PTQ Q2 2024 Issue

The AI digital twin assesses plant performance under various configurations and integrates with economic and capital cost models to evaluate the full impact of the revamp considered. Q Under what conditions do you see opportunities for blending petrochemical byproducts with refinery fuel feedstocks to lower conversion costs? A Romain Roux, VP Decarbonisation & Consulting, Axens, Romain.ROUX@axens.net Pygas is easily valorised in a refinery to produce an aro - matic rich cut or a gasoline after different hydrogenation steps. To produce an aromatic rich cut, a first step of hydro - genation will remove the diolefins and styrene. A second step of hydrogenation will remove the sulphur and olefins. To produce a gasoline, the first step of hydro - genation remains. It is then processed in a Prime-G+ unit to produce ultra-low sulphur gasoline. A Ujjal Mukherjee, Chief Technology Officer, Lummus Technology Whenever a refinery is being integrated with a petrochemi - cals complex, the opportunity to upgrade low-value prod- ucts from one unit to another increases. For example, the extremely low-value pyrolysis fuel oil from an ethylene unit is a good feedstock to a residue hydrocracking unit, where it will be converted to transportation fuels and/or petro - chemical feedstock. Hydrogen from propane dehydrogena- tion, catalytic reforming, and ethylene units can significantly reduce the hydrogen production demand in the refinery. When demand for gasoline is high, which is still the case in several parts of the developing world, the pyrolysis gaso- line from the ethylene unit or reformate from an aromat- ics unit can offer good value, especially when the price of certain polymers is depressed. The C 9 + aromatics from an ethylene unit can be recycled back to a hydrocracker to pro - duce incremental jet or heavy naphtha. Q What heat and mass transfer technologies are helping the industry lower Opex? A Caroline Bird, Senior Marketing Specialist, Solenis LLC, cbird@solenis.com Heat exchanger efficiency is critical to the success of any industrial operation, yet many plants rely on outdated or inadequate data to assess the health of their heat exchanger networks. As digitalisation is slowly becoming accepted and explored in the industry, there are opportuni- ties for refining and petrochemical operations to improve data management and lower operating expenses. Digital monitoring of heat exchanger reliability and per - formance is allowing companies to identify problem heat exchangers and create appropriate action plans to optimise heat exchanger efficiency. Solenis’ HexEval performance monitoring program for heat exchangers is an example of this digitalisation. The program allows plant operators to identify and monitor problem heat exchangers that are operating outside of set

limits for fouling and scale. As a result, plant operators can address fouling and scale issues in real time to help avoid a plant shutdown or slowdown. Additionally, Solenis’ HexEval program provides an online repository for all heat exchanger activity, allowing access to historical data when needed. This allows plant personnel to devise action plans to proactively address system issues, thereby maintaining plant productivity and generating operational savings. The utilisation of the HexEval program has enabled numerous Solenis customers to decrease cor - rosion and corrosion-related pitting, cleanings outside of turnarounds, and heat exchanger failures. Knowledge is power, and having the knowledge of their heat exchangers at their fingertips has enabled refining and petrochemical operations to significantly reduce their operating costs. A Jan Reneteau, Managing Director, Axens, Jan. RENETEAU@axens.net Very high-efficiency heat exchangers are key to lowering the Opex of heavy energy consumption processes. While standard S&T technology can offer limited thermal per- formances, spiral tube heat exchanger technology greatly enhances thermal and hydraulic performances. This technology has been used for many years in the cryo - genic liquefaction industry. For more than 30 years, ZPJE has developed a unique state-of-the-art know-how of heat exchange calculation, hydraulic simulation, and mechanical modelling of spiral tubes design to enable this technology to be used in refining and petrochemical applications. The design of spiral tube heat exchangers consists of many tubes arranged in multiple layers of helical coils, around a centre pipe. This tube bundle is enclosed in a cylindrical pressure vessel. The fluid on the tube side and shell side flows in opposite directions, making the equip - ment a true countercurrent heat exchanger, allowing a heat transfer efficiency two to three times higher than conven - tional S&T exchangers. The minimum temperature difference between the two fluids can be as low as 2°C, permitting the unlocking of heat integration opportunities in demanding process services. Those exchangers can be applied in reforming, aromatics applications and also in hydroprocessing applications where their high performance and high tolerance towards fouling can drastically reduce the Opex, allowing, in some cases, the end user to operate the furnace only during start-up phases. The newly created joint venture between ZPJE and Axens named Nectis aims to promote the application of spiral tube heat exchangers in the refining and petrochemical busi - nesses to help the industry lower its carbon intensity. A Ujjal Mukherjee, Chief Technology Officer, Lummus Technology Some technologies that are especially useful include: • New membrane technologies for separation and coil- wound heat exchangers. • Air preheat systems that can significantly reduce energy consumption. • Advanced integrated separation devices used in Lummus’ proprietary TC2C technology.

PTQ Q2 2024