Design Of Mini Refineries

Small refineries, which are a collection of small refining units for refining and separating raw materials such as crude oil, gaseous condensate, solvents and mixtures to produce higher value-added materials such as naphtha, diesel and Kerosene, with capacities far below capacity conventional refineries are designed.

The return on investment of small refineries is higher than that of oil refineries and they have more flexibility to produce a variety of products from diesel to products that require more complex processes. In addition to being economical, responding to local demand especially in remote locations or specific feed types. (For example, gas condensate or furnace oil) could be a reason to build a small refinery.

The capacity of small refineries, depending on the need and investment capacity, is usually from 1,000 to 20,000 barrels per day. Which was done in this company for a unit of 3000 barrels per day.

The advantages of building these refineries are:

• Input feed flexibility due to problems with raw material preparation and diversity
• Low investment with high profit
• Rapid return on investment: in the first phase, approximately one year from the start of operations
• Quick build and startup
• No dependence on a specific physical location

The plan presented in this company is only related to the production stages of diesel, kerosene and naphtha (Phase 2 feed) which was introduced as phase 1 and does not include the production stages of gasoline (which was introduced in the previous report as phase).

This design consists of two main units, the first unit which includes atmospheric distillation and the second unit which is the sweetening of the product. In addition to these two units, some ancillary facilities for storage, water supply, compressed air electricity, etc. should also be constructed.

In this section, the operation of the two main units and ancillary facilities are discussed.

Output products:

The quantity and quality of products is completely dependent on the analysis of input feed as well as the efficiency of the refinery and the relevant operator. Depending on the analysis of imported feed, the following products can be extracted from these units.

main products:

Diesel: 40 to 50%. Used for diesel engines

Naphtha: 30 to 40%. Used to produce gasoline

Fuel oil: 10 to 30%.

By-products:

Types of industrial solvents

Intermediate products such as kerosene, special solvents

Tower residue (VB) used to make bitumen