Fouling and Compatibility of Crudes as Basis for a New Crude Selection Strategy

Abstract

Economic pressures on the refining industry are forcing many refiners to look at low price, high value crudes to improve margins. Some of these crudes are discounted because of perceived fouling or corrosion problems. A new strategy has been developed that allows refiners to choose crudes based on an estimate of their relative processing costs. A cornerstone of this strategy is a thorough understanding of the compatibility and fouling behavior of crudes. Correlations have been developed to characterize the crudes and translate typical assay parameters into fouling and compatibility tendencies. These tendencies are converted to a relative processing cost. The overall strategy also includes corrosion, desalting and process related costs, but this paper focuses on the fouling and compatibility issues.