Patent ID: 11898109
Assignee: MARATHON PETROLEUM COMPANY LP
Field: Basic materials chemistry (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  G | IPC C  G

Claim 0:
1. A method to enhance control of hydrotreating and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) associated with a refining operation, the method comprising:
supplying a hydrocarbon feedstock to a cat feed hydrotreater (CFH) processing unit associated with the refining operation, the hydrocarbon feedstock having one or more hydrocarbon feedstock properties;
operating the CFH processing unit to produce CFH unit material;
supplying the CFH unit material to one or more first processing units comprising an FCC processing unit;
operating the one or more first processing units to produce one or more corresponding unit materials, the one or more corresponding unit materials comprising one or more of intermediate materials or unit product materials;
conditioning a hydrocarbon feedstock sample to one or more of filter the hydrocarbon feedstock sample, change a temperature of the hydrocarbon feedstock sample, dilute the hydrocarbon feedstock sample in solvent, or degas the hydrocarbon feedstock sample to provide a conditioned hydrocarbon feedstock sample;
analyzing the hydrocarbon feedstock sample via a first spectroscopic analyzer to provide hydrocarbon feedstock sample spectra;
conditioning a CFH unit material sample to one or more of: (a) filter the CFH unit material sample, (b) change a temperature of the CFH unit material sample, (c) dilute the CFH unit material sample, or (d) degas the CFH unit material sample, thereby to provide a conditioned CFH material sample;
analyzing the conditioned CFH material sample via a first spectroscopic analyzer or a second spectroscopic analyzer to provide CFH material sample spectra, one or more of the first spectroscopic analyzer or the second spectroscopic analyzer being calibrated to generate standardized spectral responses;
predicting one or more hydrocarbon feedstock sample properties associated with the hydrocarbon feedstock sample based at least in part on the hydrocarbon feedstock sample spectra;
predicting one or more CFH sample properties associated with the CFH unit material sample based at least in part on the CFH unit material sample spectra; and
controlling, via one or more FCC process controllers, based at least in part on the one or more hydrocarbon feedstock properties or the one or more CFH unit material properties, one or more of:
(i) one or more hydrocarbon feedstock properties associated with the hydrocarbon feedstock supplied to the CFH processing unit,
(ii) one or more CFH material properties associated with the CFH unit material supplied to the one or more first processing units,
(iii) one or more intermediates properties associated with intermediate materials produced by one or more first processing units comprising an FCC processing unit;
(iv) operation of the CFH processing unit,
(v) operation of the one or more first processing units;
(vi) one or more unit materials properties associated with one or more unit materials produced by the one or more first processing units, or
(vii) operation of one or more second processing units positioned downstream relative to the one or more first processing units,
so that the prescriptively controlling causes the FCC process to produce one or more of:
(a) one or more CFH unit materials each having one or more properties within a selected range of one or more target properties of the one or more CFH materials,
(b) one or more intermediate materials each having one or more properties within a selected range of one or more target properties of the one or more intermediate materials,
(c) one or more unit materials each having one or more properties within a selected range of one or more target properties of the one or more unit materials, or
(d) one or more downstream materials each having one or more properties within a selected range of one or more target properties of the one or more downstream materials,
thereby to cause the FCC process to achieve material outputs that more accurately and responsively converge on one or more of the target properties.