanical component and is subject to
mechanical failures. This photo shows an NGR thermal failure.
E-110 ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION 2012 HydrocarbonProcessing.com
of NGR resistance cannot pick up a failure that occurs later, and some-
times the person making the resistance measurement forgets to reconnect
the resistor after the measurement.
Sometimes ground-fault relays are tested by intentionally grounding
a phase. If the NGR is open, then the ground fault relay will not oper-
ate, and the investigation into the reason should reveal the open NGR.
Testing the ground-fault relays by primary current injection, on the other
hand, will not reveal an open NGR, because the ground-fault relays
will respond to the injected current and appear to operate properly.
This would then falsely confirm that ground-fault protection was working.
NGR monitoring. There are several ways to monitor NGRs, some bet-
ter than others. A potential transformer and a time-delay voltage relay
connected across the NGR will monitor neutral voltage, but it will not
operate until a ground fault occurs, regardless of the condition of the
NGR. This is not continuous NGR monitoring. Another approach is to
use voltage measurement and current measurement combined with logic
circuit to the NGR (FIG. 3). If both voltage and current are present, there
is a ground fault on the system, and since there is current flowing through
the NGR, it cannot be open. If there is voltage but no current in the NGR,
it must be open. Like the previous example, this is not continuous NGR
monitoring because it works only during a ground fault.
Continuous monitoring is the way to go. A far better solution is an auto-
matic monitoring device. A continuous NGR monitor detects an open
NGR as soon as the failure occurs. It works whenever control power
is applied, whether or not the system is energized and with or without
a ground fault. It also reduces the opportunity for human error during
inspection and maintenance.
At a petroleum facility, engineers performed quarterly insulation tests
on resistance grounded generators. To perform the test, the engineers
had to float the generator, disconnecting the neutral-grounding resis-
tor from ground. How could engineers be sure that each generator
was re-grounded after each test was completed? The solution in this
case was to install NGR monitors that would report the condition of
the ground to plant control software. Not only would engineers know
for certain that generators had been re-grounded, but that fact would
be documented in the control system.
A good way to implement NGR monitoring is to combine an over-
voltage measurement, an overcurrent measurement and a resistance
measurement (FIG. 4). In physical form (FIG. 5), it combines measured
NGR current, transformer or generator neutral voltage and NGR resis-
tance to continuously determine the health of the NGR. The resistance
measurement is the sum of the resistance from the sensing resistor, to the
neutral point, through the NGR to ground, and through ground back
to the monitor. Connecting the sensing resistor to a separate lug on the
neutral bus assures that the NGR connection to the neutral point is part
of the monitored loop.
When there is no ground fault on the system, a measurement of
NGR resistance is enough to confirm NGR continuity. The monitor deter-
mines the presence of a ground fault through the voltage and current
measurements. Voltage on the neutral and current in the NGR indicates
a ground fault.
When a ground fault is present, a resistance measurement is not suf-
ficient to confirm NGR continuity because of the possibility of measuring
continuity through the fault, as mentioned earlier. Because a resistance
measurement alone is not sufficient to confirm NGR continuity, the moni-
tor constantly evaluates resistance, current and voltage measurements.
When neutral voltage is elevated and current is flowing through
the NGR, the NGR must be continuous. When the neutral voltage is
elevated but no current flows through the NGR, the NGR must be open.
The ability to detect an open NGR in the presence of a ground fault
is particularly important in alarm-only systems where ground faults can
remain on the system for long periods.
When a ground fault occurs in a resistance-grounded system, volt-
age appears on the system neutral. In the case of a bolted fault, the
transformer or generator neutral rises to line-to-neutral voltage. An NGR
monitor that is directly connected to the system neutral brings a conduc-
tor with line-to-neutral voltage during a ground fault into a low-voltage
control cubicle. This is not acceptable in many applications. The sensing
Over-
current
Over-
voltage
FIG. 3. One way to monitor the status of an NGR is to apply an
overvoltage measurement, an overcurrent measurement and a logic
circuit to it.
Over-
current
Over-
voltage
FIG. 4. A better solution is the combination of an overvoltage measure-
ment, an overcurrent measurement and a resistance measurement.
E-112 ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION 2012 HydrocarbonProcessing.com
resistor, as shown in FIG. 5, connects the monitor to the power system
while isolating it from neutral voltage. The sensing resistor limits the volt-
age transfer from the system neutral to the NGR monitor. The resistive
elements of the sensing resistor will not contribute to ferroresonance,
a condition in which inductance working in conjunction with system
capacitance results in voltage oscillations that can produce overvoltages
that may exceed two to three times system voltage. A failure of the sens-
ing resistor results in a resistor-fault contact changing state and LEDs indi-
cating an issue since the resistance measurement reads an open circuit.
The final word on NGRs. Located outdoors, NGRs are subject to
failures related to corrosion, lightning, storms, earthquakes and
wildlife. Other problems that can befall NGRs include thermal
overload, extended service life, vibration and improper specifica-
tion or installation.
A plant electrical system with an open NGR is subject to transient
overvoltages, and current-sensing ground-fault protection will not indi-
cate the presence of a ground fault. A ground fault then remains on the
system and might escalate to a phase-to-phase fault.
A well-designed NGR monitor provides continuous protection
against failures that previously rendered ground fault protection, coor-
dination, and annunciation systems inoperative and left the system
exposed to damaging transient overvoltages. An NGR monitor pro-
vides confidence that current-sensing ground-fault protection will oper-
ate as designed on the next ground fault.
A good example of this approach is a petrochemical plant in Texas
in which the aging resistance grounding system had failed and plant
managers had continued operations on an ungrounded electrical
system. Managers needed to determine which of the two pumps on
that particular transformer had a ground fault, without shutting off the
pumps, which would interrupt production. This was not possible unless
they grounded the electrical system, and connecting a solid ground
would have tripped the overcurrent protection. The plant installed a
new resistance grounding system, and, this time, it added an NGR
monitor to prevent this problem from happening again.
Remember, the ability to reliably monitor neutral grounding resistors
is not trivial, so be sure to select a company that has proven experience
in your industry at all voltage levels.
Transformer or
generator
NGR enclosure
Sensing
resistor
Ground
fault
Resistor
fault
NGR monitor
NGR
L1
L2
CT
Neutral
FIG. 5. A physical embodiment combines measured NGR current,
transformer or generator neutral voltage and NGR resistance to
continuously determine the health of the NGR.
ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION NEWS
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early 2013. Reports valued the overall deal at approximately $3 billion.
CB&I said that combining the two companies will create one of the
most complete energy focused technology, engineering, procurement,
fabrication, construction, maintenance and associated services companies
in the world.
With a global workforce of nearly 50,000 employees, backlog of
over $28 billion, and engineering and fabrication facilities strategically
located on all continents, the company will have the capacity to execute
large energy infrastructure projects now and in the future, according to
company officials.
This is a highly compelling transaction that we believe will create sig-
nificant value for our shareholders, said Philip K. Asherman, president and
CEO of CB&I. By adding them into the CB&I family, we will become fully
diversified across the entire energy sector, from power generation to LNG,
from refining to gas processing, from offshore to oil sands, and beyond.
CB&I will acquire Shaw for $46 a share in cash and stock, with
shareholders receiving $41 in cash and $5 in CB&I equity (0.12883
shares based on a recent average stock price of $38.81 a share) for
each share of Shaw stock at closing. CB&I will use cash on the balance
sheets of both companies, along with approximately $1.9 billion in debt,
to finance the acquisition, it said.
The acquisition of Shaw was unanimously approved by the directors
of each companys boards. The transaction is subject to approval by
each companys shareholders, along with the receipt of certain regula-
tory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
CB&I plans to operate Shaw as a business sector under the brand name
CB&I Shaw, enabling the new company to retain Shaws brand equity.
METHANEX AWARDS PLANT ENGINEERING DEAL
TO JACOBS FOR CHILE-TO-US RELOCATION
Jacobs Engineering Group was awarded a contract from Methanex to
provide engineering, procurement and construction services for the reloca-
tion of an idled Chilean methanol facility to Geismar, Louisiana. Officials
estimate the construction value to be $550 million.
Jacobs is already executing site-specific engineering and construction
management for the 225-acre location in Geismar, La. from its offices in
Baton Rouge, with support for the disassembly from its office in Santiago,
Chile, the company said. The plant is expected to be operational the
second half of 2014.
The US Gulf Coast is a prime location for this facility, especially since
demand for methanol is expected to grow in the coming years, said
Jacobs Vice President Mike Autrey.
Jeff Glenney is a sales engineering manager for Littelfuses protective relay products line. Mr.
Glenney received a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan in Saska-
toon, Canada. He is a registered professional engineer in Saskatchewan. In Mr. Glenneys capacities
as sales engineer and sales engineering manager, he has worked with many system designers and end
users to find solutions for protection relays. He now manages Littelfuses US relay sales.
ZZZDLUOLTXLGHFRP
1
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And |t makes A|r L|qu|de G|oba| E&C So|ut|ons your partner of cho|ce.
Looking back on decades of operational
expertise within the world leader in
gases for industry, health and the
environment, we develop creative, safe,
reliable and competitive solutions for
our customers proposing a sustainable
worldwide oer of best-in-class plants
in a dynamically changing market
place. Your global success will be built
on our global capabilities organized in
a network spread around virtually all
continents with a strong local footprint
to serve our clients.
Get in touch with us. We'll be happy to
advise you and answer your questions.
''' '
SPONSORED CONTENT HYDROCARBON PROCESSING ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION 2012 E-115
AIR LIQUIDE GLOBAL E&C SOLUTIONS
AIR LIQUIDE GLOBAL E&C SOLUTIONS
Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions is a technology partner of choice
for the design, engineering and construction of leading-edge process-
ing facilities and related infrastructures worldwide for the production
of industrial gases, clean conversion projects, gas cleaning facilities,
selected refinery projects as well as facilities for the production of
oleochemicals and polymers.
We enable our customers to optimize the use of the planets natural
resources in order to provide clean and sustainable energy thanks
to our people and their capability to innovate constantly. Through
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bundled under the Lurgi, Cryogenics and Zimmer brands, we contrib-
ute to the transformation of the energy industry and help to preserve
and protect the atmosphere of our planet.
Looking back on decades of operational expertise within the world
leader in gases for industry, health and the environment, we develop
creative, safe, reliable and competitive solutions for our customers,
proposing a sustainable worldwide offer of best-in-class plants in a
dynamically changing market place.
Offering a full spectrum of solutions and drawing on our expertise
in engineering, procurement and construction through to manufactur-
ing, technology development and Feed studies, Air Liquide Global
E&C Solutions will meet the challenges of the most complex projects,
maintaining control over reliability and delivering on performance
guarantees while meeting the highest safety standards.
As part of our global portfolio, based on syngas, hydrogen pro-
duction and clean conversion technologies for fuels or chemicals,
the Lurgi technology portfolio offers innovative solutions that allow
the operation of environmentally compatible plants with clean and
energy efficient production processes. Our technological leadership
is based on proprietary and exclusively licensed technologies which
aim at converting all carbon energy resources (oil, coal, natural gas,
biomass, etc.) into clean products.
Your success will be built on our global capabilities organized in a
network of 15 Engineering centers, three manufacturing workshops as
well as sales and business offices and representatives spread around
virtually all continents with a strong local footprint to serve our clients.
With over 1600 patents to our credit, we foster innovation to
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execution skill-set. Our technology focus and long term view of people
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Global capabilities and local solutions, creativity and agility
together with a long term vision are key to our capacity to make your
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Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions. Designing your success.
INNOVATION
YOU CAN RELY ON US.
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SPONSORED CONTENT HYDROCARBON PROCESSING ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION 2012 E-117
KOCH-GLITSCH
PROVIDING SOLUTIONS FOR FOULING
APPLICATIONS:PROFLUX
TM
SEVERE SERVICE GRID
INTRODUCTION
In todays competitive refining industry, maximizing existing assets
or building new export capacity requires key technologies to ensure a
return on investment. Two of the most important parameters considered
in revamp work or new construction are throughput and reliability of the
crude distillation unit. At the heart of the crude distillation unit sits the
vacuum crude tower wash zone, which usually defines both capacity
and run length of the unit. As crude slates become heavier, the severity of
the conditions in the wash zone increases. Wash bed performance and
reliability are determined by many factors, which include the design of
mass transfer equipment.
CAPACITY
The primary function of the vacuum crude tower wash zone is to
remove entrained resid from the flash zone. Grid style packings, such
as FLEXIGRID
severe service grid packing, have typically been used

because of their robust construction and resistance to fouling. These
packings are adequate at lower vapor rates; however, when pushed
to higher C
S
values by the need for deeper cutpoints, they can exhibit
resid entrainment. The secondary function of the wash bed is to fraction-
ate impurities; therefore, depending on the severity of the cut, efficiency
can be important as well. Based on its extensive experience supplying
equipment for fouling services, Koch-Glitsch has developed a new grid
packing that combines the efficiency and de-entrainment performance
of a conventional structured packing with the ruggedness and fouling
resistance of a conventional grid packing.
The patent pending PROFLUX severe service grid packing consists of
smooth surface crimped sheets that are spaced apart and welded together
with rods. Tests performed under conditions similar to a typical vacuum
crude tower wash bed show, in comparison with conventional grid pack-
ing, that PROFLUX grid packing can operate at higher C
S
values before
significant entrainment is monitored. Figure 1 shows the entrainment levels
as a function of tower throughput for both sizes of PROFLUX grid pack-
ing compared to FLEXIGRID 3 grid packing. Greater capacity compared
to conventional grid or structured packing allows increased flow rates in
existing vacuum towers or a reduction in vessel diameter for new units.
SEPARATION EFFICIENCY
The high efficiency of PROFLUX grid packing, as demonstrated in
testing (Figure 2), gives the refiner an option to use a more robust packing
throughout the entire wash bed and run at higher operating rates, versus
the current practice that uses a combination bed of conventional grid and
structured packing. As with any wash bed packing, the vapor flow should
be as uniform as possible to minimize areas of high vapor velocity that
can dry out the packing. Koch-Glitschs patented advanced vapor horn
technology for tangential and radial vapor inlets works in conjunction
with the wash bed packing to maximize de-entrainment of the resid and
provide excellent vapor distribution to the HVGO bed above.
RELIABILITY
The first PROFLUX severe service grid is already in operation in a
refinery for more than 2 years. The welded construction of PROFLUX
grid packing provides superior durability in severe service applications.
Panels can be through-bolted to provide uplift resistance. The spacing
between the corrugated sheets eliminates contact points that could serve
as potential sites for coking or accumulation of solids. The lack of horizon-
tal surfaces allows free drainage of liquid and ensures the entire surface
of the packing is wetted. This is critical to minimize coke formation. Tests
using a precipitating salt solution have shown that the fouling resistance
of PROFLUX grid packing is superior to conventional grid packings
of similar surface area. The construction of this packing permits easy
removal, cleaning, and installation.
CONTACT INFORMATION
4111 East 37th Street North
Wichita, KS 67220
Phone: 316-828-5110
Fax: 316-828-7985
www.koch-glitsch.com
12
0.128016 0.138016 0.148016 0.158016 0.168016 0.178016 0.188016 0.198016
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Cs m/s
e
n
t
r
a
i
n
e
d

t
h
o
u
g
h

b
e
d
FLEXIGRID 3-45 grid
PROFLUX 64 grid
PROFLUX 45 grid
0
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
0.42 0.44 0.46 0.48 0.50 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58 0.60 0.62 0.64 0.66 0.68
%

L
i
q
u
i
d

e
Cs ft/s
FIG. 1. De-entrainment Efficiency
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65
H
E
T
P

m
m
Cs m/s
H
E
T
P

i
n
c
h
e
s
Cs ft/s
PROFLUX 45 grid
PROFLUX 64 grid
Xylenes, Total reflux, 200 mmHg
FIG. 2. PROFLUX Grid Packing Efficiency
EVENT
The Womens Global Leadership Conference in Energy and Technology (WGLC) is one of
the largest womens events in the industry, and the only one that focuses on discussing key
environmental, economic and professional development issues in oil and gas.
This year, Houston Mayor Annise Parker will deliver a welcome address the morning of October
30 to open day one of the conference. Day two of the conference will begin with a keynote
presentation by Mark Mills, CEO of Digital Power Group, titled Unleashing the North American
Energy Colossus Hydrocarbons Can Fuel Growth and Prosperity. To download the full
conference agenda, please visit WGLNetwork.com.
Conference content will focus on the global impact of recent technological advances in exploration
and production. Executives from leading oil and gas companies will share the latest information
on topics like regulatory changes, sustainability, rening, international operations, IOC/NOC
relationships and global upstream trends. Also slated for discussion is the recent North American
revolution in shale energy, oil sands and natural gas, and the wider implications on transportation
and infrastructure.
Registration Type Registration Fee
Single Attendee $880
Team of Two $1,595
Small Group of 5 $3,300
Leadership Pack of 10 $6,325
Participate in the 2012 Womens Global Leadership Conference
in Energy & Technology...
Attend: Register online at WGLNetwork.com
Exhibit or sponsor: Contact Teresa T Wright, Director of Global Events,
at +1 (713) 520-4475 or Teresa.Wright@GulfPub.com
Oct ober 3031, 2012 Hyat t Regency Houst on Houst on, Texas USA
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Signage Sponsor: Wine-Tasting Sponsor:
Platinum Sponsor: Silver Sponsors: Bronze Sponsor: Gold Sponsor:
MARKETPLACE / Gerry.Mayer@GulfPub.com / +1 (972) 816-3534
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(888) 789-9400 (888) 259-3600
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SERVICES
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Economic evaluation
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Houston, Texas (USA) 77084
Phone: 281 773 1629
Fax: 832 565 9360
E-Mail: info@kpieng.com
Web: www.kpieng.com
REFERENCES
Several Projects handled in US,
Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, China
& India
(Specic references available on
request)
The demand for energy consumption is
increasing rapidly. To avoid the impending
energy crunch, more producers are
switching from oil to natural gas. While
natural gas engineering is well documented
through many sources, the computer
applications that provide a crucial role in
engineering design and analysis are not
well published, and emerging technologies,
such as shale gas drilling, are generating
more advanced applications for engineers
to utilize on the job. To keep producers
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Natural Gas Engineering Handbook,
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practicing engineers the full scope of
natural gas engineering with a computer-
assisted approach. This must-have
handbook includes:
A focus on real-world essentials rather than
theory
Illustrative examples throughout the text
Working spreadsheet programs for all the
engineering calculations on a free and easy
to use CD-ROM included with this book
Exercise problems at the end of every
chapter, including newly added questions
utilizing the spreadsheet programs
Expanded sections covering todays
technologies, such as multi-fractured
horizontal wells and shale gas wells
Author: Boyun Guo and Ali Ghalambor
Price: $185.00* ISBN: 978-1-933762-41-8
EST$PRO is an estimating package to
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SURPLUS GAS PROCESSING/REFINING EQUIPMENT
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www.knighthawk.com
Houston, !exas
!el: 2812829200
Fax: 2812829333
Select 207 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS Select 209 at www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS
This industry reference source is produced by the staff of Hydrocarbon Processing magazine.
It contains flow diagrams and descriptions of more than 150 commercially viable gas processing
technologies from 34 licensors. Included are drying, treating (with new treating technologies
for shale gases), hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, natural gas liquids, synthesis gas, sulfur,
dehydrogenation, effluent cleanup, liquid treating and more. Each process description includes
a flow diagram as well as application, economics and licensor information. The processes are
indexed by technology type and contributing company.
Order a CD at GulfPub.com/GPH or Total Access Subscribers can download
a PDF at HydrocarbonProcessing.com/ProcessHandbooks
2012 GAS PROCESSES HANDBOOK
HydrocarbonProcessing.com
HYDROCARBON PROCESSING
Bill Wageneck, Sales Manager

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Pacific Business Inc.
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Dongmyung Communications, Inc.
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REPRINTS
Rhona Brown, Foster Printing Service
Phone: +1 (866) 879-9144 ext. 194
E-mail: RhondaB@FosterPrinting.com
ADVERTISER INDEX / HydrocarbonProcessing.com
This Index and procedure for securing additional information is provided as a service to Hydrocarbon Processing advertisers and a convenience to our readers. Gulf Publishing Company is not responsible for omissions or errors.
The first number after the company name is the page on which an advertisement appears. The second number, appearing in parentheses, after the company
name, is the Reader Service Number. There are two ways readers can obtain product and service information:
1. Go to www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com/RS. Follow the instructions on the screen, and your request will be forwarded for immediate action.
2. Go online to the advertiser's Website listed below.
Company Page RS#
Website
Company Page RS#
Website
Company Page RS#
Website
Aggreko ........................................... 66 (166)
www.info.hotims.com/41432-166
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. .............. 17 (67)
Altair Strickland ................................ 46 (75)
Ametek Process Instruments ............... 21 (153)
Asco Valve Inc. ................................. 102 (64)
Axens .............................................. 128 (53)
Baldor Electric Company ....................127 (69)
BASF Corporation ...............................83 (100)
Bete Fog Nozzle ................................. 31 (98)
BIC Alliance ........................................24 (156)
Buchen-ICS GmbH ............................. 60 (164)
Burckhardt Compression AG ................ 53 (79)
Cameron ...........................................97 (55)
Carver Pump Company .......................26 (157)
CB&I ..................................................93 (81)
Chevron Lummus Global ................... 106 (91)
Colfax Americas ................................. 32 (86)
Curtiss-Wright .................................... 2 (76)
Dresser-Rand ..................................... 51 (65)
Dresser-Rand ..................................... 91 (171)
Elliott Group ......................................89 (52)
Emerson Process Management
(Deltav) ...........................................11 (63)
Flexitallic LP ....................................... 5 (93)
Foster Wheeler ............................. E-108 (83)
FourQuest Energy ...............................28 (160)
Gulf Publishing Company
Construction Boxscore.......................30
EventsEMGC .................................125
EventsWGLC ................................. 119
Gas Processes Handbook ..................122
HPI Marketplace ....................... 120121
HPI Market Data 2013 ....................... 90
Haldor Topse A/S .............................. 18 (56)
HTRI .................................................. 14 (151)
Hermetic Pumpen GmbH ................... 44 (159)
Heurtey Petrochem ............................25 (68)
HyTorc ...............................................65 (165)
Idrojet ...............................................52 (162)
Imperial Crane ...................................68 (167)
ITW Polymer Technologies/Chockfast ....84 (169)
John M Campbell & Co .................... E-113 (99)
Johnson Screens ................................ 73 (60)
Koch-Glitsch .................................. E-116 (77)
Linde AG ............................................34 (78)
Linde Process Plants ........................... 77 (85)
Lurgi GmbH ................................... E-114 (101)
Man Diesel & Turbo .............................69 (59)
Merichem Company ............................54 (84)
Messe Dsseldorf North America .........92 (172)
Michell Instruments ...........................82 (168)
Milliken Workwear .............................62 (97)
Nace International .............................85 (170)
Neptune Research ..............................59 (163)
Paharpur Cooling Towers, Ltd. ............123 (102)
Prosernat .......................................... 21 (174)
Quest Integrity Group LLC....................22 (154)
Rosemount Tank Gauging ...................29 (61)
Saint-Gobain NorPro ..........................36 (57)
Samson GmbH ...................................45 (161)
Selas Fluid Processing Corp ................101 (73)
Sherwin Williams .............................. 99 (94)
Siemens AG ....................................... 15 (62)
Spraying Systems Co ........................... 8 (66)
Sulzer Chemtech, USA Inc. ...................25 (74)
Swagelok Co. ..................................... 61 (87)
T.D. Williamson ..................................70 (80)
T.F. Hudgins, Inc .................................43 (158)
Team Industrial Services .....................27 (95)
Total Safety .......................................78 (71)
Trachte USA ..................................... 100 (173)
Transfield Services .............................86 (72)
UOP LLC ............................................. 12
URS ............................................... E-118 (82)
Vega Americas, Inc. ............................ 23 (155)
Wood Group Mustang .........................34 (90)
Wood Group Mustang ......................E-111 (89)
Worley Parsons .................................. 16 (152)
Zeeco ................................................67 (88)
ZymeFlow Decon Technology .............. 75 (92)
2628
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Automation
Safety
Sticktion: A dangerous failure mode
I set a wet glass on the old wooden kitchen table at our
home. It sat there all night. The next morning, when I went
to grab the glass, it stuck to the table. Yes, this event has hap-
pened before. But, this time, it took a considerable yank to
remove the glass from the wooden table. I do not know what
type of finish was applied to this table; however, things do
tend to stick to it.
While visiting the maintenance shop at a refinery, I was
asking about solenoid valve, actuator and valve failures. One
of the maintenance workers jumped in and told a story. If I
dont go out there and turn that hand valve once a week, no
one will ever be able to turn it again. This sparked a discus-
sion over the reasons for this phenomenon, and it became
clear that mechanical devices that do not move for significant
periods require higher force levels to begin movement.
Sticktion: Action or condition? A search revealed quite
a bit of research on this subject. Several papers and articles
used the word sticktion to describe this condition. One set
of test data shows that the magnitude of the force required to
move the part will increase with time left unmoved in posi-
tion. Movement, even a small one, breaks the bonds that cause
this problem. The movement force becomes significant after
a day and increases until about 200 hours, where it levels off.
The comment from the shop employee makes sense; in this
context, one week is 168 hours. Of course, there are many oth-
er variables, including temperature, materials, surface finish
of metal parts, process materials, etc. The chance that a valve
would not move is also related to a design parameter called the
force/friction ratio. An informal online survey indicated that
several engineers felt severe sticktion would occur only after
a valve stayed in one position for about a month.
Opportunity for failure. The real problem with this failure
mode in safety systems is that most safety systems in the hy-
drocarbon processing industry take action to protect a pro-
cess very infrequently. Often, such safeguard devices will sit
motionless for years. When solenoid valves, quick-exhaust
valves, actuators and valves have significant sticktion, this
is a dangerous failure! It is obvious that the dangerous failure
rate for these products will be much higher in applications in
which movement is infrequent, as compared to those applica-
tions where the movement is frequent and regular. So what
can be done?
Solutions. The concept of automatic partial-valve-stroke test-
ing comes to mind. There are several products on the market
designed to automatically move an actuator-valve assembly a
small amount at predetermined time intervals. The original
intent was to detect when the assembly gets stuck. But it ap-
pears that the movement is also enough to reduce sticktion.
So is there a double benefit? And how often should
there be testing? The answer varies depending on process
conditions. In the worst-case scenario, performing a partial-
stroke test once a day or even once a shift (8 hours) would
be sufficient to eliminate most sticktion failures. This is
an improvement in safety. In addition, the well-designed
partial-valve stroke test measures actuator pressure and valve
position. Such monitoring can detect when sticktion is just
beginning or has already occurred. Dangerous failure-rate re-
duction and detection of sticktion are a good combination
to improve safety and reduce capital equipment and mainte-
nance costs.
Changing minds. As I explained this idea to one safety engi-
neer, he stopped me. No way was he going to implement any
automatic partial-stroke testing. Why? He thought this would
cause a false trip almost every time the test was conducted. I
understand that a false trip is a huge deal in some processing
situations. A false trip can not only be costly, but I am told by
process experts that it may also cause a dangerous situation.
It is an absolute fact that the detailed part level failure modes
and effects analysis shows that there are failures initiated by
a false trip. However, this is no more likely than the conven-
tional solenoid valve circuit!
Opportunities. Fortunately, more safety system design en-
gineers are implementing partial-valve-stroke testing, and
some are even configuring timed automatic partial-stroke
testing. We will all be observing these installations for their
results. I like to say, Let the numbers answer this question.
If the failure-rate numbers are even a rough predictor of field
performance, we will soon know if the false-trip rate increas-
es. It will take much longer to conclude if safety improves,
but the automatic systems will, at least, do a good job of re-
cording failure events. Does anyone want to place a bet on
the expected false trip rate? I am most certainly betting on
false-trip-rate reductions.
WILLIAM M. GOBLE is a principal partner of exida.com,
a company that does consulting, training and support
for safety-critical and high-availability process
automation. He has over 25 years of experience in
automation systems, doing analog and digital circuit
design, software development, engineering
management and marketing. Dr. Goble is the author of
the ISA book Control Systems Safety Evaluation and
Reliability. He is a fellow member of ISA and a member
of ISAs SP84 committee on safety systems.
WILLIAM M. GOBLE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
wgoble@exida.com
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Hydrocarbon Processing September 2012

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