A PROPOSAL FOR DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A 25,000

BARRELS PER DAY CAPACITY OF MODULAR CRUDE OIL

REFINERY PLANT

1. Introduction
2. Brief Description of the Project Design/Compartments
3. 3.0 Design/Simulation Model description
4. Software requirements
5. Summary of project costing

1.0 Introduction
A petroleum refinery is a manufacturing operation where crude petroleum being
the raw material is converted into usable and economic finished products, that
is, it is the manufacturing phase of the oil industry.
Modular (also called mini) refineries are particularly effective in areas where
there is a ready supply of crude but limited product distribution or refining
capacity, where transportation costs or capability present a problem, such as
remote areas or offshore platforms.
This work is aimed at designing a 25,000 Barrel per day capacity of Modular
crude oil refinery plant with simulation model of the refinery carried out to
study its operations. Economic Viability analysis will be carried out to evaluate
economic optimization assessment of the designed refinery.

2.0 Brief Description of the Refinery compartments

Below is a summarized component of the Modular Refinery system.
Design of the various compartments that makes up the complete Modular
refinery plant system.
i. The first part of the Modular refinery is where the major end products
which are naphtha, kerosene, diesel, and gas oil are obtained at the
 bottom of the atmospheric column. This part includes the following
compartments:
• The Desalter
• The Pre heating Train
• The Crude charge Furnace
• Feed Region (Flash Zone) where the products are gotten from the
separated vapor and liquid residue stripped from the bottom of the
atmospheric column.
ii. The second part of the modular refinery is the vacuum distillation
unit (VDU) which is the part where the topped crude, atmospheric
residue (also called long residue) leaving the atmospheric tower
containing significant amount of valuable oils that cannot be distilled at
atmospheric pressure because the temperature required would be so high
that severe thermal cracking takes place.
Hence, these oils are usually sent to a vacuum distillation unit where they
are further treated and separated into lighter components.
But in this case of a modular refinery, vacuum distilling the oil is out of
the scope and instead the long residue is considered one of the final
products of the refinery, therefore, these oils are sent to the tank farm for
storage before subsequent processing in any of the conventional refineries
or selling.
iii. Other compartments of the modular refinery to be designed are:
 Naphtha Hydrotreating Unit (NHU): This is where hydrogen is added
to the Naphtha to get rid of the Sulphur in form of H2S gas. The treated
naphtha is then separated into light and heavy naphtha; both products
then undergo upgrading processes where the light naphtha is isomerized
to give an isomerate and the heavy reformed.
  Catalytic Reforming Unit (CRU): This is where the reformation of the
heavy naphtha takes place, where it is treated in the presence of catalyst
to give a product termed reformate. The reactions in CRU are:
Dehydrogenation (endothermic), Isomerization (endothermic), Hydro-
cracking (exothermic) and Dehydrocyclization (endothermic).
 Gasoline blending pool: This is where both reformate and isomerate are
then blended to give the highly useful gasoline (petrol).
 Quality Control Test (QCT) Unit: This where the gasoline (Petrol)
undergoes Quality Control Test before being sent to the tank farm for
storage and subsequent marketing.
 Kerosene Hydro treating Unit (KHTU): This is where the kerosene
product obtained from the atmospheric tower are hydrotreated, tested and
stored in the tank farm before selling as well.
 Diesel Hydro treating Unit (DHTU): This is where the diesel gotten is
being treated with hydrogen by certain recycling units. These units
include: reactor effluent air cooler (REAC) unit, Cold High-Pressure
Separator (CHPS) unit, hot high-pressure separator (HHPS) unit

3.0 Design/Simulation Model description

The project offers to design and provide simulation models for the structural,
Instrumentation and process plant utility Operations for a modular refinery.
The design will cover the following:
• The Mechanical design with detailed Material Estimation and Costing
• Electrical design with detailed Material Estimation and Costing
• Instrumentation and control design with detailed material Estimation
and Costing
• The Structural design with detailed material costing and Estimation.

The simulated models will:

 • Replicate the typical equipment operation continuously in real time.
• Simulate all normal operations including hot or cold start-up and
complete or partial shutdown operations.
• Simulate normal, abnormal and emergency operating conditions.
• Simulate transient responses caused by changes in various operating
conditions.
• Maintain realistic, real-time performance during & after injection of
malfunctions.
• Simulate alarms and trip systems as in the real plant
• Simulate all field devices like block valves, pump switches, etc.

All designs will be based on Standard Refinery Design requirements and Safety
practice requirements.

4.0 Software requirements

The software required for the design are:
i. PS3000 Refinery software will be used to build the Design of the
system and Simulate an optimized design all mechanical,
Electrical, Instrumentation and control with detailed dimensions,
sizing and economic viability measurements. The software has the
following packages and suites suitable for Handling design and
Simulation of all the following units as shown below:
ii. Excel will be used to Carry out the Economic analysis of the
design Modular refinery.
iii. Autodesk design of the structural Layout of the entire system with
detailed orthographic and isometric projections of the layout.

5.0 Summary of project cost

The summary of the project cost is presented below based on Total man-hour
spent on the project.
Note the following:
i. The estimated project duration will be three months. Eight hours will be
spent on each project daily.
ii. Two months will be used to develop the design model and one month for
optimization and Simulation process for generating an optimized Model
of the Project.
iii. 80% of total project cost will be paid as initial commitment. Then the
remaining 20% will be paid upon completion of the project.

The summary of project cost will be:

 Total Cost of design/simulation of Mechanical, Electrical,
Instrumentation and control, and Structural compartments = ₦4,400,000
 Cost of Purchase of two (2) users Perpetual and Network License for the
Refinery Design Software for 1 year = ₦20,600,000
 Economic Viability Analysis/Simulation for the designed system =
₦250,000
 Detailed Write-up and documentation of the design = ₦ 200,000

TOTAL COST WILL BE = ₦ 25,450,000 (Twenty-five million, four

hundred and fifty thousand naira only).