Improvement of high-viscosity oil production technology via the effective redistribution of energy resources

Abstract

Objectives. The synthesis of high-viscosity oils is a fundamental aspect of oil refinement and contributes toward improvements in their production technologies. However, current methods of oil extraction are characterized by the inefficient use of energy resources. Therefore, refinement costs continue to increase. Furthermore, high production emissions affect the environment. For example, the Duosol-type process uses a large quantity of gas used in solvent recovery units in existing furnaces, and excess heat is wasted. Additionally, oil dewaxing plants use water steam, whose condensate can be contaminated with petroleum products or ketone-aromatic solvents. The purpose of this study was to identify ways of improving the efficiency of high-viscosity oil production technologies for energy efficiency and environmental safety as well as prove the feasibility of computational methods of oil production plants’ improvement.Methods. The heat quantity required for high-viscosity oil production is calculated using a thermal equation and data obtained from industrial equivalents, empirical dependencies, and reference data. The heat capacities and heat quantities of Duosol and dewaxing plants are calculated using conventional methods based on the heat recovery principle.Results. At the solvent regeneration unit of a Duosol plant, excessive heating of the cube in one of the distillation columns was measured, leading to excessive heat consumption. This may result in contamination of the low boiling distillation component with water—one of the still bottom mixture components. Calculations show that the furnace should be divided into two chambers to lower the temperature of the column cube to help solve this problem. Water steam is currently used in the raw material preparation unit of the dewaxing plant. It has been found, however, that the quantity of heat carried away by the flue gases of the furnaces is sufficient to heat the raw material preparation unit of the oil dewaxing plant if water steam is completely excluded from this operation.Conclusions. Technology improvement at Duosol and dewaxing plants, which are part of the process of obtaining high-viscosity oils at refineries, is possible through the effective redistribution of energy resources.

Keywords

• duosol
• base oils
• energy carriers
• dewaxing
• solvent regeneration
• water steam
• flue gases
• production optimization