Visakh Refinery Energy Parameters Abstract

Standard Refinery Fuel tons

Refineries consume a variety of fuel and fuel mixes in day to day operation with
operational necessity. There may be instances when refineries may like to compare the
performance of their heaters with those of others. Occasionally, heater designers may
like to evaluate their heaters at various locations. Hence, for performance evaluation it is
necessary to use a standard measure of fuel irrespective of the type of fuel used in the
heaters/boilers. This concept of standardization resulted in the introduction of Standard
Refinery Fuel Tons (SRFT). The weight of fuel calculated using a fixed calorific value of
10,000 Kcal/Kg but in tons is called SRFT.

Consider, 1000 kg/hr fuel with 10,000 Kcal/Kg calorific value.

Hence,
1000 𝑋 10,000
1 SRFT/hr = 1000 X 10,000 Kcal/hr = MMKCal/hr
106

1SRFT/hr = 107 Kcal/hr = 10 MMKCal/hr

SRFT calculation is generic and as such could be used for energy performance
monitoring of each unit/heater/boiler. SRFT forms a good basis for comparison among
units/refineries irrespective of the type of fuel used. Of late, HPCL VR is implementing
Energy graphics in all units using SRFT as a basis for Energy performance monitoring for
optimization of energy consumption.

MBN (MBTU/BBL/NGRF)
Specific energy consumption or energy consumption per unit of input is a misleading
factor for measuring energy performance of refineries as it does not consider
complexities, type of crudes processed in the refinery. Hence in India, the energy
performance of refineries is measured in Million British thermal units per thousand barrels
per energy factor (MBTU/BBL/NGRF). This unit is commonly referred as MBN which was
developed by CHT (MoP&NG) to provide a basis for comparing energy performance of
refineries of different configurations and accounting of the throughput of secondary
units. Complexity of the refinery is expressed as NRGF (NRG Factor) and the composite
NRGF of the plant is calculated by multiplying the throughputs of individual units with their
individual energy factors and dividing the sum of all equivalent throughputs by the crude
throughput. NRGF of Indian refineries varies from 4.2178 to 10.259 and MBN from 50.9986
to 99.895.
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 & 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝐵𝑇𝑈
⁄𝐶𝑟𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑠
MBN =
𝑁𝑅𝐺 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
 Visakh Refinery Energy Parameters Abstract

MBN of HPCL Visakh Refinery:

Year 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 H1 (2017-18) MOU Target
(2017-18)
MBN 83.94 82.68 79.33 78.88 79 77.3
NRGF 4.26 4.31 4.77 4.92 -- --

EII (Energy Intensity Index)

There is an internationally recognized study called Solomon Study, in which all the aspects
required to operate a refinery are analyzed: costs (maintenance, personnel, energy etc),
operation and management efficiency indexes. With this data, Solomon associates have
established a standard energy consumption benchmark for each refining scheme.
Comparing the results of a refinery with that standard, an idea of the performance of the
refinery and its opportunities for improvement is obtained. The Solomon Study index to
measure Energy Efficiency is called Energy Intensity Index (EII). It represents the
percentage of the total energy consumption of the refinery against Solomon’s standard
consumption for a refinery with the same process units. For example, Solomon standard
energy of a unit is 877 million BTU/day and actual energy consumption of that unit is 947
million BTU/day.

𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

EII = ∗ 100
𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑛′ 𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
947
= ∗ 100 = 107.9
877

EII of HPCL Visakh Refinery:

Year 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 H1 (2017-18)
EII 115.4 113 108.8 108 107.7

Some more energy related facts to be known are the following:

1. Total Energy bill of VR for the year 2016-17 was Rs 1493.86 crores (Rs 1605.63 per MT of
crude processed).
2. Fuel & loss of VR for the year 2016-17 was 7.31 % and target for year 2017-18 is 7.0 %.
Fuel & loss in H1 (2017-18) was 7.33 %.
3. Specific steam consumption of VR for the year 2016-17 was 382 kgs/ MT of crude.
Target for the year 2017-18 is 370 kgs/ MT and achieved in H1 (2017-18) is 389 Kgs/MT.
4. Specific fuel consumption (SFC) in CPP for the year 2016-17 is 0.336 MT of
Naphtha/MWH generated. CPP SFC target for the year 2017-18 is 0.336 and achieved
in H1 (2017-18) is 0.338.
5. Heater Efficiency (Wt. Avg) of all VR heaters/boilers for the year 2016-17 is 88.5 %.
Target for the year 2017-18 is 89.1 % and achieved in H1 (2017-18) is 87..7 %.