Costs of refining surface-retorted Paraho shale oil to transportation fuels via three refining schemes and simulations of hydrotreating, hydrocracking, and fluid catalytic cracking processes in shale oil refining

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6765606

Sutikno, D

The costs of refining surface-retorted Paraho shale oil via grass roots refineries with three distinct, experimentally proven refining routes have been estimated in attempt to account for the additional costs due to more severe refining of shale oil relative to petroleum refining. Based on these designs, the investment costs of shale oil specific process units were estimated with the major equipment factor method, and cost correlations were used tto estimate the investment costs of other process units. Financial analyses indicate that, at a 15% rate of return on investment, the estimated refining costs are in the range of $8.5 to $10.4 (late 1980 dollars) per barrel of light products: gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and LPG. Sensitivity analyses of shale oil refining costs indicate that the refining costs are most sensitive to the required rate of return on investment, followed by investment cost, operating cost, and other cost parameters. Yield data of advanced catalytic reaction processes in a pilot refining of Paraho shale oil have been simulated with available process models. These models are Mears' effective catalyst wetting model for whole shale oil hydrotreating, Stangeland's model for hydrocracking of 650/sup 0/F/sup +/ fraction of hydrotreated shale oil, and Weekman's three-lump model for catalytic cracking of 650/sup 0/F/sup +/ fraction of hydrotreated shale oil. These models are developed from and verified with reaction data in petroleum refining. The present simulation study was conducted to evaluate if these models are applicable for similar reaction processes in shale oil refining. Results of simulations indicate that these models predict the respective reaction yield data from the pilot refining of Paraho shale oil as reasonably well as they predict the yield data from the similar processes in petroleum refining.

• OSTI ID: 6765606
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040403* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Refining
CATALYSTS
CATALYTIC CRACKING
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COST
CRACKING
DECOMPOSITION
DESIGN
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INVESTMENT
MINERAL OILS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PARAHO PROCESS
PROCESSING
PYROLYSIS
REFINING
SHALE OIL
SIMULATION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES