Overcoming Challenges Resulting from Surplus Fuel Oil

Abstract

Reduction of LNG prices has thrown up a very serious challenge for the Refining Industry as it is rapidly replacing the demand of the Fuel Oil. Refiners need to find a way for a suitable upgrade of the Residual Fuel Oil from the Crude Distillation Units (CDU). One of the most economical and attractive ways to do this is to process the surplus Fuel Oil in the Resid Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (RFCC). These days, higher amount of surplus Fuel Oil is resulting in Higher capacity RFCCs. However, does it come without any challenges? Certainly No. As we all know that the current market scenarios discourage production of Gasoline while emphasizing on maximizing Poly Propylene and Para Xylene. However conventional RFCCs are considered for producing Gasoline. So, we are left with a challenging question. How to minimize Gasoline from RFCC while increasing its capacity? It is rarely possible to reduce Gasoline production while increasing RFCC capacity. Sounds Impossible but this is made possible by an innovative Process Unit Reconfiguration in KIPIC. This article will highlight the various challenges associated with the increased RFCC capacity. This will discuss in detail how the optimum configuration is achieved for minimizing the Gasoline production and maximizing the feed stocks to downstream Poly Propylene and Aromatics complex to produce the valuable Polypropylene and Para Xylene. The paper will conclude that by an innovative Process Unit Configuration, the overall Gasoline quantity can be reduced by 15% even by almost doubling the RFCC capacity. It will also elaborate how the optimum configuration helps in reducing the overall CAPEX / OPEX of the units, increases the overall reliability, eliminates the dependence on the imported feed stocks and helps in value maximization of the intermediate streams. The paper will be of interest to anyone who is involved in carrying out the Configuration study for the secondary processing units of the Refinery and looking for optimum solution to the surplus Fuel Oil. It will provide an insight to the latest options available for upgrading the fuel oil to various products meeting the current market demands with minimum CAPEX and OPEX. The paper also focusses on how RFCC overall Reliability is increased and how yields of high value products is maximized from the unit.