AM-01-37 OPPORTUNITIES IN DISTILLATE BLENDING THE STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF ADDITIZATION

Description:

As the maximum sulfur specification for diesel fuel ratchets down, refinery flexibility will be greatly reduced. This paper reviews the challenges that reduced diesel sulfur will bring to the refining industry and describes a strategy for restoring lost flexibility, thereby improving distillate blending economics at the refinery. This strategy is accomplished by the judicious use of additives and by taking advantage of newly developed non-linear blending models that use component properties such as gravity, cloud, viscosity and distillation to predict finished blend properties. The blending models help the refiner to optimize the production and blending of distillate products. New technology in cetane measurement and prediction are reviewed.