ENV-00-172 Flexibility in Meeting Clean Gasoline and Diesel Legislation

Description:

Refiners are facing critical challenges in North America, Europe, and Asia to produce clean motor transportation fuels by reconfiguring refinery processes with limited capital resources - all under the background of changing crude and product slates. Industrial gas supplied hydrogen and oxygen can assist refiners with flexibility in their operations and improvements in the important financial measure of return on capital employed (ROCE). This paper focuses on the key hydroprocessing options refiners are considering to meet the impending clean fuels (Tier 2 gasoline and anticipated low sulfur diesel) legislation, while adjusting to higher sulfur crude slates. The implications for expansion of downstream sulfur capacity are also evaluated. Increased hydroprocessing activity will stretch sulfur plant processing capabilities with higher acid gas loadings and more ammonia in SRU feed. Expanding SRU capacity with oxygen enrichment is expected to be one time-proven measure refiners will use to handle the extra acid gas loading at minimum capital expense. The direct connection between refinery hydrogen and oxygen requirements to meet these new challenges is explored in three refinery case studies: (1) hydrotreating the gasoline product only to meet Tier 2 regulations; (2) hydrotreating the FCCU feed; and (3) converting the refinery to high sulfur heavy crude slates to assist in the economics of meeting the environmental legislation for clean fuels.