AM-97-52 EUREKA IN COMBINATION WITH TEXACO GASIFICATION IMPROVES REFINERY INTEGRATION

Description:

With current low crude oil prices and a narrow light/heavy crude oil price differential, it is difficult to justify an upgrading project. However, in the near future, the increasing demand for light, low sulfur transportation fuels will increase and crudes will become progressively ‘heavier and higher in sulfur content. These factors will enable upgrading projects to be materialized in the refineries. In order to bring profits to the refiners, the key point will be’how the end product with high sulfur and metal content, which will be produced by upgrading processes, can be utilized. The Eureka process is a well proven thermal cracking process which has been operating since 1975 in the Sodegaura Refinery of Fuji Oil, in Japan and since 1988 in Nanjing, China. In this first unit, the pitch has been utilized mainly as a binder pitch for the production of coke for the metal industry and as a fuel for a conventional boiler. In this second unit, the pitch will be used as a gasifier feed and the project, using the Texaco Gasification Process to convert low value pitch to chemical resources, is now under development. Furthermore, with the environmental regulation surrounding the refineries becoming severe, and the deregulation of electric power production providing a very favorable impact to the refineries, the combination of Eureka and Texaco Gasification Power System (TGPS) provides an attractive solution. This paper presents the features of the Eureka process and the TGPS, and gives uses for the Eureka pitch as well as the economics of the Eureka process in combination with the TGPS.