Title: Methodology for the thermoeconomic and environmental assessment of crude oil distillation units

Authors: A.O. Oni; M.A. Waheed

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, P.M.B. 2240 Ogun State, Nigeria, ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, P.M.B. 2240 Ogun State, Nigeria,

Abstract: This paper presents a framework of thermoeconomic and environmental assessment of crude oil distillation unit (CDU). The adopted methodologies for the assessment include process simulation, energy and exergy, economic and environmental analysis. A simple procedure for the simulation process was discussed. The mass, energy and exergy analysis were used to develop a methodology for the evaluation of the systems efficiencies. The economic models include cost balance relations and evaluation of product cost. The environmental aspect covered the evaluation of the associated emission signature due to direct and indirect use of fossil fuels. The energy and exergy efficiencies obtained for the entire CDU was 9.0% and 4.0%, respectively. With the production cost estimated at $368,267/h, the cost of product and intermediate streams ranges between $100/h and $138,109/h. The environmental analysis showed that the plant emits 19.1 tons of CO₂/h. The methods derived in this study can serve as a baseline approach for the performance assessment of distillation units in refineries.

Keywords: energy analysis; exergy analysis; cost balance; product costs; carbon emissions; CO2; carbon dioxide; thermoeconomic assessment; environmental impact assessment; EIA; crude oil distillation units; process simulation; air pollution; exergy efficiency; oil refineries; performance evaluation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2015.069111

International Journal of Exergy, 2015 Vol.16 No.4, pp.504 - 532

Received: 14 Jan 2014
Accepted: 19 Mar 2014
Published online: 28 Apr 2015 *

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