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Article excerpt and image from
NPRA 2009 Q&A AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM
Conference Daily
Day Three, Wednesday
2009 October 14
Plant Automation Session Seeks to Fill Knowledge Gaps
"The next paper, 'Optimization and carbon caps,' was presented by Dustin Beebe and Darwin Logerot of ProSys. They pointed out that carbon dioxide (CO2) limits will begin for refineries in 2014. Two approaches to reducing CO2 emissions were discussed: advanced process control (APC) and CO2 sequestration.
APC, using multivariable predictive control (MPC), was cited as the most cost-effective method to increase plant efficiency and thus reduce emissions. The problem with current APC implementation is that it is typically applied to individual process units with little coordination between other units. A solution is real-time optimization (RTO). RTO has been discussed for several years. But there are few installations because the models weren’t accurate enough and implementation was too expensive to yield a good return on investment (ROI). However, with improved models running on lower-cost computer hardware and the need to include other considerations involving reducing CO2 emissions (such as determining CO2 intensity by process unit and the cost of CO2 allowances), the economics of implementing RTO is improving. A benefit of up to $40 million per year for a typical 100,000-bpd refinery was cited.
Concerning CO2 sequestration, three options are available: deep sea injection, underground storage and oil algae. Oil algae uses photosynthesis to produce oil consuming CO2 in the process. It looks to be the least costly option for refiners, since they can use the algae oil as refinery feed."
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