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Optimizing AGRU
Refineries have a constant desire to become a reliable source of oil production, but that needs consistency above all in order to become the dominant player. Each one of these elements is proportional to the culture that the organization follows. Should that be limited to people? We think not.
A culture is a collective representation of and manifestation of the plant’s goals that glues every worker in unison. So, the culture and the harmony you bring to the plant must be translated to machines as well, to the components which don’t necessarily have life, but bring life to so many dreams. We’re talking about protecting what matters- cleanliness in refineries are the major contributing factors to increased turnaround times and throughput.
Every refinery has a need to:
- Achieve high oil production quotas via reliable treatment of acid gases that otherwise bottleneck or hamper unit operations.
- Provide consistent fuel gas quality to ensure reliability of all burner operations across the refinery.
- Minimize refinery off gas emissions through effective acid containment and removal from the RFG.
The underlying problems and how we can help you
#1: Acid gas removal processes utilize amines or specialty solvents to remove acid gases from refinery fuel gas or RFGs, in order to meet the gas quality specifications. After the process, amines are generated for re-use. In terms of cleanliness issues, the process of acid gas removal results in forming and fouling. This can be controlled through effective liquids and solid removal upstream of the contractor to protect the amine loop.
Our SepraSol Plus liquid/gas coalescer ensures efficient removal of total hydrocarbon from the amine loop, at 0.3 microns as per the DOP and 1 ppb downstream per the modified ANSI/CAGI-400-1999 test procedure. This means a 99.999% removal rate. The best benefit you can gain from these high efficiency coalescers is that they can also be used downstream of the contractor on the sweet gas to recover amine mechanical losses and prevent carryover of amine into downstream RFG.
#2: The next major problem faced by the refineries are the environmental exceedances due to venting of offspec RFG from poor AGRU operation which can be avoided by controlling foaming and fouling issues.
In amine systems, solid particle contaminants are usually very fine corrosion products that may not be adequately removed by filters that have a strong tendency of unloading, media migration, channeling or poor sealing. We have three recommendations:
- Our PhaseSep liquid/liquid coalescer is great for amine removal from LPG as it has high efficiency specifically formulated for coalescer media. You will then witness improved caustic treater reliability, meet LPG quality specs especially in corrosion tests
- Our second recommendation is our Medallion HP liquid/gas coalescer which is made for B grade coalescer media that is compatible with amine. This will help you improve burner reliability and reduce burner maintence by removing amine carryover.
- Lastly, our Ultipleat High Flow Filters,Coreless filters, Marksman filters, Profile II fitlers are just the right friendly products you’ll need to add rich side in amine filter for enhanced performance. The key to success is consistency and repeatability, and these filters have the best reproducible performance, easy changeouts and long filter life.