Optimization of the Caustic Treatment of Jet-Fuel to Reduce the Consumption of Caustic Soda in an Oil Refinery

Jet-Fuel desulfurization is one of the most important processes in the petroleum industries due to the high quality required for aviation fuels. In the pre-sent work, the desulfurization of Jet-Fuel with a content of sulfurous compounds was studied using a process assisted with sodium hydroxide. It was considered that the composition of the turbo fuel varies because different blends of crude oil are processed in the refinery under study. The effects of operating conditions, such as reaction time (15 to 30 min) and the amount of caustic soda (NaOH) in its solution (0.024 to 0.2 mol/L) were investigated. The objective functions (responses) were the NaOH consumption and the total cost of production while the acidity and the total sulfur content of Jet-A1 were considered as restrictions. The optimal conditions of the proposed model were obtained using the optimization with the fmincon function of the MATLAB software. These optimal conditions were found to vary according to the content of sulfur compounds present in the process feed. From the optimal points obtained, it was possible to determine the frequency of change of the NaOH solution that allows its maximum use.