REFINING INDUSTRY

OPTIMIZING CRUDE BLENDING OPERATIONS SAVES $1.5M IN 5
MONTHS WITH MICRO MOTION

Application
A large refiner in the United States wanted to make changes to his=
crude oil blending operations in order to have improved control ofthe feedstocks for each of his 3 crude distillation units.

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Challenge=

RESULTS
Precise ratio of the crude oil components
allows the refinery to take advantage of theprice differential between different crudestocks
Decreased demurrage costs with improved
accuracy and planning for storage tankavailability
Improved flexibility for crude unit operation
leading to better cuts and improved
optimization in downstream units
Improved safety by avoiding production ofundesirable products

The refiner has 10 crude oil tanks from which to draw feedstocks
into 3 different crude units. The quality and properties of thecrude in each tank is highly variable, and also has a significantlydifferent value. When the differential between different crude
stocks can be $5-$15/barrel, precise measurement becomes
important.
Because of the variability in the physical properties of the crude,
the volumetric flow meters used to meter each of the blend
components were unreliable. The refiner used a combination ofultrasonic and differential pressure orifice meters, both of which
are dependent on fluid properties in order to measure accurately.
Because the meters were unreliable, the blending operators had
to use tank levels to gauge the amount of each component which
was to be blended. Controlling to a precise ratio with this method
was not possible. In addition to that, the operators could not
blend one crude stock from a single tank into multiple blends
because they would lose their measurement. They needed toimprove their flexibility.
Another issue this refiner was running into because of his
inaccurate crude oil blending method, was that the crude oil
storage tanks were not always becoming empty when they werescheduled to be empty. As a result, they encountered significant
demurrage costs, when the crude oil cargo ships had to wait in the
harbor for available crude oil storage capacity. Demurrage costs
are commonly in the neighborhood of $30,000 - $50,000/day.

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Having poor control of the feedstock quality lead to a couple ofother issues for the refiner. Without knowing what is being fed
to the unit, it was not possible to accurately predict or optimize
the cuts from the crude tower or the volume feeding the vacuum© 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.

tower and the coker. The coker also requires a specificformulation of the crude with a controlled amount ofheavy residuals, in order to reduce the chances of
producing shot coke. Inadvertently producing shotcoke can lead to significant operational and safety
problems.

Solution
The Refiner installed 4 high capacity Micro Motion
Coriolis meters on his blending run lines. There are
3-CMFHC2 meters, and one CMFHC3 meter, all with
2700 electronics. Each meter can be fed from multiple
tanks giving their system the much needed flexibility to
run the most cost effective blend taking advantage ofsignificant price differentials.

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Accurate flowrates have resulted in more accurate
planning and scheduling operations, and more accurate
storage tank management. The result has beensignificantly reduced demurrage costs.
The refiner calculated that the benefit from these two
improved conditions of optimized blend ratio control, andreduced demurrage costs led to savings of $1.5 million injust 5 months, giving them a payback in under 6 months.
Additional benefits that the refiner has realized since theinstallation of the Micro Motion meters include improvedoptimization of the crude distillation unit. Steady, accurate
rates with a known quality, allows them to run up closer to unit
constraints, requiring less allowance for error in planning. Also,board operators can leave flow rates on set point, allowing
them to focus on other things.

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WR&'8AN-002023© 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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