Live Broadcast Q&A

Dramatically Improve Production without New Equipment

About the topic:
Adapt to changing market demands on-the-fly

Significant long-term swings in the demand from gasoline to diesel has changed the global
transportation fuels market. Refiners have reacted by increasing diesel fuel production,
sometimes at the expense of gasoline production. Similar swings have occurred in home
heating, from heating oil to natural gas. Only the refiners that can shift their production quickly
and efficiently will remain profitable

Get the inside story on a novel approach to increasing middle distillates production without
additional equipment or process modifications; by combining unit and blending optimization. In
this free webinar, we’ll explore:

• the challenges of applying this approach

• the benefits that can be achieved, and
• how a European refiner is implementing this new methodology for diesel production and
their early results

For more information read the whitepaper or view the on-demand webinar.

Q: Why not just use Profit Controller & Profit Optimizer?

A: In some cases, this may be possible, and in fact we are investigating this further and have
successfully used Profit Controller for continuous rundown blending, however modifications
would likely be necessary in order to account for intermediate tankage, and this is what MMSS
uniquely provides. In addition, modifications to the Profit Suite software would likely necessary
to accommodate the batch nature of most blending operations.

Q: Will MMSS be standard / configurable module in OpenBPC?

A: Currently MMSS is a configurable option that Honeywell personnel apply for situations like
middle distillate blending optimization as was presented. As the application and use of MMSS
increases, we may make MMSS a more standard option that may be maintained and configured
by our customers.

Q: Can OpenBPC interact with other reliable APC applications than Honeywell, e.g.
AspenTech DMC?

A: OpenBPC typically uses OPC to communicate with APC applications and the DCS, so it
could interact with other APC applications that support OPC.
Q: What are the approximate costs for doing this?

A: The costs are highly dependent on the specific APC application, the DCS on which the APC
is running, the complexity of the model, as well the number of interacting blenders, rundowns
and other units, tanks and connections that need to be considered

Q: Is this an industry-wide approach or does it work for only Honeywell environments?

A: The approach described in our webinar is fundamentally based on Honeywell’s OpenBPC

application for blend property control and optimization, and OpenBPC can be applied to any
DCS that supports OPC.

Q: Could this approach also be extended downward to include Fuel Oil blending, which
is usually inline rundown blended?

A: The approach could be extended to include Fuel Oil blending provided there is online
analysis or estimates of the key property(ies) (e.g. viscosity, sulfur…) at the blend header as
well as on the controlled cut points.

Q: To be able to determine if the novel approach would generate more profit, isn't a
simulation package a must (like UNISIM), or is it really feasible to determine this from
historical data?

A: To develop simple correlations for the yield and property impacts of small Flashpoint or T95
changes on cuts a simulation package or analysis of historical data could be used. To develop
economic justification is a bit more site/market dependant. If the shifts in yields are clearly
between products with well differentiated values then it is fairly simple to calculate economics. If
the yield changes affect a broader range of products then a Planning LP study may be required.

Q: Similar to the last question, can this concept can apply to gasoline blending (suppose
rundown streams are available)

A: Yes, any product blending scenario could have benefits by making adjustments to the blend
components.

Q: Is this solution available only for Honeywell control systems?

A: As noted above, the approach described in our webinar is fundamentally based on

Honeywell’s OpenBPC application for blend property control and optimization, and OpenBPC
can be applied to any DCS that supports OPC.
Q: How long does it take to solve the large optimization problem that is run once every 2-
3 hours?

A: The solve time for the model in the case study was 20-40 seconds, but this is highly
dependent on the complexity of the system.

Q: How much of the benefit comes from the blender optimization and how much of the
benefit comes from the cut point optimization?

A: This can vary greatly from site to site depending on their operations and local market
conditions. Our limited experience indicates that as a study justification it would be reasonable
to expect a 50/50 split but that may be refined by investigation.