Beijing, China
REFINING CHINA, China’s international refining technology conference, has now been running for seven years in partnership with SINOPEC. This partnership ensures the continuing strong level of producer company delegates not only from Sinopec but also from CNPC/Petrochina and CNOOC companies.
The 7th REFINING CHINA conference was held at the Regent Hotel, Bejing, 20-21 March 2013. Modcon Systems Ltd gave a presentation on Crude Distillation Unit Optimization during Crude Switching. This paper mainly discusses optimizing the process conditions of the crude distillation unit, which is a main challenge for each refinery. It increases profit by producing the required range of distillates at maximum yield and at minimum cost. To achieve this goal, full and real-time monitoring and control of each incoming stream of crude oil and outgoing distillate stream is an inevitable requirement. The quality and the cost of crude oil depend on its origin. Blending various types of crude oil is required to reduce the cost of the crude oil feed to be distilled and to adapt the crude oil feed so that it can be processed
properly by the equipment available in the refinery.