The Comparative Analysis of Bonny Crude Oil Using Simple Distillation and Pre-flash Model for Maximum Distillate Cuts Recovery (Crude Oil Topping Refinery)

摘要

Although Nigeria is currently ranked as the eleventh largest crude oil producing country in the world, scarcity of refined products still exists within the country due to the sub-optimum performance of the four conventional refineries as none can boast of working above 60 percent of its design capacity. In an attempt to curb this saddening state, the country is faced with setting up modular topping refineries at strategic locations within the country as other alternatives seem to yield little or no result. This paper makes a comparative analysis on the simple crude topping unit, the preflash added model and the preflash-stripping-pump around model for maximum distillate cuts yield using Bonny light and Bonny medium crude sample. Crude oil characterization with the use of Aspen Hysys was done to reveal the maximum liquid volume fraction of the different distillate at an ideal condition. The different crude assays were simulated against the different topping refinery models where variation between the characterized and stimulated volumetric cuts in barrel per day was observed and analyzed. The analysis shows that Bonny light favours the production of off gas, light naphtha and kerosene while Bonny medium favours the production of heavy naphtha, diesel, gas oil and atmospheric residue. The best scheme for different distillates was also determined. The results gotten from this research will help both Nigerian and foreign investors to determine the preferable model for individual distillate products in terms of maximum yield.