Whole Crude Oil Fractionation then Hydrotreating or Whole Crude

ChE SEMINAR
Breaking the Tradition – Whole
Crude Oil Fractionation then
Hydrotreating or Whole Crude Oil
Hydrotreating then Fractionation?
Prof. I.M. Mujtaba
School of Engineering Design & Technology
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Email: [email protected]
Seminar Room
Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Tuesday April 01, 2014: 04:00 PM
ABSTRACT
The worldwide need for transportation fuel or middle distillates with fuel quality satisfying environmental
legislations is growing. Amongst various technologies, the catalytic hydrotreating process (HDT) has the
potential for increasing the yield of distillate cuts while simultaneously reducing the concentration of
contaminants, mainly S, N, V, Ni and Asphaltene. In all existing refineries, hydrotreating processes are
implemented upon oil fractions followed by distillation and not on the whole crude oil before the
distillation. The process of whole crude oil hydrotreating is a newchallenge and a new technology that has
not been reported by anyone else except us in the last 24 months. Our proposed process showed greater
yield of desirable middle distillates compared to the yield produced by conventional methods and,
consequently, a decrease in the yield of less-desirable reduced crude residue (RCR).
Kinetic parameters for the HDT reactions and for the reactions responsible for conversion of crude oil to
middle distillates are determined by parameter estimation techniques based on pilot plant experimental
data. When the new pilot plant process is scaled up to a large scale process (based on 10,000 bbl/day of
crude oil being processed) via process modelling and optimisation, the economic analysis forecasts more
than 16% profitability (accounting for both investment cost and operational cost) compared to those
obtained for existing processes. In addition it is expected that a further and significant economic benefit
will result due to change in flow and fouling (in heat exchangers) characteristics of the new RCR fuel
obtained by the new process.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Iqbal M. Mujtaba is a Professor of Computational Process Engineering in the
School of Engineering, Design & Technology at the University of Bradford. He
obtained his BSc Eng and MSc Eng degrees in Chemical Engineering from
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) in 1983 and
1984 respectively and obtained his PhD from Imperial College London in
1989. He is a Fellow of the IChemE, a Chartered Chemical Engineer, and a
committee member of the IChemE's Computer Aided Process Engineering
Subject Group. He was the Chair of the European Committee for Computers
in Chemical Engineering Education from 2010-2013.
Professor Mujtaba leads research into dynamic modelling, simulation, optimisation and control of batch
and continuous chemical processes with specific interests in distillation, industrial reactors, refinery
processes, desalination and crude oil hydrotreating focusing on energy and water. He has managed
several research collaborations and consultancy projects with industry and academic institutions in the
UK, Italy, Hungary, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. He has published more than 180 technical
papers and has delivered more than 50 invited lectures/seminars/short courses around the world. He has
supervised 23 PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 4 PhD students. He is the author
of 'Batch Distillation: Design & Operation' (text book) published by the Imperial College Press, London,
2004 which is based on his 18 years of research in Batch Distillation.