Gasoline blending station (GILB) has been started in Achinsk (Russia)

16 December, 2011

The equipment has been supplied to Achinsk (Russia), to deliver the In-line Gasoline Blending Station for ROSNEFT Achinsk Oil Refinery. The purpose of Gasoline Blending Station is to produce automotive gasoline grades in accordance with EURO-3 and new Russian technical standards.

The Modcon's scope of supply includes delivery and commissioning of the core equipment package, including blending process equipment with integrated process control system (FMC Technologies), optimization software (Invensys) and process analyzers (Modcon Systems). Seven raw material streams are routed to the inlet side of two in-line blenders. The blenders have metering legs that allow for simultaneous ratio flow control of all raw material streams. On-line process analyzers provide real-time analysis of the product and feedback to optimize the formulation of the blended product. The Gasoline Blending Station discharge is manually routed so that the product can be delivered to any of product storage tanks. A Blend Control System (BCS) integrates three separate systems in order to produce the highest quality products. The BCS includes: (1) on-line analyzers to monitor product quality, (2) optimization software to minimize, maximize, or maintain product properties, and (3) a ratio blend control system to regulate the raw material flows to match the levels determined by the optimization system. The blenders each have six metering legs that consist of a mass flow meter and a flow control valve.  The flow meter communicates to the control system through the Profibus network. The primary data required is the mass flow in kg/hr and the density.  These two are used to calculate the volumetric flow and flow rate for each loop.  The sum of the loops gives the total flow through the blender. The flow control valve is modulated by control system to result in the proper flow that is required through each loop.

Achinsk Refinery is one of the leading Russian manufacturers of petroleum products according to international quality standards. Using of modern blending technology will enable the company to optimize the manufacturing process and to reach the highest performance. By adding the dual functionality of offline and online optimization as provided by blend optimization and supervisory software, it is possible to maximize the use of lower cost components and minimize the use of more expensive components in the finished fuel while maintaining on-spec blends.