Part One of this paper (HE, March 2018, pp 101-108) had discussed a methodology, developed by the authors of this article series, to benchmark a refinery’s fuels blending system. This methodology produces two indices, namely, automation effectiveness and operational efficiency, to assess both refinery’s blending infrastructure and its blending execution practices. This methodology also creates a comparative ranking to compare with other refinery’s blending system. It also gives qualitative and quantitative criterion for the required investment to upgrade their fuel blending system to bring at par with other refineries in the world and to capture the lost benefits due to sub-optimum blending system at the refinery.
This part two of the series discusses how this methodology is executed by presenting the phased process in a case study for 300KB/day refinery in south Texas, USA. The services of the authors of this paper were retained by the refinery to assess the current state of their fuel blending and recommend the steps to upgrade / revamp their blending system, if found feasible, both technically and economically.
An abridged version of this paper is published in “Bench-marking Fuel Blending Systems, Part-Two”, Hydrocarbon Engineering, March 2018, pp 67-72