Heat Integration retrofit analysis—an oil refinery case study by Retrofit Tracing Grid Diagram

A decision support system was researched and applied to a case study in the petrochemical industry. The participants were an insurance company underwriting the policies of oil and gas refineries located in a major oil producing nation. The Chemical Process Quantitative Risk Analysis methodology was applied as a framework to implement uncertainty quantification and risk analysis using a specialized commercial DSS software product. A gas vapor explosion was simulated at an oil refinery, to predict the fire and radiation damage. Costs and risks were entered into the model based on historical data. Loss estimates were generated for equipment and buildings located various distances (pressures) from the explosion origin. Overall, the DSS model predicted an expected loss of over $14,000,000 USD for equipment located in the 50 meter explosion radius, which represented a loss ratio of almost 52%. The losses predicted from the DSS model were comparable to the literature and to experiences of the case study company. The margin of error from the DSS model was less than ±5% which made it very reliable according to benchmarks.

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Studying the Role of System Aggregation in Energy Targeting: A Case Study of a Swedish Oil Refinery

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13040958 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 958 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elin Svensson ◽

Matteo Morandin ◽

Simon Harvey ◽

Stavros Papadokonstantakis

Keyword(s):

Heat Exchange ◽

Heat Recovery ◽

Process Integration ◽

Heat Integration ◽

Direct Process ◽

Utility System ◽

Process Heat ◽

Definition Of

The definition of appropriate energy targets for large industrial processes is a difficult task since operability, safety and plant layout aspects represent important limitations to direct process integration. The role of heat exchange limitations in the definition of appropriate energy targets for large process sites was studied in this work. A computational framework was used which allows to estimate the optimal distribution of process stream heat loads in different subsystems and to select and size a site wide utility system. A complex Swedish refinery site is used as a case study. Various system aggregations, representing different patterns of heat exchange limitations between process units and utility configurations were explored to identify trade-offs and bottlenecks for energy saving opportunities. The results show that in spite of the aforementioned limitations direct heat integration still plays a significant role for the refinery energy efficiency. For example, the targeted hot utility demand is reduced by 50–65% by allowing process-to-process heat exchange within process units even when a steam utility system is available for indirect heat recovery. Furthermore, it was found that direct process heat integration is motivated primarily at process unit level, since the heat savings that can be achieved by allowing direct heat recovery between adjacent process units (25–42%) are in the same range as those that can be obtained by combining unit process-to-process integration with site-wide indirect heat recovery via the steam system (27–42%).

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Operability and Technical Implementation Issues Related to Heat Integration Measures—Interview Study at an Oil Refinery in Sweden

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13133478 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 3478 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sofie Marton ◽

Elin Svensson ◽

Simon Harvey

Keyword(s):

Heat Exchanger ◽

Heat Recovery ◽

Early Stage ◽

Oil Refinery ◽

Practical Implementation ◽

Heat Integration ◽

Heat Exchanger Network ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Relative Significance ◽

Different Types

In many energy-intensive industrial process plants, significant improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved through increased heat recovery. However, retrofitting plants for heat integration purposes can affect process operability. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of such issues by systematically relating different types of heat recovery retrofit measures to a range of technical barriers associated with process operability and practical implementation of the measures. The paper presents a new approach for this kind of study, which can be applied in the early-stage screening of heat integration retrofit measures. This approach accounts for the importance of a number of selected operability factors and their relative significance. The work was conducted in the form of a case study at a large oil refinery. Several conceptual heat exchanger network retrofit design proposals were prepared and discussed during semi-structured interviews with technical staff at the refinery. The results show that many operability and practical implementation factors, such as spatial limitations, pressure drops and non-energy benefits, influence the opportunities for implementation of different types of heat exchanger network retrofit measures. The results indicate that it is valuable to consider these factors at an early stage when designing candidate heat exchanger network retrofit measures. The interview-based approach developed in this work can be applied to other case studies for further confirmation of the results.

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