Patent ID: 6611735
Filing Date: 2003-08-26
Classification: G05B,G06Q

Abstract:
A method of accurately predicting a characteristic of a product to be prepared by a processing plant, comprisingidentifying an incoming material, said material having at least one measured property, selecting at least one product to be prepared from said incoming material by said processing plant, said product having at least one desired characteristic, selecting a process to be used by the processing plant to produce the product, said process having an effect upon the characteristic of the product, calculating a predicted value of the characteristic of the product utilizing a predictive equation, wherein the predictive equation is generated by regressive analysis of an accumulation of data relating the measured property of the incoming material, the process, and the characteristic of the product; wherein the incoming material is a petroleum feedstock, the product is diesel fuel, the process is admixing cetane improver, and the characteristic of the product is cetane number, and wherein the measured property includes at least API gravity, T50 and at least two additional properties selected from the group consisting of T10, T90, aniline point, viscosity, cloud point, and aromatics content.