Product Blending

Products from intermediate streams can be blended to produce a variety of on-

specification finished products.

Product blending results in increase in operating flexibility and profits for the
refiner.

Example: Naphtha can be blended into either gasoline or jet fuel,

depending upon the product demand.

Aside from the lubricating oil, the major refinery products produced by blending are
gasolines, jet fuels, heating oils, and diesel fuels.

Objective: To allocate the available blending components to meet

product demands and specifications at the least cost and produce
incremental products to maximize the profit.

Most of the refineries use computer controlled in-line blending for blending
gasolines and other high-volume products.

To ensure the blended streams meet the desired specifications, stream analyzers
such as boiling point, specific gravity, RVP, RON, MON are installed to provide feed
back control of additives and blending streams.
Computer based optimization programs provide the optimum blend to
minimize the cost and maximize profit. The methodologies in optimization
technique are linear and geometric approaches.

Geometric programming is preferred if sufficient data are available to

define equations because components blend in a nonlinear pattern.

Preliminary cost evaluation studies and calculations are not based on

percent distilled specifications at intermediate percentages.

The allowable blending stocks are those with boiling ranges within the
product specifications and the control criteria are to meet Reid vapor
pressure (RVP) and octane requirements.
 Reid Vapor Pressure

The desired RVP of a gasoline is obtained by blending n-butane with C5 –

380 F (C5 – 193 C) naphtha.

The amount of n-butane required to give the needed RVP is calculated by:

Where, Mt = total moles blended product

(RVP)t = specification RVP for product, psi
Mi = moles of component i
(RVP)i = RVP of component i, psi or kPa
The theoretical method for blending to the desired Reid vapor pressure requires that the
average molecular weight of each of the streams be known.

Vapor pressure blending indices (VPBI) have been compiled as a function of the RVP of the
blending streams and are given
 Crude Distillation
The crude towers are the first major processing units in the
petroleum refinery.

These towers are used to separate the crude oils by distillation into
fractions according to boiling point.

Each of the processing units will have feed stocks that meet their
particular specifications.

Higher efficiencies and lower costs are achieved if the crude oil
separation is done in two steps:
 Fractionating the total crude oil at essentially atmospheric
pressure
 Feeding the high boiling bottoms fraction from the
atmospheric unit to the vacuum unit operated under high
vacuum.
Vacuum tower is employed to separate the heavier portion of the crude
oil into fractions.

The high temperatures necessary to vaporize the crude at atmospheric

pressure cause thermal cracking to occur, results in loss to dry gas,
discoloration of products and equipment fouling due to coke formation.

Boiling ranges of typical crude oil fractions

Name of the fraction Boiling ranges, F
ASM TBP
LSR 90-220 90-190
HSR 180-400 190-380
Kerosene 330-540 380-520
Light gas oil (LGO) 420-640 520-610
Atmospheric gas oil (AGO) 550-830 610-800
Vacuum gas oil (VGO) 750-1050 800-1050
Vacuum reduced crude (VRC) 1050+ 1050+
TBP cut points for various crude oil fractions
 Desalting Crude oils
Crude oil containing > 10 lb / 10000 bbl (expressed in terms of
NaCl), requires desalting process to minimize fouling and corrosion
caused by salt deposition on heat transfer surfaces and acids formed
by decomposition of chloride salts.

Some metals in inorganic compounds dissolved in water forms

emulsions with crude oil, caused catalyst deactivation in catalytic
processing units, will be removed in desalting process.

Now a days all the crude oils are processing for desalting to avoid
equipment fouling, corrosion and for longer catalyst life.
 Desalting Crude oils

Basic principle: Wash the salt from the crude oil with water.

Difficulties:
 Efficient and economical water / oil mixing
 Water wetting of suspended solids
 Separation of wash water from oil

Affecting parameters of efficiency:

pH of crude oil
Gravity of crude oil
Viscosity of crude oil
Volume of wash water per volume of crude
 Desalting Crude oils

Secondary function of the desalting process is to remove the

suspended solids such as:
Sand & Clay
Soil particles
Iron oxide
Iron sulfide
Contaminants in production and transit

•Desalting is carried out by

mixing the crude oil with
water in 3 – 10 vol % at temp
of 200 to 300 F.

•The volumetric ratio and

temp are functions of gravity.
Desalting Crude oils

Single stage process

Desalting Crude oils

Two stage process

Atmospheric unit
Vacuum unit