Want to know how to increase profitability of your refinery or petrochemical plant by more than $1 million/year?
British Petroleum Co. plc has developed an analyzer to characterize feed and product streams of plants almost instantaneously.
This enables the process to be optimized as the feed or products stream changes, to bring savings in a number of ways.
The analyzer combines near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with a topological data-modeling technique developed by BP. The system is called Topnir.
BP has 5 years' experience of operating Topnir at its Lavera refinery in France. It has also used it for 4 years at its Grangemouth refinery and petrochemicals plant in Scotland.
The company has now decided to offer the technology to others-at a cost of course-and has established a licenser network.
Topnir licensers are: Applied Automation Inc./Hartmann & Braun, Bartlesville, Okla.; M.W. Kellogg Co., Houston; Linde AG, Hollriegelskreuth, Germany; Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Boston; and Technip, Paris.
Why share?
While BP wants to make money, this was not the main reason for making Topnir available to others, according to Andy Burns, manager of olefins technology licensing at BP.
Burns said BP would need to install about 60 Topnir units around the world to meet its plan to install four or five at each of its refineries.
"Although we have a Topnir team at Lavera, it could not support that number of units," said Burns. "Also, to get licensers involved, we needed to offer Topnir to third parties.
"We want contractors to come and install Topnir at our own plants. Although we will have to pay the contractor, it will be cheaper for us in the long run, because the contractor has the experience to do it better."
Burns said a Topnir license, hardware, and modeling software would typically cost a total of $500,000, depending on the application and number of streams involved.
In addition to BP plants, Topnir has been installed at a DEA Mineraloel AG refinery in Germany, at a Saudi Aramco refinery, and at a Copene Petroquimica do Nordeste SA petrochemical plant in Brazil.
Savings
Jim Kelly, BP's business development manager for olefins technology, said one benefit of Topnir is that it enables the true boiling point of crude oil to be measured online for the first time.
Topnir gives process stream data every 1-2 min, compared with 1-2 hr for a chromatogram. It requires one analyzer per stream, compared with several for earlier technologies.
"The best application of Topnir is crude distillation," said Kelly, "because the benefits of knowing feedstock changes are enormous."
At the 200,000 b/d capacity Lavera refinery, BP found it could save $1.8 million/year through cutting losses during crude transitions, maximization of crude distillation, and more accurately meeting export specifications.
Kelly said savings of $1 million/year can be made at a 400,000 metric ton/year naphtha-fed cracker through maximization of ethylene and propylene production as feedstock qualities change.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
