Monitor Control of Naphthenic Acid Corrosion to Profitably Process High Acid Opportunity Crude Oils

摘要

Processing discounted high TAN crude oil poses a potential corrosion concern to refinery assets but can also be safe and profitable when properly optimized and managed. Optimization is a complex process made difficult by the random nature of naphthenic acid corrosion and variations in crude quality. These quality variations have been associated with declining production from older fields and inconsistent blends of multiple fields into a single crude oil shipment. Optimization is further complicated when a refiner is considering processing a new crude oil for which there may be no previous processing experience. To fully optimize processing high acid crude oils and to mitigate their direct impact on refinery profitability, reliability and safety, a comprehensive high acid crude oil management program is required. This paper provides insight into the techniques and tools that are currently being used to effectively manage processing these high acid crude oils. Acid categorization, computational fluid dynamics, high temperature corrosion monitoring, and control strategies designed to deliver profitable, safe and reliable operations are detailed.