Petrol Blending

Introduction

supermarkets and other petrol retailers. All of this petrol is components.

Greenergy sells around 7 million litres of petrol per day to

manufactured in-house from a range of different petrol blend

and quality control over its supply chain. Cost savings can be

By blending its own petrol, Greenergy is able to maintain both cost

passed on to the customer through lower pricing. Quality control

such as premium 95 octane petrol are produced efficiently with no quality wastage. The efficiency of this process and the absence of environmental benefits. any waste (known to blenders as giveaway) bring whole of life

99 Octane petrol. They also ensure that every day grades of fuel

procedures enable the production of special grades such as Tesco

Through the process of blending Greenergy has also managed to stay at the forefront of biofuel developments in the UK.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

Principles of petrol blending

The principle of petrol blending is to take a variety of raw materials, called components, of differing quality and price and combine them to make a target petrol quality, called the specification.

Figure 1: The princples of blending $ (sum of components) + $ (infrastructure) < $ (finished product)

20% low cost component

Calculate

25% lower cost component

Mix

100% finished product at market price and quality

55% expensive and super quality component

Test

The aim of blending is to ensure that the total cost of the components, the tankage, the laboratory work and other infrastructure costs is less than the cost of buying pre made petrol on the open market. Blending is a significant source of profit for Greenergy.

Blending has a specific language and terminology. There is a glossary of commonly used terms at the end of this background paper.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

Key qualities of petrol

We blend petrol to meet many quality specifications. Some of the most importantthe key measures of quality are: Octane: A measure of the ability of a petrol to resist detonation

(knocking or pinking). There are two measures of octane: performance of petrol under part throttle.

RON Research Octane Number, a historic test method. In a real world engine, RON is measurement of the anti knock MON Motor Octane Number, a modern, more severe test. In performance of petrol under full throttle.

a real world engine, MON is a measurement of the anti knock

RVP:

Reid Vapour Pressure, expressed in kPa. In the real world, summer specifications.

RVP determines whether the fuel is too volatile or not volatile

enough to start. The limits for RVP are different for winter and Distillation: Sulphur: Expressed in volume % evaporated at specified degrees C. In practice a smooth curve is required for easy burning. Expressed in weight %. The sulphur content of a petrol

of a car. Benzene, olefins and aromatics: Oxygen:

affects ifs emissions, the catalytic converter and the efficiency All expressed in volume %. All affect cleanliness and harmful

emissions.

emissions and also affects car tuning settings and economy.

Expressed in weight %. Oxygen has a positive effect on

Petrol quality in the UK changes four times per year in line with the weather. Summer petrol needs to be low volatility gassy enough to start up on the coldest winter day. Spring and autumn specifications are mid way between the winter and summer specifications. so that it does not gas up the engine in hot weather. Winter petrol needs to be high volatility so that the fuel can be

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

Table 1: Specification for winter petrol

Table 2: Specification for summer petrol

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

Petrol blending components sources

Petrol blending components can be sourced from oil refineries, chemical plants, gas plants and increasingly the agricultural supply chain. Petrol is not naturally found in crude oil. Instead a low octane component called naphtha is found, but naphtha is only around 60 octane and therefore unsuitable for running in a car engine. reformate. The majority of naphtha distilled from oil refineries is catalytically upgraded to a high octane petrol component called Approximately 40% of crude oil is an unwanted heavy fuel oil that cannot be sold in its existing form. This fuel oil is

reformate and other components, petrol is made.

therefore chemically cracked into a gasoline component called cat cracked spirit and when this is combined with

surpluses or cover deficits. Greenergy trades in these component markets.

oil refineries are not in technical or commercial component balance and have to buy or sell components to deal with

Due to changing product specifications, individual production unit capacities, market demands for fuel oil etc, most

Figure 2: Refinery component sources Butane Butane Butane

Butane Naphtha

Crude oil Distillation

L Naphtha

Isomerisation Reforming Alky, MTBE or Polymerate

H Naphtha

Isomerate Reformate Alkylate, MTBE or polymerate Cat Cracked Spirit (CCS)

Chemical Butane

Fuel oil

Fuel oil cracking (FCC or HC)

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

Figure 3: Non refinery component sources

Crude oil production Natural Gas production MTBE

Butane

MTBE (main source)

Alcohol

Synthetic alcohol

Plastic and chemicals

Pyrolysis gasoline (Pygas), MTBE, Isopentane and other pure chemicals

Food and agriculture

Bioethanol / ETBE

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

4 Petrol blending component qualities

There are hundreds of petrol components traded in Europe, and dozens within each 108 octane depending on which refinery they come from. types of components. 4.1. Reformate factor is its high level of aromatics. Reformate is expensive, but has excellent octane and low RVP. The limiting blending category of components. For example, reformates alone can vary from 97 octane to The following tables summarises the benefits and disbenefits of the main generic

4.2. Butane Butane is attractive because it is clean and low cost. It is very volatile.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

4.3. Alkylate is used; it is added to meet aromatic limits. It is sometimes referred to as blenders Alkylate is clean and versatile but also expensive, which minimises its use. Where it

friend accountants foe.

4.4. Isomerate Insomerate is clean and often low in price, but volatile and not often available.

4.5. Cat Cracked Spirit (CCS, LCCS) CCS, is high in sulphur but low in cost. It can be a key to the profitability of the blend.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

4.6. MTBE MTBE is an oxygenate and a useful blending component.

4.7. Bioethanol Bioethanol is very often required by regulation. It is high cost but often tax subsidised, which makes it an attractive component.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

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Bioethanol blending

quest to reduce carbon emissions.

around the world are encouraging its use as it is part renewable and hence a good tool in the

Bioethanol is becoming an important part of the overall petrol component pool. Governments

All petrol produced by Greenergy contains up to 5% bioethanol. Most of the bioethanol we greenhouse gas emission savings than bioethanol produced from other crops. use is made in Brazil from sugar cane as this form of bioethanol results in greater

Bioethanol is a very interesting blend component as in general it has excellent blending high RVP, and slightly more complex to calculate its blend characteristics. than a blender would normally be prepared to pay.

.properties; very high octane, sulphur free, zero aromatics etc. The only down side is that it is

On a free market, quality adjusted, basis the cost of bioethanol compared to petrol is higher To encourage its use, and to compensate for its cost, governments around the world have demaking and using bioethanol. litre less duty on bioethanol than for petrol. This is a direct subsidy the cover the extra cost of taxed bioethanol compared to petrol. In the UK for instance Greenergy pays 20 pence per

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

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The practicalities of blending

Figure 4 summarises the blending process at a typical Greenergy blending location. Petrol components are imported by ship into specialised blending tanks. Typical ship sizes are 8 to 20 million litres. petrol qualities. If a blend is not perfect (either giveaway or off-grade) it is reblended and retested until quality targets are met. Once the quality of the blend meets the quality targets, it is pumped out from the blend tankage into specialised road delivery tanks which are then connected to truck loading racks. Trucks arrive 24 hours per day to collect the petrol and deliver it to customers in typical loads of 25,000 to 35,000 These blending tanks are able to mix the components together rapidly. The blends are tested in the laboratory for all

litres per load. All petrol made by Greenergy includes performance additives. The additives, such as detergents that added to the fuel they buy. loaded onto a customers truck. In this way individual customers can have their own preferred additive formulations help keep the engine clean, lubricity enhancers or combustion improvers, are injected directly into the petrol as it is

Depending on their size individual blends take between 24 and 48 hours to prepare and pump over to the delivery as one blend is being pumped out to delivery tanks, another blend is being made up.

tanks. A typical blend size for Greenergy is 15 million litres split over two tanks. This is a continuous process; where Any bioethanol brought into the terminal has to be denatured so that it is no longer potable. This denaturing involves

adding a bitter chemical called Bitrex and methanol. Only denatured bioethanol can be used in blends.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

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Figure 4: Blending terminal schematic

Blended product road delivery tankage

Finished product transfers

Refinery, blend tankage

Blending

Sales

Racks Butane imports

Truck

Bio-ethanol denaturing

Product imports Ship Jetty

Blend component imports

Bioethanol imports

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

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Glossary of blending terminology

General blending terms: Component(s): The petrol raw materials that make up the blend. to market availability, size of tank and the amount of tanks etc. Bounds are an input limitation to the blending process. Bounds: The minimum or maximum amount of any component that can be added to blend. Limitations may be due

technical requirements of the product such as minimum octane or maximum volatility. Constraints are output limitations.

Constraints: Product specifications or other factors that the final product must meet. These are normally set by the

specification point). There can only be one target function, which is normally maximum gross margin.

maximise (e.g. profits), minimise (e.g. costs), or achieve (e.g. a target level of production or a minimum/maximum

Target function: The driving force of the blending process comprises any numerical factor that the blender seeks to

create the optimum target function. Greenergy has its own LP which it developed in-house to optimise its petrol blending. Solution: The combination of components that achieves the target function whilst meeting the bounds and constraints. This is normally determined by using an LP. Terms related to actual blending solutions:

LP (Linear Program): A computer program that takes into account all the components, bounds and constraints to

Tight: When petrol is blended up to a specification limit that costs money to achieve, it is said to be tight. Typical than 95 for example, Greenergys target for standard grade petrol is for the octane to be tight at 95 octane. giveaway.

specification limits are octane, volatility and chemical composition. Because it costs more to make 96 octane petrol

Giveaway: When petrol is not blended up to a specification limit and when this costs money, it is said to be in

instance the maximum level of olefins permitted in petrol is 18%, but the components that Greenergy buys are reactive and can create pollution.

Slack: When petrol is not up to a specification limit but the limit does not cost any money, it is said to be slack. For seldom above 12% on average so Greenergy is normally slack on olefins. This is a positive outcome as olefins are

On-grade: When a petrol meets a specification it is on-grade.

Petrol Blending - Greenergy background paper

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