REFINING INDUSTRY

OPTIMIZATION OF REFINERY THROUGHPUT AND BLENDING WITH
MICRO MOTION VISCOSITY METER

Application===Refiners throughout most parts of the world are trying to increase=
their flexibility to process various crude slates. The crude oil thatis being processed in refineries today is quite different in naturefrom the crudes processed in the past due to high variability in thequality. Refiners want to take advantage of the less costly crudes,
whether they are in the form of heavier opportunity crudes, or lightshale oil. They need to understand the full impact of running those
crudes in terms of the planned throughput and the final productdistribution in order to maximize their margins.

RESULTS
Improved operational agility with an online
viscosity measurement
Provided a better understanding ofeffects of crude changes upstream anddownstream of the crude unit
Enabled optimization of refinery operations
with a better understanding of thetradeoffs between throughput, productyields and margin
Allowed the refiner to blend a crude which
optimized the profitability for the refinery

Challenge
One refiner in Texas came up with an innovative way to help themto quickly and efficiently characterize the crude feeding the crudedistillation unit by measuring the viscosity and density of the crude
online, continuously. This refiner wished to process a wide variety ofcrude oils, and found that by blending a heavy crude with the shale
crude often resulted in a “dumbbell blend”. In other words there werea lot of very heavy components and a lot of very light components,and very little in the mid-boiling range. Because of this variability, theyfound that they could process two crude oils with the same API gravity,of 25 for example, and the viscosity of the crude could vary by 50%.
This would have a significant impact on the hydraulics through theheat exchangers in the crude preheat train, and would therefore affectthroughput.

Solution
Using the viscosity and density measurements to characterize the crude
then allowed them to more effectively optimize the refinery operations.
They were able to better understand and act on the tradeoffs between
throughput, product yields and margin to run the refinery mostprofitably. They also found that characterizing the crude helped tounderstand the operational effects upstream and downstream of thecrude unit including the following:•Adjustments of exchanger duties of the preheat train

AN-002027© 2015 Micro Motion, Inc. All rights reserved. The Emerson logo is a trademark and service mark of Emerson Electric Co. Micro Motion, ELITE, ProLink,
MVD and MVD Direct Connect marks are marks of one of the Emerson Process Management family of companies. All other marks are property of theirrespective owners.

•Feed rates to downstream units including vacuum
unit, coker, reformers, gas processing plant

The measurements were taken using a slip stream aroundthe crude charge pump, as shown in the diagram below.

•Distribution of yield and product blending

The viscosity measurement was made with a
Micro Motion Fork Viscosity Meter (FVM), and the densityand flow though the Micro Motion CMF100 Coriolis meter.
Although the FVM can measure both viscosity and density,
the Coriolis meter measures the flow rate as well to insurethat a representative sample is being measured.

The refiner found that taking samples to a laboratory oncea day was not sufficient. For one, the refiner wanted tooperate in a more dynamic environment taking advantageof market conditions. It was also found that there wasenough stratification in the tanks that the viscosity anddensity could change significantly within a few hours, so an
online measurement had the greatest benefit.
Another benefit to the online viscosity measurement is theability to verify that the crude they are being sent by their
supplier is indeed within the specified range. In the eventthat the crude appears to be outside of the range, they areable to go back to their supplier with data to support thediscrepancy and rectify the situation.

The value of these measurements in optimizing therefinery operations has been tremendous. There areplans in the future of receiving even further benefit byincorporating the measurements into the crude unit’s
advanced process control system.

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Flow diagram of the installation

AN-002027© 2015 Micro Motion, Inc. All rights reserved. The Emerson logo is a trademark and service mark of Emerson Electric Co. Micro Motion, ELITE, ProLink,
MVD and MVD Direct Connect marks are marks of one of the Emerson Process Management family of companies. All other marks are property of theirrespective owners.

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