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R
efinery tank farms are the savings and reduce their envi- rail wagons. Significant
largest units in terms of ronmental impact. To improve improvement in the operation
numbers of plant items in their hydrocarbon manage- and management of the
any refinery. Refineries handle ment, refineries should off-sites can be achieved
a huge stock of crude oil and continuously evaluate their through refinery automation.
product inventories, which perception of the principles The main challenges faced
invariably involves high capital and effects of the measurement are:
investment. Accurate inventory of oil movement and storage to • Executing an effective daily
is critical to terminal operations understand the errors involved. reconciliation of oil movements
and to reconciling hydrocar- This should help them towards • Handling huge data collec-
bons within the plant. better management of hydro- tion and manual entry
However, the complex and carbon inventory. • Quantification of individual
dynamic nature of the opera- Refiners are under pressure unit-wise loss recorded
tion can make it difficult to to increase refining margin by • Unaccountable loss due to
pinpoint current tank levels or reducing inventory, optimising errors
predict a refinery’s future crude mix and reducing prod- • Eliminating property givea-
inventory. This can result in uct quality giveaway at the way in product blending
increased operational expense same time as producing more • Reconciliation of estimated
to fulfill existing commitments grades to tighter product and production data with actual
and an inability to execute environmental specifications. data from the refinery
future orders. This article Economic benefits result from • Optimum production plan-
focuses on new horizons in the improved planning and sched- ning objectives.
field of automation in tank uling, coupled with tighter
farm management systems and control and increased opera- Automation is the solution
also highlights the challenges tional assurance and flexibility. Automation of oil movement
arising. Refinery tank operations and storage and control system
involve a list of tasks and oil helps to:
Challenges in refineries movements like crude receipt • Reduce operating cost
Refineries continuously strive and storage, process unit feeds • Optimise blending
to better their standards and and crude blending, process • Provide better planning by
uphold effective best practices unit rundowns, intermediate opening up opportunities for
in the areas of operation, product storage, component optimisation in feedstock
accounting, loss control and storage, blended product stor- selection
overall hydrocarbon manage- age and dispatch through • Reduce inventory
ment to deliver significant cost ships, pipeline, road trucks and • Reduce routing error