Avi Avni
Application Manager at Modcon Systems Ltd
In recent years the refineries are increasingly trying to save costs in order to maximize their refinery products profits.
The refineries also have to take into consideration the changing oil prices and hence change their oil sources accordingly.
Crude oils and their blends have different chemical and physical properties. Some of the properties have an impact on the crude price and cost of the refinery products.
Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Process
The FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) is defined as a process of converting high molecular weight hydrocarbons into gasoline, gases, and other petroleum products. The FCC process is a combination of catalytic chemical reactions and fractionations that yield large quantities of gasoline and gases as by-products. The feedstock to the FCC conversion process is usually low-cost heavy vacuum distillates to convert them into high-valued gasoline components.
FCC Process Operation
The feedstock is heated to high temperature and placed in contact with a catalyst which breaks the long-chain molecules into short-chain molecules.
The use of the FCC process is more common in areas where the demand for gasoline is higher than other distillates like fuel diesel and kerosene.
On-line NIR Analyzer in FCC Process
The online NIR analyzer can be located in any place in the crude oil supply chain and the rapid analysis allows real-time detection of quality parameters to take immediate corrective actions.
The MOD-4100 Analyzer is extremely useful in the FCC process from the vacuum distillates through the cracked intermediate product until the final distillates from the fractionator. Monitoring of physical properties of the fluids throughout the cracking process is the platform for effective overall optimization of the process stability and quality.
Importance of Real-Time Monitoring
The FCC process must be controlled online to ensure optimized performance and efficiency of the unit. Changing of physical properties of process feedstock affects the continuous processes in refineries. Real-time analytical data is inevitable for immediate adjustment of process parameters following any changes in physical and chemical properties in feed and product process streams. Obtaining analytical data from Laboratories does not contribute to the process because they are too much time-consuming and costly to operate.
MOD-4100 Crude Oil Analysis System
MOD-4100 crude oil analysis system forms a breakthrough in the provision of fast, economical, and cheap analytical solutions for measuring rapidly a broad range of different physical crude oil and petroleum products properties by one single measurement. The Analyzer System is supplied on the basis of ready-to-install concept, factory inspected and tested, and ready for immediate installation.
Design and Performance of MOD-4100 Analyzer
Every effort has been made to select the most reliable state-of-the-art materials and components, to design the analyzer for superior performance and minimal cost of ownership. This instrument has been tested thoroughly by the manufacturer, for the best performance, prior to shipment. The system performs online a variety of different quality measurements to provide analytical data just in time which is highly important for optimized operation processing of crude oil and petroleum products and for reducing production costs.
The analyzer is based on NIR spectrometry for accurately measuring major parameters and it comes installed in an outdoor stainless-steel enclosure and equipped with an integral sample conditioning system to bring the samples to a physical condition that is required by the analyzer.
Applications of MOD-4100 Analyzer
On-line monitoring of the crude oil qualities also plays a critical role in a variety of crude oil process optimization:
- Crude oil blending to provide a blend of required physical properties at as low cost as possible.
- Crude oil distillation allows the CDU to produce at maximum efficiency and low cost.
- Crude oil handling for assessing the quality on-line during the transportation and storage from well-head until to the end user.
Advantages of MOD-4100 Analyzer
The MOD-4100 Analyzer is characterized by the ability to perform multi-property remote analyses in one single instrument thus eliminating the need to use discrete analyzers to perform specified physical properties measurements which requires an enormous investment in equipment as well as in maintenance. The MOD-4100 Analyzer has the advantage that only one single instrument and one single measurement are required to quantify instantaneously a broad variety of different physical properties.
Multi-Property Remote Analysis Capability
The MOD-4100 Analyzer has a feature to perform multi-property remote analyses as the measuring probe can be allocated far away from the analyzer. Optical fibers transfer a beam of light from the analyzer to the measuring probe. Transmitted light that passes through the fluid returns to the analyzer. Optical multiplexing enables to measurement almost instantaneously a number of different process streams.
