Title:

The Story of ULSD Optimisation at the Chevron Pembroke

Refinery

Author:

Klas Dahlgren
Apex Optimisation
Dynaproc Ltd
Refinery operation and optimisation consultant
Telephone +44 7967 970761

Co authors:
An Rigden
Optimisation/APC Section Head
Chevron Pembroke refinery
Telephone: +44 1646 649535

Henrik Terndrup
Apex Optimisation
Refinery operation and optimisation consultant
Telephone +31 7258 15985

Abstract:

The Chevron Pembroke oil refinery is a complex and large (220 kbbl/day) processing

site. This case study examines the improvements achieved by a high Return On

Investment (ROI) project resulting in better operation of the process units involved in

middle distillate production and higher ULSD output. This success story illustrates

how as much as 10% increase in middle Distillate production can be achieved

essentially without investment in process units or equipment, mainly through

upgrading of cracked feeds, higher average distillate cut-points, optimisation of

process unit and diesel rundown blending. These significant improvements, which

are estimated at $10 million per year (minimum), have been realised through a team
effort involving various departments of the Pembroke refinery organisation, in

particular the following groups of people:

 The operations organisation, including White Oils, Black Oils and Cracking.

 The Planning and Scheduling Teams

 The Process Engineering Group

 The Control &Information System Department where the Process Control

Team resides.

 Apex Optimisation, Supplier of medium term closed loop optimisation

technology.

The Pembroke refinery blends middle distillates directly from the process unit to

Hydrotreaters. The day-to-day operation of the two downstream Hydrotreating units

is quite challenging as the throughput has to be maximised subject to a variety of

process constraints and subject to the availability of the various feed components.

The feed components include kerosene, several straight run gas oil streams and

FCCU product streams such as HHCN and LCGO. The decision making process for

these blends involves several refinery areas and console operators in different control

rooms across the site. Hence, as part of the improvement programme, a new large

scale multi-unit coordination tool (GDOT) was implemented. The GDOT software

supplied by Apex Optimisation is used within Chevron Pembroke for medium term

optimisation problems. This system, which basically is an on-line refinery LP model,

is running in closed loop and has been in service since late 2006 at Pembroke with

essentially 100% utilisation even during significant changes in crude slates.

This case study describes the issues, challenges and constraints that the Pembroke

refinery faces when ULSD becomes the most valuable product most of the time.
Introduction

Like many other ULSD-producing refineries, Pembroke blends middle distillates

directly from the process unit rundown lines, prior to hydrotreating. The main
advantages of this approach compared to a conventional batch blending system are
less tank storage requirements and manpower demand and that the swing cuts of the
upstream process unit can be optimised in real time to operate the Hydrotreators at
multiple ULSD quality constraints. However, the rundown blending approach also
results in a more challenging day-to-day operation of the downstream Hydrotreating
units, especially if the throughput is to be maximised subject to a variety of process
constraints, taking into account the availability of the various feed components.

The Pembroke diesel system has two Hydrotreating units, (HTU1 and HTU2), which
are fed by a rundown blending header. The configuration of the Pembroke refinery
Diesel system is illustrated in the following simplified diagram:

Figure 1: Pembroke Refinery Diesel System

The operations department with the console operators is organised in three areas:
black oils (crude and vacuum distillation), white oils (hydrotreaters and naphtha
processing) and the cracking area. Traditionally, the Scheduling department has been
advising the area operators, through a daily schedule on how to set diesel blending
component flow rates and middle distillate component cut points from the crude and
vacuum distillation units. Now, using the medium term optimisation tool, the
coordination of the units is done automatically on-line and instead of fixing diesel
component flow rates, the Scheduler specifies the product specifications and the key
swing cut points to be optimised by the system.

The Challenge of Maximising ULSD Production

Feed quality management is one of the keys to maximising the performance of a

hydrotreating unit subject to constraints. A highly constrained hydrotreating unit can
be very sensitive to incremental changes in the individual feed stock component flows.
Therefore, the challenge is not just to push the rate through the unit to the maximum,
but to establish the optimum blend that allows the throughput to be maximised subject
to the product quality constraints. A different feed stock composition will
significantly change the hydrotreater operation, which will have an impact on the
maximum possible feed rate dictated by the unit constraints. The following list
highlights some of the difficulties with feedstock components and constraints
observed at the Pembroke hydrotreating units:

 Maximisation of cracked feed (e.g. LCGO) results in higher reactor

temperatures and high hydrogen consumption.

 Maximisation of Kero and light cracked feeds results in constraints on the

operation of the product stripper columns. In the past, this has caused
operational problems, including positive doctor test, requiring costly diesel
reprocessing, which made operations to put conservative limits on the
throughput of the unit.

 Maximisation of heavy feedstock, such as the back end swing cuts from the
crude and vacuum distillation units, requires high reactor temperatures in order
to meet the sulphur specification, which will aggravate HTU heater constraints.
There are essentially eighteen variables available to control the production rates and
the qualities of the three middle distillate products of the refinery (kerosene, diesel
and gasoil). During the winter period, it is typically optimal to run at minimum flash
points on all three products and at maximum cloud points on gasoil and diesel, whilst
also meeting production rate targets on one or two of the three streams. In the summer
period, the 95% point or the density typically replace the cloud point as the back end
constraint on the diesel.

The sulphur content is controlled within the diesel hydrotreater, but other diesel
qualities, such as density, cloud point, flash point and distillation must be controlled
upstream of the hydrotreater, that is, by the side stream cuts and the feed blends.

Given that both hydrotreating units are heavily constrained, there is a strong incentive
to utilise all available hydrotreater capacity and to avoid reprocessing due to off-spec
production. Hence, the optimum operating strategy for the diesel system can typically
be summarised as follows:

1. Always keep diesel production on grade with minimum giveaway

2. Fill the HTU capacities with available feed stock subject to constraints

3. Maximise cracked feed over straight run middle distillate

4. Maximise heavy feed components over lighter components

Operator Training and Coordination Issues

One of the important challenges is to train the CDU, Cracking and VDU operators so
that they are more aware of the operating objectives and constraints of downstream
units when making moves on their units. In large and complex refineries, operators
traditionally, and for good reasons, control to the targets that have been specified for
their particular unit and are not necessarily aware of operational constraints on
downstream units and any opportunities to minimise give away on the product run-
down lines.

The training required for the console operators is mainly related to the understanding
of the concept of on-line coordination of multiple process units, intermediate product
flow rates and quality targets. The GDOT tool can significantly improve this decision
making process, making sure that the upstream units are optimised in a coordinated
manor keeping all units within acceptable operating ranges. This enables the operators
to work better together and achieve a better overall performance of the refinery.

Chevron has selected GDOT as a tool for coordination of production areas such as the
diesel system. It is important to note that the system does not require any specialised
staff and is maintained by the same Process Control Engineers who are responsible for
the Multivariable Predictive Control (MPC) applications.

GDOT provides an online console interface for engineers and operators. For this
project, however, it was decided to let the 4 console operators use the interface of the
12 MPC controllers (based on DMC-plus) instead. Also, GDOT has been configured
to track the status and the limits of the MPC variables. Using the MPC interface as the
interface also for GDOT meant that the operators did not need to be trained in the use
of a different user interface, resulting in a smoother transition and faster operator
acceptance. However, the user interfaces of the individual MPC controllers will
obviously not give the complete picture of current optimised solution for the entire
diesel production system. Hence, customised data base displays have been made
available to operations and production planning staff. An example of such a
customised overview display for the Pembroke diesel system is provided in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Diesel System Optimisation, Overview Display

Robustness and Maintenance Requirements

So, what maintenance effort is required for an advanced dynamic coordination system
like GDOT? Our experience has been that once commissioned, it is important to allow
some time for fine tuning of the system for different operational scenarios, some of
which may not have been considered in the original design. Also, during the transition
phase, where a team effort is required to use the system to gradually move the
operation towards the global optimum, additional training, discussions and possibly
further adjustments may be required. After that, however, the installation has had
almost no need for maintenance.

Project Execution

Process data and models available from the existing MPC systems were sufficient to
develop most of the models required for GDOT. This meant that the GDOT project
was able to proceed with minimum impact on the refinery operation. The preparatory
site work included the installation and configuration of a server on the process control
network.

The building of the GDOT model is typically done by the vendor (Apex Optimisation)
in their offices, following a two-week kick off meeting and information gathering visit,
including interviews with refinery staff, such as Operations, Planning and Process
Engineering.

The second visit is typically dedicated to the software installation and the loading of
model and the optimiser, which is then typically put on-line in an advisory (open
loop) mode. The following visits thereafter are dedicated to closed commissioning
and fine tuning.

During the first year of system operation in closed loop follow-up visits and remote
monitoring are performed to make sure the optimiser is performing at its best under
all common constraint scenarios and for the typical operating strategies, such as
different modes of operation.
Post Audit Results

The key objective of this project was to optimise the middle distillate cut-points, the
uplift of cracked feed and the middle distillate blending to achieve a higher yield of
ULSD and gasoil sale. It should be recognised that the entire Pembroke organisation
has contributed to the significant improvement of the operation of the refinery.
GDOT is merely a tool that the organisation is using to consistently implement a more
profitable operating strategy. The following plots showing data from 2004 to 2010,
should give an understanding of the achieved ULSD improvements.

Figure 3: Diesel production from HTU1 and 2 Barrels per stream day (BPSD)

68000

66000

64000

62000

60000

58000

56000

54000

52000
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Figure 3: Kero Flash Point degC

42.5

42

41.5

41

40.5

40
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Analysing quality data from final diesel shipment will indicate how well the system
and organisation performs over a longer period. It is important when analysing long
term data to consider significant product specification changes. One of those changes
was in 2006 when UK ULSD was changed to EU ULSD 0.845 density specification
which has some influence up to year 2006. The following plots are showing the final
quality improvements for ULSD diesel sold to customer:

Figure 4: Final tank Density

0.85

Spec change to
0.845 EU ULSD only Spec

0.84

0.835

0.83
Jan-05

Jan-06

Jan-07

Jan-08

Jan-09

Jan-10
May-05

Sep-05

May-06

Sep-06

May-07

Sep-07

May-08

Sep-08

May-09

Sep-09

May-10

Figure 5: Final tank diesel 95%

370

360 Spec
350

340

330

320

310

300
Oct-05

Oct-06

Oct-07

Oct-08

Oct-09
Apr-05

Apr-06

Apr-07

Apr-08

Apr-09

Apr-10
Jan-05

Jan-06

Jan-07

Jan-08

Jan-09

Jan-10
Jul-05

Jul-06

Jul-07

Jul-08

Jul-09

Jul-10
 Figure 6: Final tank cloud point

-2

-4
Winter spec
-6

-8

-10

-12

-14

-16
Jan-05

Jan-06

Jan-07

Jan-08

Jan-09

Jan-10
Apr-05

Apr-06

Apr-07

Apr-08

Apr-09

Apr-10
Oct-06
Oct-05

Oct-07

Oct-08

Jul-09
Oct-09
Jul-05

Jul-06

Jul-07

Jul-08

Jul-10
Figure 7: Final tank Sulphur ppm

30

25

20

15

10
Spec 7 ppm

0
Apr-05

Oct-07
Oct-05

Apr-06

Oct-06

Apr-07

Apr-08

Oct-08

Apr-09

Oct-09

Apr-10
Jan-05

Jan-06

Jan-07

Jan-08

Jan-09

Jan-10
Jul-05

Jul-06

Jul-07

Jul-08

Jul-09

Jul-10

The sulphur plot show the spec change and EU ULSD and UK USLD grade switched.
Since the spec changes the sulphur improvements is 1 ppm which might not sound
much but at this level is equivalent of 4 degC on average reactor bed temperature and
will significantly increase catalyst life span.
Conclusions

The diesel production improvement project has been a great success with overall
benefits valued at $10 million, including a large increase in diesel production. The
hard work of many people from various areas of the Pembroke refinery organisation
has contributed significantly to the success of this programme of work improving
process unit operation. The main benefit of the GDOT system is that it allows the
operation instructions and strategies to be consistently implemented, minute by
minute, day and night, driving the units towards more profitable operation and
improving the competitive position of the refinery. The system takes into account the
daily operational issues and has the ability to deal with them. The GDOT modelling
approach, using dynamic non-linear models, is capable of adapting to all expected and
unexpected operating scenarios and has proven to be very robust. Uptime statistics are
excellent. The ULSD improvements project did not require any major unit upgrades
or revamps and took nine months from start to finish. The payback for this
improvement project was achieved in a matter of a few weeks. Another conclusion
from this project is that multi-unit coordination systems like GDOT should be
considered as one of the next logical steps for a refinery to improve operation further
with existing configuration.