Refining operations

Mohsen Salehabadi fills O&G in on how advanced phase separation technology lowers the costs associated with petroleum refining processes.

Every year, refineries around the world spend millions of dollars needlessly without realising it. Maintenance cycles are shorter than they could be, operating costs are higher than they should be, and unscheduled shutdowns leading to lost production are all too common. Pall, as a filtration and separations solution provider, is able to support refiners with industry leading expertise and a portfolio of products that help maximise the efficiencies and operations in many critical processes, including:
• Crude distillation unit
• Reformer units efficiency improvements
• Hydro-treater/hydrodesulphurisation/hydrocracker reliability upgrading
• FCC separation technology enhancement
• Amine units and sulphur recovery plant optimisation
• Final products purification/cleanliness level upgrading of exported fuels
• Sour water treater protection
• Water and waste water plant upgrading

Enabling a greener future
Oil refineries and processors are not only striving to produce environmentally friendly products, but are equally mindful of the impact of their own operations. Recent advances in separation technologies enable new clean and green fuel specifications to be achieved when producing eco-friendly fuels, cleaning up wastewater and increasing energy efficiency — what some would call the “Big Three” of today’s green revolution. In addition, oil refineries equipped with a FCCU or RCCU face the challenge of further particulate emission reduction. In Europe many countries now target 40-50 mg/Nm3 particulate emissions in the FCCU/RCCU flue gas. Even more stringent is the proposed micro particulate specification relating to particles below 10 microns and 2.5 microns, so called PM 10 and PM 2.5 respectively and likely to become legislation in some countries before the decade is out.

Pall advanced separation technologies provide solutions as best practice to refineries and process licensors in clean fuel projects in multiple applications including:
• HDT / HDS feed filters & coalescers (Catalyst Bed Protection)
• Burner protection for HDT/HDS furnace (to minimise Nox emissions & operation costs)
• Hydrogen recycle gas compressor protection
• Heat exchanger protection – Steam stripper feed exchanger
• Sour water stripper (SWS) protection
• Final product de-watering
• Amine & sulphur plant protection

A global company with a local presence
From regional offices in Dubai, Pall provides support and sales to the Middle East oil refineries, including GCC countries and Egypt. Pall’s presence has strengthened in the MENA region from two engineers in 2004 to 35 in 2008 plus sales, marketing, and laboratory services, test rigs, pilot and demonstration plants, demonstrating a commitment to provide world class filtration and separation solutions to the region by being close to it’s customers.

Pall provides services and solutions to existing refineries in areas such as:

• Improvement in hydrocarbon products quality
• Process equipment protection
• Total Fluid Management (TFM) services including mobilised de-pollution services, cleanliness control and laboratory services in contamination analysis, and
• Onsite auditing and online pilot test to help our clients to select contamination control efficient technology

Pall’s list of references is extensive and is very honoured to count amongst its major reputable customers, Saudi Aramco, Takreer, KNPC and Qatar Petroleum. Pall is actively communicating with process licensors, local and international contractors, and end-users to propose global solutions. Through continuous improvement programs and annual investment in R&D, Pall provide a steady stream of innovative, high-quality products of polymeric, inorganic, metal, and ceramic formats, backed by unmatched service and support. Pall’s filtration and separation solutions have been successfully applied over many years in refineries throughout the world, in consultation with customers, to design and deliver long-lasting solutions for sustainable and profitable success.

Mohsen Salehabadi is responsible for Pall’s oil refinery sales and marketing programmes in the Middle East. He has supported reputable oil refineries and engineering contractors for process optimisation in distillation units, hydro-processing plants, sulphur and amine units, reformers, FCC, isomerisation, alkylation and lube oil movement areas and total fluid management (SM) programs in refinery processing plants.