Extending Alkenes’ Value Chain to Functionalized Polyolefins

Naphtha is one of the crude oil distillation products, bringing almost the lowest value-addition to crude oil, compared to other refinery products such as liquid petroleum gas, gasoline, and diesel. However, Naphtha can be converted to one of the highest value products at the end of the value chain, i.e., polyolefins. Although the production of conventional commodity polyolefins from crude oil, is considered as one of the final products in alkenes’ value chain, there are specialty polyolefins with higher values. Specialty polyolefins are small volume, high-performance thermoplastics with high-profit margins compared to traditional commodity polyolefins. Recently, some special purpose functionalized polyolefins have been developed as efficient substituents for high-performance engineering thermoplastics. Polyolefins are exploited as cost-effective platforms to produce these functionalized thermoplastics. They are promising candidates for replacing high-performance polymers with high-cost raw materials and elaborate production processes. So, functional polyolefins have introduced a new paradigm in the production of high-performance thermoplastics, extending the alkenes’ value chain and increasing profitability. High-performance specialty polyolefins may find exceptional markets in niche applications. In this chapter, the commercial specialty and functional polyolefins’ current situation and prospects are reviewed.

Computational Experience with Piecewise Linear Relaxations for Petroleum Refinery Planning

Refinery planning optimization is a challenging problem as regards handling the nonconvex bilinearity, mainly due to pooling operations in processes such as crude oil distillation and product blending. This work investigated the performance of several representative piecewise linear (or piecewise affine) relaxation schemes (referred to as McCormick, bm, nf5, and nf6t) and de (which is a new approach proposed based on eigenvector decomposition) that mainly give rise to mixed-integer optimization programs to convexify a bilinear term using predetermined univariate partitioning for instances of uniform and non-uniform partition sizes. The computational results showed that applying these schemes improves the relaxation tightness compared to only applying convex and concave envelopes as estimators. Uniform partition sizes typically perform better in terms of relaxation solution quality and convergence behavior. It was also seen that there is a limit on the number of partitions that contribute to relaxation tightness, which does not necessarily correspond to a larger number of partitions, while a direct relationship between relaxation size and tightness does not always hold for non-uniform partition sizes.

Management tools for implementation and monitoring of requirements for enforcement of reducing sulphur oxides on ships: Latvia and Lithuania cases

The main type of bunker oil for ships is heavy fuel oil, derived as а residue from crude oil distillation. Crude oil contains sulphur which, following combustion in the engine, ends up in ship emissions. Sulphur oxides (SOx) are known to be harmful to human health, causing respiratory symptoms and lung diseases. Limiting SOx emissions from ships will improve air quality and protect the environment. From 1 January 2020, the limit for sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships operating outside designated emission control areas is reduced to 0,50% m/m. However, there are varying degrees of readiness among port and flag states for implementation and monitoring of requirements for enforcement of reducing Sulphur oxides on ships. In this paper are described management tools of states for implementing the inspection on Sulphur in ships fuel, analysed the states institutions activities for the enforcement of reducing Sulphur oxides on ships, and indicated the possibilities of increasing effectiveness of the management tools in Latvia and Lithuania.

Connect Two Crude Oil Distillation Units with One Crude Oil De-Salter in Dewania Refinery

Crude oil, which exported to refineries, already contains salt, water, and fouling crude oil received with salt content not less than 50 ppm. Dewania refinery with a capacity of 20,000 BPSD, which serves with two crude distillation units, each unit with a capacity of 10,000 BPSD, which operate without crude desalter. In an aim to reduce the effects of salts, water and, fouling associated with crude oil, two crude distillation units connected with one crude oil desalter with a capacity of 20,000 BPSD (one desalter). crude oil desalter transferred from (Daura Refinery) to Dewania refinery, in aim to reduce salt content from 50ppm to 5 ppm and mitigate water and other fouling. Crude oil desalter installed in the middle distance between two crude distillations units (90 m from each unit isometric piping). Crude oil, which is pumped by a charge pump to preheated in crude oil distillation unit with a train of heat exchangers. When the pipeline size increased from 4″ to 6″, which reduces the pressure dropped from 0.946 to 0.15 bar for each transfer pipeline and in consequence, the total pressure drop reduces from 11.011 to 10.215 bar for the whole unit. In an aim to reduce the heat dissipated from surface of transfer pipeline. Each transfer pipeline insulated with calcium silicate insulator, the thickness of insulator increased from 38mm to 50mm in an aim to reduce heat loss from −101.56 watts/m to −84.282 watts/m, which reduced temperature difference between the surface pipeline and environment from 13 to 10°C.

Computational Experience with Piecewise-Linear Relaxations for Petroleum Refinery Planning

Refinery planning optimization is a challenging problem as regards handling the nonconvex bilinearity mainly due to pooling operations in processes such as crude oil distillation and product blending. This work investigates the performance of several representative piecewise-linear (or piecewise-affine) relaxation schemes (referred to as McCormick, bm, nf5, nf6t, and de (which is a new approach proposed based on eigenvector decomposition) that mainly give rise to mixed-integer optimization programs to convexify a bilinear term using predetermined univariate partitioning for instances of uniform and non-uniform partition sizes. Computational results show that applying these schemes give improved relaxation tightness than only applying convex and concave envelopes as estimators. Uniform partition sizes typically perform better in terms of relaxation solution quality and convergence behavior. It is also seen that there is a limit on the number of partitions that contributes to relaxation tightness, which does not necessarily correspond to a larger number of partitions, while a direct relation between relaxation size and tightness does not always hold for non-uniform partition sizes.

Corrosion in Crude Oil Distillation Unit Overhead: A recent Case Study

Despite all the technological advances and the control mechanisms that exist today to achieve the control of corrosion in overhead systems in atmospheric crude oil distillation units, there is still a high level of difficulty in predicting the phenomenon due to the complexity of the chemical compounds involved in the entire process. The study of this practical case aims to determine what control mechanisms should be optimized in a refinery located in the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan to prevent corrosion phenomena’s in this specific system and how it should be done to achieve these improvements. It has been suggested that the corrosion mechanisms by hydrochloric acid and by ammonium chloride have been those that have acted in the operational context of the mentioned facility. To test this hypothesis, a study of the unit’s operational conditions and analytical tests were carried out on the construction material of various components and the products (sediments) found inside the tower. The results show that a lack of control in the salts and sediments content of the feed crude have caused an increase in the hydrolysis process of certain components upstream of the tower and thus the generation of acids and salts was promoted. On this basis, it is necessary to optimize the primary treatment of crude oil and update the chemical treatments and washing water systems to adapt to the new conditions of the feed of the refinery.