Introduction

For many years, closer integration of petroleum refining and petrochemical production has been a favorite topic. One of the authors of this paper gave such presentations as early as the WPRA 1960 meeting as well as at the UN conference for Petrochemicals in Developing Countries in Tehran in 1964. More recently Stone & Webster, Inc. presented a paper entitled "Future Directions of Petrochemical/Refinery Inter-relationships" at the 1994 Stavangar WPC1 meeting and "Business Opportunities in Refining and Ethylene Plants" at Petrotech 2001 in Bahrain. Before embarking on this voyage one more time, it is incumbent upon us to present a case for once again tabling this subject.

Traditional factors cited in the previous papers as arguments for closer relationships between the refinery and the petrochemical plant continue to be relevant. A basic element has always been achievement of optimum use of the hydrocarbon streams resulting from the basic conversion processes - thermal and catalytic cracking, reforming, etc. Typical examples include recovery of refinery olefins for petrochemical products, reforming to produce either gasoline components or aromatics and use of refinery raffinates for petrochemical feed. Often these have been arms-length transactions rather than attempts to obtain any synergy resulting from operational integration.

It is the thesis of this presentation that there now exist several additional incentives for more closely integrated refining and petrochemical production. Further, by adding energy integration and power generation to the mix, operators can achieve an additional degree of synergy. These added factors include:

  • Efforts to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

In countries affected by the Kyoto Protocols the goal is to reduce CO2 emissions approximately 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. At the same time, the IEA2 projects a gap between the Kyoto Protocol commitments and their projection of over 16%.

  • Increasingly stringent environmental regulations regarding refinery products.

Currently, it is proposed to reduce gasoline and diesel sulfur contents to 10–15 ppm., while simultaneously reducing aromatics contents of both products. Paradoxically, a CONCAWE study3 has shown that achievement of 10 ppm gasoline and diesel sulfur level in Europe alone will result in generation of an additional 12 million tons per year of CO2.

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EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PETROCHEMICAL REFINERY

  • Raw material supply issues Assured supply of minimum cost raw materials is a necessary pre-condition for economic production of basic petrochemicals. Based upon the following IEA projections2, there are several factors that will impact selection of feedstock and siting of petrochemical installations.

  • World primary energy demand will grow 56% between 1997 and 201

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