AM-96-59 FLEXIBLE HYDROGEN PLANT UTILIZING MULTIPLE REFINERY HYDROCARBON STREAMS

Description:

Two trends are currently creating major changes in the worldwide refining industry. The first is a long-term trend (with periods of fluctuations) shifting to lower quality crudes from 1980 to the present. The second trend is increasingly stringent environmental regulations on transportation fuels evidenced recently with the implementation of the federal Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) (1993-2000) and California Air Resource Board (CARB) Phase II (1996) regulations. The result is a need for additional upgrading capability and operational flexibility to handle a variety of crudes, while still producing a constant stream of clean, light transportation fuels (in effect a double edged sword). The impact of California’s environmental legislation has been heard around the world as evidenced by the US EPA adopting the 0.05% low sulfur diesel specifications in 1993; Europe in 1996; and several countries in Asia (Japan, Australia, S. Korea, Thailand) in the 1996-2000 time frame. (See Figure 1: “Road to Clean Motor Fuels” graph for details).